Lahat ng Kabanata ng Rejected By My Husband, Desired By My Doctor : Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

Evelyn I woke the next morning with Damien’s words still running through my mind, and for a while I stayed exactly where I was, staring at the pale strip of morning light coming through the curtains while I tried to decide what scared me more, the fact that he had told me he loved me or the fact that some part of me had been waiting to hear it. Damien had not stayed the night and that was much expected. Despite confessing feelings for me, he still kept a distance, taking things slow, not willing to rush anything and that kept me seeking out his company in a way I could not quite understand. He had not demanded an answer, and perhaps that was what made it harder, because there was no pressure I could push against, no argument I could have with him that would give me a convenient reason to put the whole thing away. Instead, I had gone to sleep with those three words somewhere between my heart and my head, and they had followed me into the morning, into the bathroom, into the kitchen,

AdrianI arrived at the office earlier than usual, but I had already been awake for hours, so there was nothing particularly productive about my early start.I sat behind my desk with a file open in front of me and read the same paragraph three times without understanding a word of it, because every time I tried to concentrate, I found myself back at the reception two nights earlier, watching Evelyn stand beside Damien with a kind of ease I hadn't seen on her face in years.I had spent months telling myself that whatever existed between them was circumstantial, that she was leaning on him because her life had collapsed and he happened to be standing nearby, but there had been nothing temporary about the way she looked at him that night.The memory bothered me more than I wanted to admit.I picked up my phone and opened the first business message I saw, forcing myself to read it properly.You do not care, I told myself. She made her decision. Let her live with it.I said it quietly, as

AdrianI threw Isaac Belham's card into the rubbish bin beside the driver's seat before I had driven halfway to the conference. I never once intended to call him. The day itself passed without much happening, which should have been a relief, but I found myself struggling to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes at a time. That evening, I made the mistake of opening my phone before bed. The photographs of Evelyn and Damien were still circulating, and the first wave had been harmless enough that I had almost begun to believe the public attention would eventually disappear. People had written that she looked happy, that she deserved peace, that perhaps she had finally found someone who cared about her, and while I hated reading those comments, there was something tolerable about them because they were at least ordinary. Two nights later, however, the tone had shifted. The same photograph appeared beneath

EvelynKendall immediately leaned closer to see the screen. “Answer it.”“No.”“Evie.”“You just want to listen.”“Of course I want to listen.”I laughed and put the call on speaker before she could snatch the phone from my hand.“Hey,” Damien said, and there was a tired warmth in his voice that made me smile almost immediately. “I am between patients. I wanted to hear your voice for a minute. That is honestly the whole reason I called, although I am aware it is not particularly smooth.”Kendall silently mouthed, Oh my God.“You called to check on me?” I asked.“I called because I left this morning and I didn’t like how quickly the street swallowed the day. I wanted to make sure you were all right.”“Kendall is here.”“Hi, Damien,” Kendall said in an exaggeratedly sweet voice. “We’re discussing you, so keep talking because this is getting interesting.”There was a pause before Damien laughed.“Should I be worried?”“Yes,” Kendall said. “She told me you stayed. I have questions, and sh

Adrian“No.”“Evelyn—”“No.” She looked directly at me. “Wanting another chance doesn't make you entitled to one.”I stared at her. “I can change.”“You can’t!”For several seconds neither of us moved. I could hear children laughing somewhere beyond the trees and the distant sound of traffic from the road outside the park, ordinary sounds continuing while my entire world seemed to have narrowed to the space between Evelyn and me.Then I reached for her.My hands settled around her waist almost instinctively, the familiarity of the gesture hitting me with such force that I nearly forgot everything else. She stiffened immediately, but she didn't push me away in the first second, and that tiny hesitation was enough to make me believe there was still something left between us.I lowered my forehead to hers.“Please,” I whispered. “Don't tell me I'm already nothing to you.”She closed her eyes.“Adrian…”“I remember you,” I said, my voice breaking. “I remember you falling asleep against me