Chapter 2

Austin started the car without saying a word.

The suffocating silence in the car was quickly filled with the sickly sweet scent of Ashley's perfume.

I leaned against the window, unable to utter a single word.

When we got home, the motion-sensor light in the hallway flickered on.

On the dining table sat the cold coffee I had made for him before leaving this morning. Next to it was a handwritten note outlining my post-surgery care instructions.

"Go get some rest," Austin said as he took off his coat. His voice was completely devoid of emotion.

"How is Ashley?" I asked, gripping the wall for support. My voice was dry and raspy.

He immediately defended her. "She just got divorced. She's extremely unstable and almost did something crazy. I couldn't just abandon a sick woman."

He said it so righteously.

Then, he walked into the kitchen and noticed the urgent legal documents from my father's company on the table.

My father's business was on the brink of bankruptcy, and as our retained attorney, Austin was supposed to review these. I had placed them in the most obvious spot to remind him to read them tonight.

He picked up the files, flipped through a few pages, and frowned.

"This is a mess. Tell your dad's assistant to reorganize it and send it to me tomorrow."

"If you had spared just thirty minutes last night, you would have finished reading it," I said, staring at him. "Instead, you spent hours editing Ashley's divorce settlement line by line."

Austin paused, his face darkening.

"That was just a quick favor." He sighed impatiently. "Ashley is a woman who doesn't understand legal terms. Clara, do you have to make everything so complicated?"

"Complicated?" I almost laughed out loud. "I just got off the operating table. I sent you over twenty Snapchat messages, and you didn't reply to one. Why couldn't you do me a 'quick favor' and text me back?"

Silenced by my question, he resorted to the same excuse he had used for the last seven years.

"Ashley's parents passed away early. Before her father died, he trusted me to look after her. I promised them I would."

"So, your promise to them means you can delay my father's bankruptcy case, even when his entire life's work is on the line?" My knuckles turned white as I gripped the table.

A look of exhaustion crossed Austin's eyes.

"I told you, this lawsuit isn't that easy to lose."

"Then tell me, what is?"

He slammed the documents onto the table. The sound was deafening.

"Ashley's case is about helping a depressed woman escape her trauma and start over! Your father's company is just a commercial dispute!"

Suddenly, a violent spasm ripped through my lower abdomen. Cold sweat instantly drenched my back.

I doubled over in pain, clutching the edge of the table.

A flash of instinctual panic crossed Austin's eyes. His lips parted as if he wanted to say something.

But right then, his phone rang with that specific, custom ringtone reserved only for Ashley.

He answered it instantly.

"Hey, Ashley? Don't be scared, I'm still here..."

The harsh voice he had just used to yell at me instantly softened into a tenderness I had never heard before.

Without giving me another glance, he walked straight into the study, gently whispering comforts to Ashley on the phone.

"Hey, I'll stay on the line with you. I'll talk to you until you fall asleep..."

Thud.

The study door closed, shutting me out of his world entirely.

Listening to the muffled, tender whispers from behind the door, the physical pain inside me suddenly felt numb.

Slowly, I stood up and swept all the dishes I had painstakingly prepared straight into the trash.