Ninety-Nine Wishes, One Broken Marriage

In the city of Greenvale, Jeremy Cooper had just finished checking on one of his patients at Hope Hospital when he received a text message. He checked his phone.

"Your reservation for a deluxe double room at Seascape Resort is now confirmed. The room will be held until noon tomorrow. Should there be a change in plans, please contact us promptly."

He knew without a shadow of a doubt that his wife, Camilla Sloan, had made the hotel booking. They'd been giving each other the cold shoulder for ages now, though.

Jeremy stared at the message without the slightest change in expression, as if he'd seen this coming. As it was, he'd already heard Camilla's conversation with Zachary Larson in the hospital room yesterday.

"Camilla, for my 90th wish, I want to go to the seaside with you for a few days. Could you take three days off?"

"I can, but your health…"

"Don't worry. I know my own body."

Evidently, Camilla had agreed to Zachary's request.

Jeremy tapped out of the message and opened his chat with her. There were no new messages. She didn't bother giving him even a word of explanation.

Then again, they'd been married for three years, and two and a half of those had been spent giving each other the silent treatment.

Apart from the contempt and hostility the Sloans showed Jeremy, Zachary was also a major reason for the cold war between him and Camilla.

Jeremy locked his phone and walked toward the staff lounge, his face impassive. It was obvious that the news about the hotel booking affected him more than he let on.

After rounding the corner, he noticed a small crowd gathered in the hallway, standing by a window. As he came nearer, he overheard their conversation.

"Look! Ms. Sloan's here! She's gorgeous… and what a figure she has! I wonder which lucky guy will end up with her."

Jeremy walked over to the window. Even though he stood behind the crowd, his six-foot frame gave him an easy view of the scene below.

Camilla was calmly entering the hospital with two insulated lunchboxes. Despite wearing a casual outfit, she drew all eyes with her stunning figure. A gentle breeze stirred her long, dark hair, revealing a frosty, indifferent expression that made her seem unapproachable.

"I'll have you know that Ms. Sloan already has a boyfriend! But he's suffering from kidney failure. If they can't find a suitable donor for him in time, he won't have much time left."

"That's right. I heard about that, too! He's been staying in our VIP ward, and his name's Zachary Larson. I heard the two of them made a promise. Ms. Sloan's going to fulfill 99 wishes for him."

"Wow. That's so romantic! If only I had someone to dote on me like that when I'm sick."

"A critically ill boyfriend and a girlfriend who never leaves his side? That's true love if I've ever seen it."

Jeremy had long since grown used to hearing conversations like these. But when someone called it true love, the corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

No one in the entire hospital knew that Camilla was already married.

Because the very first wish Zachary made after falling sick was for Camilla to keep her marriage a secret and accompany him through his final days.

No matter how dissatisfied Jeremy was with that arrangement, he had to put up with it since Zachary was ill. But as time went on, Zachary began using one wish after another to pull Camilla away from Jeremy, regardless of the time or place.

Jeremy watched helplessly as the two began behaving in increasingly intimate ways.

Camilla would walk out of an important meeting simply because Zachary texted her to say he was craving some roasted sweet potatoes.

In the middle of the night, when she and Jeremy were about to get it on, she would rush to the hospital just because Zachary said he was scared of the thunderstorm outside.

When Jeremy asked whether Camilla was crossing the line a bit, she curtly replied, "Don't worry. I know my boundaries."

The final straw was when Jeremy saw a text Zachary had sent to Camilla.

"Camilla, before this illness leaves me completely unrecognizable, would you be willing to put on a wedding gown and do a wedding photoshoot with me? Consider it my 50th wish."

That day, Jeremy stood in front of the door, refusing to let Camilla leave.

"If you walk out that door, we're finished."

She didn't leave the house that day, but they had a huge fight. She even wrecked the entire house.

"Why are you still being so petty about it when his illness is already this serious?"

Flying shards of broken glass sliced across Jeremy's arm, leaving vivid streaks of blood. Something inside him died a little more. From that day onward, he moved into the guest bedroom.

Jeremy closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he'd regained his calm. He looked down at the chart in his hand. The next patient on his rounds was… Zachary.

…

"Your vitals are all relatively stable. Keep up with the examinations and your medication, and you'll have plenty of time to wait for a donor kidney. I'll keep an eye out for a suitable match. Once you've had the transplant, your condition should gradually improve," Jeremy concluded after checking the medical reports.

