Chapter 3

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in a private room, and there was no one at my bedside.

A nurse came in to change my IV, muttering as she worked.

"Your fever's down. There's a mild lung infection. If your friend overseas hadn't called the ambulance for you last night, you'd be meeting your maker by now."

"That husband of yours is a real piece of work. When our team got there, they couldn't get into the apartment, so they got his number from the building management."

"Finally got through to him and told him to come back. And what does he do? Swears up and down that we're actors you hired. Nothing for it but to force the door open."

"Heard you two just had your wedding yesterday. Who leaves the bride alone in the honeymoon suite? What a joke!"

I said nothing and opened my messages.

Last night, while I was burning up and blacking out, Eileen had posted a video to her feed.

Knowing my stomach's bad, worried I'd be hungry again after throwing up, a certain someone made a whole spread of nourishing food himself.

Now this is what a real buddy looks like. Not something some sick-faking little stray could ever measure up to.

Max hadn't commented. But he'd liked it.

The door pushed open, and Max walked in carrying a takeout box.

For once there was a trace of guilt on his face.

"Nadia, I only heard from the neighbors when I got home this morning. Blame that idiot best friend of yours. She couldn't even tell real illness from fake."

"You haven't eaten, right? I made you a little something. Have some to tide you over."

A few sentences, and he'd cleared himself completely.

I glanced at the food in the box and laughed.

"So in your mind, I'm only fit to eat Eileen's leftovers?"

It was all what was left of the late-night food he'd made her the night before.

Max looked a little caught out, and tried to explain.

"I left in a hurry, didn't have time to make anything new, and no restaurant's open at this hour…"

"It's not that you didn't have time. It's that you just didn't care."

"Like the bouquet at the wedding. I'm allergic to baby's breath and you knew it, but Eileen liked it, so you made me take extra allergy pills and toss the bouquet to her instead."

"When we shot the wedding photos, you said she looked like a man and wondered whether anyone would ever marry her, so we should shoot a few sets with her first. You two went from sunrise to sunset while I stood off to the side with my lips blue from the cold, and she laughed at me for looking like a ghost."

I cut him off.

"And now even my wedding night, my marriage bed, she gets to use with you first, and only then does it come around to me."

"But when your company was just getting off the ground, I was the one pulling all-nighters with you. You're allergic to alcohol, so I drank in your place with the clients, drank until my stomach bled. Where was your precious buddy to take my place then?"

"Max, maybe it doesn't turn your stomach, but I can't stand it anymore. Let's break up."

Max froze for a second, then furiously smashed the box of food onto the floor.

"Nadia, this little bit of nothing, and you can't get over it?"

"So I misread you last night, and I didn't get around to fixing you fresh food. But wasn't that your own stupid fault, running out without even grabbing an umbrella? You got sick all on your own!"

"Because of you, the front door got busted down. Eileen picked that one out for me, imported, two hundred grand. You don't know how to earn money, only how to waste it, and I haven't even blamed you for it. And you still have the nerve to bring up breaking up?"

Before I could get a word out, Eileen threw the door open and ran in.

Trailing behind her were the same people who'd crashed the honeymoon suite last night.

She reached out and grabbed at Max's front, giggling.

"Monkey stealing peaches! I heard you howling all the way from the hallway. Who's got no eyes in their head, daring to make my man upset?"

Max grunted and reached to pinch her waist, grinning. "Quit it. She's here trying to break up with me. Getting married is such a headache."

Eileen curled her lip. "Nadia, I know you women love to make drama, but you should at least go take a good look at yourself first and see whether you've got the goods to back it up."

"Max has spent plenty on you these past few years, hasn't he? You eat off him, drink off him. Even this one night in a VIP room isn't cheap."

"The wedding's already done, all that's left is the license. You pick now to make a breakup scene? Aren't you deliberately trying to humiliate him?"

I ignored her and lifted my eyes to Max.

"The room isn't your money. The wedding cost, we each pay half. Everything else, the money and the things, I'll pay you back."

Max sneered. "Pay back? Who do you think you are, Eileen? She's a freelance illustrator, she can support herself. What have you got?"

"Not even a job. Just a freeloader I keep around. You think you can cover a VIP room? Nadia, I'm not an idiot."

The hand I had tucked under the blanket clenched tight.

I never would have guessed that in his mind, I was nothing but a freeloader living off him.

But every transfer he'd sent me, every piece of jewelry, I hadn't touched a cent of it.

All these years, everything I spent came from my own savings.