Chapter 5

When Ethan and I lived together, we had a cleaner.

Sometimes I couldn’t even stand looking at the mess, so I washed his shirts and socks myself.

Now he was happily doing all of it for someone else.

“Found it!” Tiffany said, pulling out a file folder and handing it to me.

“Doctor, is this the one?”

I opened it numbly.

Every signature line for spouse or family contact said the same name.

Ethan Hayes.

I knew his handwriting better than my own.

I swallowed the pain in my chest and said evenly, “Yes. This is fine. I’ll let you know the surgery date.”

I turned to leave.

Tiffany grabbed my arm.

“Doctor, don’t rush off.”

“It looks like it’s about to rain, and it’s almost dinner time.”

“Weirdly enough, I feel like we really clicked. Stay and eat with us.”

“Ethan makes an amazing Beef Wellington.”

He cooked?

We were together for years, and that man barely stepped into a kitchen.

Before I could refuse, she had already pushed me onto the couch.

Then she called him.

Her voice turned instantly soft and spoiled.

“Ethan, where are you? Hurry home and cook.”

The voice on the other end was familiar.

And completely foreign.

Gone was the cold distance I knew.

In its place was warm, indulgent affection.

“My little troublemaker, I was waiting outside the hospital with a thousand roses

for you, and you just slipped away without a word.”

A thousand roses.

In five years, the most he ever sent me was a dozen.

On my birthday.

And his assistant bought them.

Tiffany pouted into the phone.

“That’s what you get for wasting money. Just get home. We have a guest, and she’s waiting to taste your famous cooking.”

He laughed.

A full, open laugh I had never heard in my life.

“Okay, okay. Yes, Your Majesty. I’m on my way.”