Chapter 3

I looked away and pulled my hand back. “Didn’t I tell you? You were too busy taking care of Ethan’s kid to care about me at all.”

Zoe frowned, but for once, she didn’t get angry. “As soon as I heard about you, I rushed over right away. You know Ethan’s just one man—how could he possibly take care of a child? I was only helping because I felt bad for him.”

I let out a light laugh. “You don’t like kids. You didn’t hesitate to abort our child, but you treated someone else’s kid like treasure.”

Zoe stood up, and the chair behind her tipped over with a loud crash.

“Who told you to be so useless and still go saving people? Otherwise you wouldn’t be covered in injuries. I already came here after hearing you were hurt and gave up everything to take care of you. What more do you want? You’re a grown man—why are you so petty?”

Petty, huh. I couldn’t help firing back at her again. “Any man would be angry seeing his wife taking care of another man’s kid day and night. And you even showed up in his clothes, like you were so reluctant to let them go. You really are the most amazing woman in the world.”

Zoe’s face darkened little by little. I knew that was the warning sign before she blew up.

Before, whenever she got angry, I would always swallow my pride and coax her.

This was the first time I had ever pushed back against her.

I waited for her to explode and tear things apart.

But when she looked up, her eyes were full of tears.

“I know I was wrong this time. Didn’t I already apologize? I just feel bad for a kid who lost his mom so young. We’re both stuck in the hospital, and so many people are watching. I promise you, before you’re discharged, I won’t leave your side even once. Just stop being angry.”

Looking at her spoiled, pleading expression, my heart softened again.

This was the wife I had chased for three years and finally married.

As long as she was willing to promise me she’d live a good life with me, I could let the past go.

She promised to stay, but her heart had already drifted away.

Even though she was sitting by my bed, she kept checking her phone over and over.

Sometimes she frowned, sometimes she sighed.

Every so often, she glanced at me with a look that said she wanted to speak but held back.

Three days passed like that, dull and flavorless.

Then a phone call came in. When Zoe saw that I still had my eyes closed, she answered immediately and walked out.

Her voice drifted in through the crack in the door.

It was Ethan calling. The child had a fever, and he couldn’t handle it alone.

The moment Zoe came back into the room, I closed my eyes.

I knew I should have questioned her, but right then, I wanted to know her decision more than anything.

Zoe almost didn’t hesitate. She picked up the bag on the chair and slipped out quietly.

I reached out, but all I caught was air.

“You really have to go? Didn’t you say you’d stay by my side without leaving even once?”

I couldn’t hold it in anymore and finally spoke.

Zoe froze, but she didn’t look back.

“You’re an adult. You can call a caregiver to look after you. But the child is still so young. You could risk your life saving a stranger’s child—how could you bear to watch me stand by and do nothing?”

She left without looking back.

I watched the blood flow backward in the IV tube and let out a silent laugh.

Was she really that anxious? So anxious she wouldn’t even spare me a glance?

After Zoe left, the parents of the child I had saved found their way to the hospital.

They paid my medical bills and gave me one hundred as a reward for my bravery.

I accepted the medical expenses and the compensation for lost work, but I turned down the one hundred thousand.

“I saved her on instinct. It wasn’t for the money.”

My actions were reported again and again.

After Zoe found out, she flew into a rage: “Ryan, are you an idiot? You don’t even have a job now, so why did you refuse that one hundred thousand? Did you talk to me about it? Do you want to keep delivering food for the rest of your life? You don’t care about losing face, but I do.”

Because of this, she stopped taking my calls and stopped replying to my messages.

It wasn’t until I was discharged three weeks later that she still hadn’t appeared once.

When I was handling the discharge paperwork, the caregiver asked without thinking, “Isn’t your wife coming to pick you up?”

I froze. She probably had already forgotten I even existed as her husband.

The caregiver sighed. “The true nature of a person shows best when someone has been sick for a long time.”

Since she still loved Ethan, I would let her go.