"Lie down. Don't move." Joe pressed my shoulder. "Maya's situation is complicated."
My throat tightened. "What do you mean?"
Joe's expression hesitated. My head buzzed. Seeing my agitation, Joe sighed heavily. "Maya's in the ICU. She was already in late-stage kidney failure. Last night, when she heard about your bleeding, she was running all over the hospital. After she finished your admission forms, she collapsed from exhaustion and complications."
I slumped on the bed, limbs numb, brain blank.
"No..." I couldn't breathe. "I need to see her!"
"You don't need to!" Joe spoke quickly. "Your husband Lucas already arranged everything for her."
I hadn't heard that name in so long, my brain lagged. "Lucas? How would he know?"
Joe smiled bitterly. "After Maya collapsed, the hospital pulled up your emergency contact through the medical system. Your legal husband."
Joe told me everything that happened while I was unconscious.
I leaned back, unable to process. Across thousands of miles, Lucas had somehow learned what happened and helped. He'd mobilized top medical resources for Maya. Very much his style.
In his eyes, any problem money could solve wasn't a problem. Even just scraps from his fingertips could provide Maya with medical care I never could.
I knew Lucas only helped because the hospital system contacted him, and out of family honor, he had no choice. Probably his assistant team handled it. But then a voice mocked me cruelly.
See, Ella? You still can't escape him. Lucas is your anchor. Without him, you're nothing. You thought you could be independent, support Maya and the baby yourself. But reality? One emergency and you're back to relying on his money to clean up the mess.
All day,I lay in that hospital bed like a lab rat under observation, letting doctors and nurses poke and prod me. Every two hours, someone drew blood, checked blood pressure, and monitored fetal heart rate. By three PM, I could recite every beep that machine made.
When Joe came for rounds, I was staring at a water stain on the ceiling, trying to see some life lesson in its shape.
"Good news," he said, holding my chart. "All your numbers look stable. You can go home."
"Really?" I practically bounced off the bed.
"Yeah." Joe nodded, smiling, familiar warmth in his eyes. "I'll drive you."
I hesitated. Since Joe's confession, I hadn't taken rides from him. But if I ran into those stalkers again in my currentcondition, I wouldn't stand a chance. For safety, I needed to trouble Joe this once.
I smiled at him gratefully. However you looked at it, Joe had helped me tremendously in this city, at this hospital.
Joe's secondhand Honda was always clean and fresh, smelling faintly of wood—like him, always putting people at ease.
"Hungry?" Joe's voice was gentle. "I can take you to get something to eat first."
"No thanks. I want to go home and study." I caught a hint of something troubling and quickly added, "The blood in my room hasn't been cleaned either. I don't want to pay the landlord for the carpet."
Joe smiled. "Need help?"
"No." For some reason, I didn't want a strange man in my space yet. Their hormones might make everything spin out of control. "Thank you, Joe." Realizing my tone was stiff, I softened it.
Joe nodded without saying more.
The car soon turned onto my street. The shabby apartment building looked even more depressing at night, streetlights flashing over graffiti on the walls.
Joe stopped the car downstairs and killed the engine this time.
"We're here," he said, but didn't look at me. Just stared at the steering wheel.
"Yeah," I responded, hand on the door handle, then heard Joe urgently call my name. "Ella!"
