Chapter 2

I lay in the hospital bed for fourteen long days.

I suffered a severe compound fracture in my right tibia and fibula. The doctors had to perform an open reduction and internal fixation surgery, during which a steel plate and eight steel pins were inserted into my lower leg.

There were six beds in my ward. While other patients had family members tending to their needs, the only company at my bedside was the nurse arriving with my scheduled anti-inflammatory injections.

The freeway patrol cops had come by to take my statement. As for Shawn, he knew that I hadn’t died in that wreck, yet he hadn’t sent so much as a single text.

On the day I was discharged, I changed into loose sweatpants, propped myself up on the hospital-issued crutches, and called a cab home myself. It was the house we were supposed to move into together after we got married next month.

When I unlocked the door, I saw two pairs of shoes scattered messily across the rug in the entryway. The hum of a humidifier echoed from the living room, and the coffee table was piled high with imported fruits.

Willow was sitting cross-legged right on my sofa, cradling the custom hand-painted mug I had commissioned someone to make. Shawn sat right beside her, staring down intently as he examined a medicine box in his hands, while the sound of chopping drifted out from the kitchen. It was Shawn’s mother cooking.

Hearing the front door open, Shawn and Willow looked up at the same time.

Shawn’s hand holding the medicine box froze mid-air. An awkward look crossed his face, but it was quickly replaced by a dark, stern scowl.

“You were discharged today? Why didn’t you let me know so I could pick you up?”

“Pick me up?” I asked, leaning on my crutches as I made my way inside, the rubber tips thudding against the hardwood floor. “I was hospitalized for fourteen days. I called you twice. The first time you hung up on me, and the second time your phone was switched off. What state secrets were you so busy with that you couldn’t even spare five seconds?”

Shawn took a deep breath. He slammed the medicine box down hard onto the coffee table, adopting the same lecturing posture he used to intimidate his subordinates at the precinct.

“After you were put into the ambulance that day, the precinct leadership and the media were all at the hospital offering their sympathies! I am the face of this precinct right now. If I didn’t step up to reassure a victim, how would that look to the public?”

His brows knitted tight, his eyes filled with disappointment in me. “Willow kept throwing up in the ER, and the chief specifically entrusted me with the responsibility of comforting her family. As my fiancée, instead of understanding the pressure I'm under, you’re standing here throwing a jealous tantrum over such a minor injury? Lea, when did you become so narrow-minded?”

“I crawled out of an exploding car and ended up with eight steel screws bolted into my leg. If I hadn’t saved my own life, I would be dead! And you call that a ‘minor injury’?”

“Lea, please don’t be mad at Shawn,” Willow said while she stood up, her eyes red with tears.

“It’s all my fault. Every time I close my eyes over the last few days, I’m flooded with images of the car crash. I’m too terrified to sleep alone at night. Shawn took pity on me and let me stay in the guest room for a few days. He’s just too conscientious. If you really can’t stand having me here, I’ll leave right now. It doesn’t matter even if I faint out on the streets…”

Shawn immediately reached out to steady her arm. He then glared at me, his voice rising sharply.

“Lea, do you really have to be so spiteful? Willow is only twenty-two. She’s just a young girl with no one else to rely on, and she’s been severely traumatized by such a horrific accident. What’s wrong with offering her the guest room for a few days to recover? Can’t you be a little less heartless?”

“Heartless?” Seeing Shawn acting all self-righteous, I suddenly found the whole situation ironic.

I leaned on my crutches, moving forward until I stood right in front of the coffee table. Terrified, Willow shrank back into the corner of the sofa, her hands around my mug.

I reached out, snatched the cup from her grasp, and hurled it into the trash can.

“If you think I’m so heartless, then get out of this house that I paid half the down payment for.”

I looked up and stared at Shawn.

“Shawn, let’s get one thing straight. The down payment for this place was four hundred thousand dollars. I’ve paid half of it, and my name is right there on the deed. Who are you to bring a total outsider into my home, let her sleep in my guest room, and use my belongings without getting my consent?”