Lying in bed was Zachary, who looked handsome but a little pale. Propping himself up against the headboard, he studied Jeremy with narrowed eyes.

"You're not angry?"

Jeremy, who was making a note on the records, paused, his hand stilling for a moment. Ink from his pen spread into a dark blot on the page. But a second later, he resumed writing and didn't even bother looking up as he said, "I'm a doctor. It's my responsibility to treat my patients. You studied medicine abroad, didn't you? I'm sure you took the oath as well."

Zachary's expression darkened. The Jeremy who used to lose his temper so easily had become unnervingly calm, and he hated that. He wanted to see Jeremy fly into a rage—to see his face twist with fury.

"The last time you lost control was about a year ago, when I asked Camilla to grant my 50th wish, right?" Zachary said. "And did you manage to change the outcome?"

A sickly flush crept across his pale cheeks.

"Camilla and I grew up together! When we were children, our families had already agreed that we'd get married in the future. You're the one who snuck in while I was away and stole my place!"

Zachary's breathing became a little erratic, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Jeremy.

But Jeremy only replied evenly, "Now that's weird. Camilla told me she never took the so-called marriage agreement seriously. She also said you were the one who thought you two had known each other since childhood, so the marriage would be far too boring and lack passion. So you rejected the arrangement back in middle school and even studied abroad to avoid her."

Zachary froze. That was true.

Back then, even when Camilla merely had her family's driver wait for him as well so they could head home together, he'd assumed she had feelings for him.

A few years ago, when he finally returned to the country, Camilla had shown up at the airport to pick him up. He was shocked to see how stunning she looked. And when he later found out she was already married, he felt as if someone had stolen his possession from him.

Instead of responding to Jeremy's remarks head-on, Zachary scoffed.

"What on earth did Camilla ever see in you? If I hadn't put in a good word out of the kindness of my heart and gotten you a job as a doctor at this hospital, you'd still be sitting at home playing househusband. Now that I think about it, you should be thanking me."

Jeremy snorted.

Zachary hadn't done it out of kindness. He'd only wanted a more convenient way of humiliating Jeremy. He was also wrong about something else.

Not only did Jeremy have to hold down a full-time job at the hospital, but he also had to cook all the meals at home.

Meanwhile, Zachary's lips curled into a mocking smile. "There are only nine wishes left, Dr. Cooper. Guess what wishes I'll make. For example, why don't I…"

He deliberately dragged out the last words, his smile turning malicious.

"Ask Camilla to give me a child?"

Jeremy frowned. He'd known all along that Zachary harbored ulterior motives when he asked Camilla to fulfill 99 wishes for him. Still, he didn't think this was what Zachary was truly after all along.

He didn't think Camilla would agree to it. Even if she did, the Sloans would object. They would never accept the possibility of the family's heirs being born with inherited health risks.

Something like that could only even be considered after Zachary made a full recovery, and by then… it would no longer have anything to do with Jeremy anyway.

Zachary watched Jeremy closely, hoping to catch a look of shock or pain in his expression. Unfortunately for him, Jeremy looked only mildly taken aback.

Closing the chart, Jeremy finally looked up at Zachary with genuine puzzlement in his eyes. Zachary was suffering from kidney failure, so it was questionable whether he could even get it up.

But even if they resorted to IVF, being on long-term medication would significantly affect the quality of his sperm. The fetus would have an increased chance of being born prematurely or with serious congenital disabilities.

Jeremy couldn't resist asking, "But…"

His gaze slowly traveled up and down Zachary before, imitating the latter's earlier tone, he deliberately drew out the final words.

"Can you even do it?"

The monitor beside the bed immediately started beeping as Zachary's face flushed crimson.

"Why, you—!"

Jeremy's question had struck a raw nerve. Zachary reached out to punch Jeremy, but he was hooked up to a bunch of monitoring tubes and IV drips.

Losing his balance, his entire torso toppled over the edge of the bed. Thankfully, he grabbed the bed rail in time to stop himself from falling to the floor.

Jeremy let out a quiet sigh. It was a pity that Zachary was his patient. Otherwise, there were plenty of other things he'd have liked to say.

Just then, the door opened, and Jeremy's gaze met a pair of beautiful eyes.

Camilla calmly shifted her gaze away, but the instant she noticed Zachary's state, her brows creased.

"What's going on?"

The moment Zachary saw who had arrived, his eyes lit up. Right on cue, he smiled weakly. "You're here, Camilla. I'm fine. Jeremy didn't push me."