Library

Search

Home / She Was Alive All Along / Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

All Chapters of She Was Alive All Along: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

7 Chapters

Chapter 1

Ronnie's POVStage lights converged on the platform above me.Maddie Paisley smiled tenderly and threw herself into Jace Lowe's arms. The tips of his ears flushed red. Petals rained down from the ceiling, and the two of them kissed as if nothing else in the world existed.I stood frozen, staring at the scene, my fingertips gone cold. I wanted to shout, to demand an explanation, but my voice caught in my throat the moment I scanned the crowd of familiar faces. I couldn't force out a single word."Maddie and Jace have finally found their happy ending. You two had better take good care of each other!"The one holding up the train of the wedding dress was a girl from a poor family I had put through school myself, then found a job at the company."Maddie, you'd better keep looking out for Jace from now on. Don't let some clueless outsider push him around again!"The one filming everything on a camcorder was my college roommate. When his parents died, I had stayed up three sleepless n

Chapter 2

The instant Jace yelped, Maddie clamped down on my wrist and wrenched it aside.My lower back slammed into the corner of a table, and the pain brought tears to my eyes."Ronnie, have you had enough?!"The furious shout stopped me cold. I stared at her, stunned. She was shielding Jace, glancing at him with a look of tender concern so familiar it made my nose sting with a sudden ache.Back in high school, Jace had once had me dragged into the equipment room and beaten within an inch of my life. My uniform had nearly been torn off my body, and he'd been about to press lit cigarettes against my skin when Maddie kicked the door open. She stripped off her own uniform jacket to cover me and pulled me out of there.She'd turned to the boys with murder in her eyes and warned them in a cold, level voice, "Whoever touches Ronnie again is going to answer to me."From then on, she'd looked out for me every step of the way. No matter how Jace tried to slander me, she stood in front of me and f

Chapter 3

Maddie let out a soft, weary sigh, her eyes full of helplessness."Jace waited ten years for me, ever since he was young and naive. Now I finally have his child. I can't let him and our baby down."I really am sorry. Whatever you want as compensation, just name it."Compensation. As if five years of suffering could be settled with a payout.I laughed, tears blurring my eyes. My voice came out strangely calm."Fine. I'll step aside and let you have your happiness."I slid off the plain band that had carried fifteen years of love and flicked it onto the carpet. Then I turned and walked out.As I left the hotel, my phone rang. It was the hospital."Mr. Lowe, your son's condition has flared up again. The doctor needs you to come in and sign some paperwork."My legs nearly buckled under me. Without a moment's hesitation, I hailed a cab and headed straight for the hospital.By the time I finished signing and walked into the room, my son lifted his pale little face from the pillow a

Chapter 4

They left in a hurry. Not one of them stopped to consider that I hadn't pushed him.My cheek still burned, the sting sinking straight into my chest. I clutched my documents, my expression numb, and headed out to catch a cab back to the hospital.The moment I walked into the room, I saw relief written all over the doctor's face."Mr. Lowe, we found a heart for your son! As soon as payment clears, we can start the surgery right away!"For one moment, pure joy washed over me. I stumbled toward the payment window, but my card kept getting rejected, one attempt after another, for insufficient funds.The second it registered, my blood ran cold. Maddie was the only person who knew my password. I called her thirty-one times. Every single call got hung up on.A nurse rushed over, her face tight with worry."Mr. Lowe, Oliver's condition is getting worse. If we don't replace that heart soon, he won't make it."Frantic, I was about to leave the hospital to track her down when I spotted Mad

Chapter 5

Third-Person POVA pale streak of light cut across the sky.Inside the Paisley Group's executive office, Maddie sat at her desk, drifting off more than once. Her pen hovered over the page, leaving small blots of ink where it stalled. She had always been sharp and focused at work. This kind of distraction was completely unlike her.Her eyes kept landing on her bare ring finger, as if it had been scalded. She'd slipped her wedding ring off the night she married Jace.She knew perfectly well this was the marriage she had wanted for ten years. Of the fifteen years she and Ronnie had spent together, she had spent the last ten of them falling for Jace instead. He was sweet and guileless as sunshine. She had known for years that Ronnie was a habitual liar who used his position as the family's eldest son to bully Jace, who had no one else to depend on.But that night in the honeymoon suite, looking at Jace's handsome, bashful face, all she could think of was how pale and broken Ronnie h

Chapter 6

Maddie stood rooted to the spot.Her hand went slack, and the gifts hit the floor.The doctor who'd just opened his mouth to speak flinched at the sound.A second later, Maddie was closing in on them, her eyes red-rimmed."Who did you just say died?""I'm sorry, that's private patient information..."The doctor stared at Maddie's face for a moment, then started to turn away.But the assistant rushed over, her face full of urgency, and hurried to Maddie's side."Ms. Paisley... your son, Oliver, passed away a week ago. His heart gave out."The blood drained from Maddie's face until there was no color left in it at all.She suddenly remembered the look of despair in Ronnie's eyes that day, and the way his whole body had trembled as he grabbed her by the collar.If Oliver really had died, then that day, she had..."Oh, you're the wife who's been dead for five years? I saw your picture on his phone's lock screen once!"The doctor kept staring at Maddie's furrowed brow, and some

Chapter 7

Ronnie's POVIn my first month away from home, I buried my son's ashes at a cemetery overlooking the sea.He'd been sickly his whole short life, spending nearly every day of it in some hospital room. He always used to say that once he got better, he wanted to see the ocean, just like the little mermaid in his storybook.By the third month, the divorce case against Maddie finally went through. That marriage certificate was nothing but scrap paper now.Meanwhile, the core team I'd personally trained and built up at Paisley Group started jumping ship, one after another.By the fifth month, I led my new team to the top prize in our field on pure merit, and I was promoted straight to chief engineer.Those damp, painful memories were finally starting to fade.By the seventh month, I walked down the aisle with someone new.Reporters from every major outlet in the world crowded around, eager for the first scoop on the wedding of the century.Countless camera flashes went off along the

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP

DMCA.com Protection Status