บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire’s Deaf Wife: บทที่ 91 - บทที่ 100

MARIAThe past few days, or hours, or months, I couldn’t tell, were a blur of events. I didn’t leave the hospital even once. Isaac came out of surgery, successful, they said, and the poison used was identified as arsenic. The moment I heard it, it broke me all over again. I cried so much that day, but since then… nothing. My tears simply stopped coming. It was as if my mind had flipped a switch and shut everything off.I didn’t know what day it was. I didn’t know what time it was. I only existed in this loop of stillness.I heard people talking to me, voices that sounded distant, muffled and almost unreal. My mother and father who had flown down, Ann, Damon, Riley, Martha… every single one of them tried to make me leave my son’s bedside. But I wouldn’t.I just couldn’t.Seeing him lying there, so small, so fragile, connected to machines that breathed for him, was a punishment I refused to escape. His chest rising and falling with the help of tubes, his skin pale and bruised, his hand

ELIASHer eyes met mine, dull but still so achingly beautiful. She looked tired, broken, her face thinner, her lips pale. The bubbly Maria I once knew was gone. What remained was quieter and heavier, but still her. Still breathtaking enough to hurt to look at.“Are you okay?” I asked, my voice catching halfway through. “Kola said you sent for me.”It came out softer than I intended, uncertain, almost boyish. Like a child speaking to his first crush. I hated how unsteady it sounded, how she could still make me feel this small.Maria took her sweet time torturing me. Her eyes trailed over my face, down my body, then back up again, slow, deliberate and unsettling. Every step she took toward me made my breathing heavier, my fists clenching tighter inside my pockets, my throat growing painfully dry.But I didn’t move. I stood rooted in place, half-expecting the slap I knew I probably deserved. Maybe I even wanted it, some physical reminder of how badly I’d screwed everything up.Instead, h

MARIAElias still hadn’t returned.The longer Isaac asked for him, the sharper my hurt grew, mingled with anger. We had our issues, yes, but Isaac had just woken after a month in a coma. The least Elias could do was—“Daddy.”“Hi, my big boy.”I spun toward him, heart lurching, a flutter rising in my stomach at the sound of his voice.He carried two flowers, a box of chocolate, some of Isaac’s favorite drinks, and a giant teddy bear. Carefully, he set them behind me on the bed table, then pulled Isaac close. Isaac clung to him, eyes glistening, smile wide and uncontainable.My chest twisted with ache and longing. Tears threatened again. Isaac didn’t know we were leaving—not long, but just for a little while. I wondered if he could bear to separate from his father. I barely could.“I am sorry for coming late, buddy. Do you forgive me?” Elias asked, voice cracking.Isaac nodded into him, hugging tighter. Elias sniffed; I couldn’t see his face. I desperately wanted to.They pulled apart

My legs began to ache, the low heels I wore biting into my swollen feet. I sighed and made my way slowly toward my room to change into flats, and relieve myself while at it.Pregnancy had taught me just how long the bladder could hold on, hours, sometimes. I’d trained myself out of running to the bathroom every five minutes, testing my limits just to feel some control over this body that no longer felt like mine.But tonight wasn’t one of those nights.I was wearing one of the dresses he’d gotten me during my pregnancy journey. It was easy to feel insecure these days, the heaviness, the constant changes, the way nothing fit quite right anymore. I often felt clumsy, foolish in my own body. But he made sure I still felt beautiful, still had something lovely to wear.The memory of that day — the day I’d tried the dresses on and thrown a fit, came flooding back. The calm in his eyes as he watched me, the way he called me beautiful despite my tantrums. My heart fluttered at the thought, my

EPILOGUE “Isaac, go call your daddy for dinner,” I said, wiping my hands on a napkin as I adjusted the last set of plates on the table.“Daddy!” he screamed excitedly, his little feet pounding against the wooden floor before he disappeared up the stairs.I smiled and shook my head, catching Martha’s amused grin from across the dining room. “That child never walks. Always running like the world’s on fire.”Martha chuckled, setting down the last of the wine glasses. “He’s his father’s son.”At that, I couldn’t help but laugh softly. True. Isaac was just like Elias — stubborn, loud, and energetic, with that same mischievous glint in his eyes. Only, where Elias was fire and steel, Isaac was sunshine and thunder all at once.The dining table looked perfect, candles flickering softly, their light bouncing off the silver cutlery. The aroma of roasted lamb filled the room, blending with the buttery scent of mashed potatoes and the faint sweetness of Elias’s favorite cheesecake cooling by the