Chapter 2

Gwen’s pov

The bed was empty.

Not just empty, stripped. The pillow was gone and the monitors had turned dark. The IV stand was pushed into the corner like something nobody needed anymore. I stood in the doorway. The floor tilted under me as a deathly sound came out of my mouth.

"Ma'am, "

"Where is she?" I was already turning around, grabbing the arm of the young nurse. Whatever was on my face made her go still.

"Room fourteen, the little girl, Josie, where is she, what happened, "

"She's been moved." The nurse held up her hands calmly.

"She is okay. the Doctor asked to move her to a private room about one hour ago.Second floor, room four." She hesitated.

"Someone authorized an upgrade."

I let go of her arm.

"I am sorry " I said, already walking away from her.

I heard Josie before I saw her, that small sleepy special murmur Josie made when she was dreaming about something that wasn't yet a nightmare or just a dream.

The private ward was quieter than the general floor, the lighting was softer and the air had less of that strong smell of medicine.

Room four had a window that had curtains and a chair beside the bed that was not made of hard plastic.

The moment I pushed open the door, I saw a man first then my daughter in the bed. I went to Josie first.

I crossed to Josie's bed, bent over her and pressed my face into her hair for a long moment breathing in her aura, feeling the warmth and the rise and fall of her chest.

My hands were shaking against the blanket and up until now, I didn't realize they were shaking.

Josie stirred.

"Mummy..”"

"I am here."

I kissed her forehead, cheek and the corner of her eye.

"I am here, sleep." I added relieved

She made that sound that I had grown to love again. Her breathing got deeper but I stayed bent over her, for a few seconds before straightening up and turning around.

Xavier Holt was watching me. He was exactly as I remembered him, which was a thing with him. Not because he was stuck. Because he was content.

He sat in the chair with his legs apart, forearms rested on his thighs and his eyes focused on me like a hunter waiting quietly.

He wore a jacket with an open collar. There was no effort in his looks because he didn't need to try. The authority he had wasn't loud or aggressive like Cole's, it was just there as certain as there was air in a room.

I stood up straight and walked over to him.

"She's strong, " he said before I could say anything.

"She fell asleep asking the nurse about the ceiling fan, she wanted to know if it would fall on her."

Something moved in my chest. I pressed it down.

"You cleared her bills."

"I did."

"Xavier, "

"Sit down, Gwen, " he said.

I shook my head.

"I don't want to." My voice sounded weirdly too quiet.

I hoped he didn't catch on so to hopefully distract him and myself, I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I want to know what this will cost me."

He stared at me for a second then got up. I had always had to brace up with Xavier standing. He was imposing in a way that rearranged the dimensions of a room. Cole was tall too but Cole always seemed performative while Xavier just was.

"Money?" he asked, almost offended.

"You're asking if I want money?"

"I'm asking what you want."

He moved around me in a slow half-circle, close enough that the air between us changed temperature. I did not move, instead I kept my eyes forward on the wall, the window and curtains anything but this man's face.

His fingers brushed my shoulder, barely and yet, My entire nervous system lit up like something had touched a live wire. My legs quivered and its middle pooled.

I hated feeling his fingers on my shoulder instilled into me. I had spent five years hating that.

"You've lost the apartment," he said quietly, from just behind me, his breath grazing my neck sending shivers down my spine.

"Cole locked the accounts three weeks ago. You're working double shifts at the firm to cover Josie's bills, the bills he stopped paying. You have not eaten a meal in how long?” He walked around to my left.

He was close enough that I could feel the warmth coming from him.

“And tonight he put his hand on you and had security drag you out of his house.” My jaw tightened.

"How do you know about tonight?"

"Because there’s nothing about you that I do not know." Xavier's voice was even, almost soft.

Something cold moved through me. I turned to look at him for the first time, directly, and the mistake was immediate. His eyes were already on mine and they stayed there, not flinching.

"You deserve better than this," he said.

"You always did."

"Don't." The word came out sharp.

"Don't do that. Don't make this into something generous. You want something. You always want something, Xavier, so tell me what it is and stop walking around it."

He stopped moving. His head tilted slightly offended. And then he said:

"I want to give you a life."

The room was very quiet except for Josie’s breath and the monitor beeping.

"I want to take care of you," he continued.

"You and Josie. I want to give you a house, stability and someone who won't put his hands on you and call it a favor. All I need from you is one thing." A pause.

"Leave Cole. And marry me."

I stepped back until my heel found the wall.

"Are you serious?"

"I had never said anything to you that I did not mean."

That was true. It was one of the true things I knew about him.

I pressed my back against the wall. Looked at him across the space between us.

I tried to find the trap in his face, the angle, the leverage, the place where this would be used against me.

"You are his stepbrother. You understand how that sounds."

"I understand exactly how it sounds."

"Then you understand why the answer is no."

Something shifted in his expression.

"I'm not asking for an answer tonight."

He picked up his jacket from the back of the chair slowly. "I am giving you time," he said.

He looked at Josie for a moment. Something unnamed crossed his face.

"Josie is going to be fine," he said.

Then he stopped at the door but did not turn around.

"You were never supposed to end up with Cole" he said quietly.

"You know that."

He left.

I sat down in the chair he had been occupying. It was still warm from him. I stared at the card on the table and I listened to my daughter breathe.

The whole story was inside me like scar tissue. I did not have to think to feel it.

I had been Xavier's. Fated in the old way written before choice existed. And Cole had known that and married me anyway in a very public and irrevocable way not because he wanted me, but because Xavier did. To Cole, I was just a wound aimed at someone else.

I covered my mouth with my hand, shut my eyes and sat there in the darkness for a long time.