Chapter 2 Time For That Marriage To End

It was the pain that brought Emma back to consciousness.

She flexed her fingers. A cast encased her left arm, ointment coated the back of her hand, and dark red blood was already showing through the fresh gauze.

Waves of dull, persistent pain kept spreading across her back, where she had only recently undergone both debridement and skin grafting.

Her eyes remained on the ceiling as her mind went completely blank.

A nurse came into the room to change her bandages and paused for a moment, surprised to find Emma conscious. "You've finally woken up. Your blood pressure was already dangerously low when you were brought here. The doctor said even another ten minutes of delay would have cost you your life."

Emma offered no response. She remained still in bed, staring at the ceiling with an empty, distant look.

A single question occupied every corner of her mind.

Had Austin been there to see her?

Once she had finished changing all the dressings, the nurse spoke to Emma in a soft voice. "Ma'am, please try to get in touch with your family as soon as possible. Given the extent of your injuries, you'll still need someone to look after you for a while."

Hearing that, Emma slowly tightened her fingers into her palms.

She realized she'd been hoping for too much. Austin had never come to see her.

Once the nurse left, Emma overheard her exchanging gossip in hushed voices with other nurses.

"Have you heard who's staying in the VIP room next door?"

"Who is it?"

"It's Austin Edwards' wife. Apparently, she's already six months pregnant, and he's completely beside himself with worry. You really should have seen his face when they brought her in. He went completely pale and almost kicked down the emergency room doors."

"Wow! What a wonderful husband he is."

"Exactly. He's stayed right by her side the entire time. They've arranged a VIP suite, private nursing care twenty-four hours a day, and three separate ventilators on standby. Even the hospital director visited her personally twice. And all of that was because she'd inhaled a little smoke."

"She really is one fortunate woman."

Emma's fingernails pressed into her palms through the gauze wrapped around them.

Austin was staying in the room right next door, but he hadn't visited her even once.

At that moment, someone pushed open the door.

A man dressed in a black suit entered with a briefcase in hand.

"Ms. Stevens, my name is Marc Davis. I'm an attorney." He shut the door behind him and put on a practiced, carefully professional smile. "The lady next door feels sorry for you and is deeply grateful that you saved her life. She would like you to accept this check for $500, 000."

Emma looked down toward the check in front of her.

Austin's signature appeared on the check itself.

Her fingers tightened abruptly into a firm grip.

"She is Mr. Edwards' wife. Since you saved her life, he is grateful to you as well." When Emma made no attempt to accept it, Marc continued, "Please take it. Mr. Edwards specifically wants you to have it."

Emma glanced up and asked in a hoarse voice, "That's what Mr. Edwards wants?"

"That's correct."

"Did those words come directly from him?"

The way she stared at him caught Marc off guard for a moment. Then he gave a dismissive scoff. "From the way you're speaking, you'd think you knew Mr. Edwards quite well."

As Emma looked at him, the entire situation suddenly seemed absurd to her.

She had saved the life of Austin's mistress.

In return, he had dispatched his lawyer with $500, 000 as a gesture of thanks.

He hadn't even bothered to come himself. Nor had he asked her whether her injuries were serious.

She raised her head and spoke in an even, steady voice. "I'm not accepting it."

Marc scowled. "But, Ms. Stevens, the $500, 000..."

"I've already told you. I won't accept it."

Marc watched her for two seconds. Once he saw how firmly she'd made up her mind, he tucked away the check, retrieved his briefcase, and departed.

The door closed behind him, leaving the hospital room silent once more.

Emma leaned back to rest against the headboard. The movement strained the wounds on her back, and the resulting pain made her entire body tremble.

When she shut her eyes, memories from three years earlier suddenly returned.

During that car accident, she had pushed Austin out of harm's way, and the impact had left her nearly deaf in her left ear.

Holding her in his arms, he'd asked in a shaking voice, "Emma, have you lost your mind?"

She'd lain in his embrace, her ears still ringing, yet she had smiled anyway. "I'm just glad you're all right."

Afterward, he had taken her as his wife.

To her, that marriage had seemed like the start of their love story.

But during all three years of their marriage, he had remained courteous yet distant. Even sharing intimacy with her had felt like an obligation he needed to fulfill.

She had told herself that emotional distance was simply part of his nature.

She'd believed that if they spent enough time together, she would eventually be able to soften his cold demeanor.

Now she understood how mistaken she'd been.

He was capable of tenderness, of worrying deeply, and of feeling pain on someone else's behalf.

The only difference was that he'd never directed any of those feelings toward her.

A full week later, Emma woke up and stared at the calendar on her phone, her entire body suddenly going rigid.

She had already spent such a long time in the hospital.

Throughout her entire stay, Austin hadn't sent a single message or made one phone call.

A rueful little smile crossed her face. Just as she prepared to set her phone aside, a sudden commotion arose at the other end of the hallway.

"Mrs. Edwards, please slow down and be careful on the steps."

"Sadie, are you still in pain? Would you like me to carry you?"

Emma's whole body stiffened.

Through the narrow opening of her hospital room door, Emma spotted Austin down the hallway. He was holding Sadie by the shoulders and leaning toward her to ask whether her stomach still hurt.

There was extraordinary tenderness on his face.

Emma had never seen that particular side of him before.

With a coy pout, Sadie nestled against his chest. "Austin, I'm fine now. There's no need to be so worried."

"You're pregnant. How could I possibly stop worrying?"

Emma drew herself into a ball. The movement pulled painfully at the burns on her back, leaving her trembling from head to toe.

She abruptly found herself recalling just how many times she'd called him on the day of the fire.

Not once had he picked up her calls.

Yet all it took was one phone call from Sadie to make him abandon everything and hurry straight to her side.

The difference between being loved and being unloved had never seemed more obvious.

For three years, she'd held on to a marriage that had no affection.

It was finally time for that marriage to end.

Emma took out her phone and held her fingers poised over the screen.

Then, slowly and deliberately, she entered her message one word at a time. "Austin, I want us to get a divorce."

Before hitting send, however, she reconsidered it and deleted the message. She would tell him face to face.

Emma placed her phone down, opened her laptop, and signed into an account she hadn't accessed in three years.

Emma typed a brief, single line, "I'm back."