All Chapters of MARRIED IN HATRED: FELL IN LOVE AFTER SHE LEFT?: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

JOLENE'S POVThe rotating schedule that came with senior resident responsibilities meant I was home less than I had been in months, trading the earlier bedtimes for the particular exhaustion that accompanied overnight shifts and back-to-back double rotations. Jake had adjusted his own schedule to accommodate it, delegating more heavily at Apex, and I'd watched him manage the shift with remarkable grace and only occasional frustration when circumstances forced him to miss a milestone with Logan Rose.This particular morning, I was scheduled for a fourteen-hour shift, which meant I'd been awake since four in the morning, showering in the dark so I wouldn't wake Jake, leaving a note on his coffee maker because it was the only place I knew he'd see it before the morning rush.By noon, I'd already worked through three patient consultations, managed a minor complication during an afternoon procedure, and was running on coffee and something resembling determination when Dr. Reyes pulled me a

JAKE'S POVThe quarterly board meeting came at the worst possible timing, scheduled two weeks before Logan Rose's birthday, which meant I was splitting my attention between strategic projections and party planning in a way that was making me ineffective at both.My CFO noticed immediately when I asked for the third time what the current expansion budget was, when I should have known that number without hesitation."You need to be somewhere else," she observed, not unkindly, once the meeting had concluded."I need to be at home making sure my daughter's birthday doesn't become the forgotten chaos it could easily become," I admitted. "I've delegated most of Apex's daily operations, but apparently not the quarterly board meetings to anyone else yet.""Delegate it," my CFO said firmly. "I can handle this meeting. You're not actually making good decisions right now because you're not fully present for any of it."I appreciated the directness enough that I didn't argue, gathering my materia

CHAPTER STACY'S POVThe clinical rotation had been harder than I expected, which was saying something given that I'd already anticipated it would be difficult. Standing in front of an actual patient, responsible for their care, was entirely different from studying procedures in textbooks or practicing on mannequins that didn't respond to discomfort.I'd finished my shift exhausted in a way that sleep wouldn't fix, the kind of exhaustion that came from carrying someone else's vulnerability for eight hours while simultaneously managing my own uncertainty about whether I was doing things correctly.The attending physician pulled me aside before I left. "You were nervous," she observed, not unkindly."Terrified," I admitted. "I kept thinking about my sister, about how she would have approached this patient's care, whether I was doing any of it the way she would have done it.""Are you trying to be your sister," the attendant asked, "or are you trying to be yourself as a nurse?"The que

JOLENE’S POVThe silver woven into the canopy mesh above our bed hummed with a low, vibrational frequency that only a Lycan or someone bonded to one could truly feel. It was designed to keep the crushing pressure of the approaching full moon from triggering early labor, but tonight, the artificial containment just made the bedroom feel like a beautifully decorated cage.I rested both hands over the heavy, tight curve of my stomach, tracking the restless shift of the baby beneath my palms. She was fighting the lunar pull too, her tiny movements mirroring the frantic rhythm of my own heart. For a woman who had fought through the betrayal of medical school, survived the toxic hierarchy of this house as a human servant, and clawed her way back into a senior residency, being confined to this mattress felt like an absolute form of torture.The bedroom door clicked open, the sound carrying a distinct fluid grace that belonged to only one person.Jake stepped into the dim room, his scent arri

JOLENE’S POVThe distinct sound of Jake’s heavy, furious footsteps fading rapidly down the grand staircase did absolutely nothing to quiet the roaring pulse vibrating in my ears. I set the wooden tray aside on the bedside table, completely ignoring the dull, stinging protest from my lower back as I carefully swung my legs over the edge of the mattress. My bare feet hit the cold hardwood floor, and for a terrifying second, a massive wave of morning dizziness forced me to grip the silver woven canopy post just to keep myself from collapsing.Thinking like a trained doctor, Jolene, I told myself fiercely, drawing in a long, measured breath until the spinning bedroom finally stopped tilting around me. Do not start acting like a helpless victim now.I pulled a thick, dark wool cardigan over my loose shirt, wrapping the warm fabric tightly around the unmistakable, heavy curve of my stomach before quietly opening the bedroom door. The long hallway outside was completely silent, but the disti