Mother Critically Ill, Husband Embracing Another Woman at Hospital

1: 1

My mother had fallen critically ill without warning, and we had traveled a long way for treatment.

The first thing I did was rush her to the private hospital owned by the Hensons.

When I couldn't cover the bill at the payment desk, I gritted my teeth, signed Jack Henson's name, and slid the paperwork back through the window.

"Please put the charges under Jack Henson's account. I'm his wife."

The nurse rolled her eyes at me right there.

"Have you no shame? If you want free treatment, just say so. Playing Mrs. Henson now? At least think up a lie that holds together. Mr. Henson's wife is at this hospital every single day. Everyone here knows her face."

The patient card slipped from my fingers to the floor, and the blood in my veins turned to ice in an instant.

I left my mother in a security guard's care and followed the direction the nurse had pointed, step by step, toward the ward.

The door stood ajar.

I stopped in the doorway and saw Jack Henson, who was supposed to be in a meeting at the company, sitting at the bedside.

He was leaning over to tuck the blanket around the patient, his movements patient and gentle.

And the woman he called his brother's fiancee.

She was nestled happily in his arms, one arm wrapped around his waist.

In that moment, I forgot how to breathe.

"Jack, stop fussing, take a rest. Look at you, working all day and helping me take care of my dad on top of it. You've worn yourself thin. It breaks my heart."

Jack turned his head, reached up to stroke her hair, and spoke in a tenderness I had never once heard from him.

"Silly. Your dad is my dad. If I don't look after him, who will?"

"If you really feel for me, then spend more time with me. Just seeing you makes even the worst exhaustion worth it."

Standing outside the door, watching all of it, my eyes flooded in an instant.

Five years of marriage, and Jack had dropped me for Evangeline Pruitt more times than I could count.

He'd told me Evangeline was his brother's fiancee, that the brother had heard the Hensons owned a hospital and asked him to look out for her.

But in five years, I had never once seen this brother he spoke of.

Every time I asked, he said I was making a fuss over nothing, that I couldn't even trust his brother's fiancee.

By the end, I had even started to doubt myself.

Only in this moment did I understand. There had never been any brother at all.

I pushed the door open, my hands shaking.

When he saw me, something like surprise flickered through his eyes.

Then his brow furrowed. He stood, walked over, and pulled the ward door shut behind him.

"Why are you here? Who let you come up?"

No explanation, no panic. His first words were to demand why I had shown up.

I stared at him, my voice trembling.

"Why shouldn't I be here?"

"My mother is dying. I brought her in for treatment, and when I went to pay, the nurse said I was a fraud. She said the real Mrs. Henson was right here in this ward!"

"Jack, tell me. Is she your brother's fiancee, or is she your mistress?"

Evangeline came over, red-eyed, and pulled at my arm.

"Don't misunderstand. Jack and I... it isn't what you think."

"I wasn't talking to you."

I shook her hand off and kept my eyes locked on Jack.

"I'm asking you."

His brow knit tighter. There wasn't a trace of guilt on his face, only impatience.

"And if she is? Evangeline's father is gravely ill. She can't carry it all alone. What's wrong with me lending a hand?"

"Cicely Swanson, marrying into the Henson family is more luck than you deserve. I've never asked you for a divorce, never left you wanting for food or clothes. Would it kill you to keep your place and be Mrs. Henson quietly? Do you have to drag everyone through the mud?"

I felt like I'd heard the biggest joke in the world, and I laughed until there were tears.

"Five years of marriage, and I've never taken a cent from you. What you give me barely covers the household. My mother's treatment back home, I paid for every bit of it myself. My family has never gotten a single thing out of this marriage."

"That's the luck you're talking about? Here, you take it. You want it?"

His expression darkened at once.

"Don't twist things around. You're the young Mrs. Henson. Who out there would dare not show you respect? If it weren't for how sensible you've been, do you think you'd have gotten to sit where you are today?"

"I don't want it!"

The words had barely left my mouth when Evangeline dropped to her knees in front of me with a thud, tears streaming down.

"Jack, don't fight with her. It's all my fault."

"I'm sorry. I never meant to tear your family apart. Right now, no one but Jack can save my father. I just want my dad to live."

"Just take pity on me and let me stay by Jack's side, please? Jack and I truly love each other. I don't want anything. I swear I will never set foot inside the Henson house. I'm begging you, please, show me mercy!"

2: 2

Every word rang with feeling, and the tears fell like petals.

But her father lay in the top-floor VIP suite, with Jack tending to him himself.

While my mother had just been stopped at the hospital doors by security, barely able to get inside at all.

All I felt was the bitter irony of it.

Jack drew Evangeline a little further behind him at the sight.

When he looked at me, his tone carried the condescension of someone handing down charity.

"Fine. I'm not unreasonable. Your mother needs treatment, doesn't she? I'll arrange a doctor and get her registered."

"But so you don't have to see Eva and get upset, I'll put her in the standard ward on the lowest level. It's quieter down there anyway."

It felt like a knife driven hard into my chest. I gave a cold laugh.

"Afraid I'll be upset seeing her, or afraid you'll be upset seeing me?"

"Don't be unreasonable."

"Take the room or don't. If you don't want it, take your mother and crawl back to that hometown of yours."

His brow knotted tighter, his voice thick with disgust.

Just then my phone rang.

It was the security guard at the entrance.

"Hello, Miss Swanson? Your mother collapsed at the hospital doors, she's unconscious now, you need to get down here fast!"

Every scrap of pride and backbone shattered in that instant.

I clenched my teeth and forced the tears back.

"Fine, I accept! Just please get someone to save my mother!"

I ran downstairs like a madwoman and watched them wheel her into the ER.

The lights over the ER stayed on a long time.

The corridor was empty. Just me.

Jack never once came down from the top floor.

I leaned against the cold wall, took out my phone, and dialed a lawyer with shaking hands.

"I need you to draw up a divorce agreement. I want a divorce."

"May I ask who your husband is?"

"Jack Henson."

The refusal came without a beat of thought.

"I'm sorry, Miss Swanson. We can't take a case against the Henson family. You'll have to find someone else."

The line went dead.

I slid slowly down to the floor, drowning in it.

No one in this city dared cross Jack Henson.

Even leaving had become something I couldn't afford.

The wedding of the century was still vivid in my mind.

However fierce the love had once been, that was how loud the slap landing on my face now.

After a moment, I lifted my hand and scrubbed the tears away hard.

If the marriage was one in name only, then I would fight for nothing.

I only wanted my mother safe.

I don't know how long it was before the ER lights finally went out.

The doctor came out and pulled down his mask.

"The patient is out of danger for now. She can be moved to a ward for observation. She needs rest, and she can't be subjected to any more shocks."

All the strength went out of me at once, and the tears wouldn't stop falling.

I followed the nurse and had my mother moved into the standard ward on the basement level.

The room was dim and damp.

There was only one window, for ventilation.

Outside it was pitch black, leading who knew where.

I had just gotten my mother settled when my phone buzzed.

It was a message from Jack.

"If there's nothing wrong, stay in the ward. Don't wander around. Eva's father is unstable and can't be upset."

I stared at that line for a long time.

Then I pressed the phone dark and didn't reply.

That night, the ward door pushed open.

Evangeline walked in carrying a fruit basket, all smiles.

"I came to check on your mother, and to apologize for what happened earlier."

My mother was still unconscious, no color in her face, an oxygen tube in her nose.

I stood, my face cold.

"There's no need. Get out. You're not welcome here."

She acted as if she hadn't heard, walking straight in.

Words of concern on her lips, her eyes fixed on the equipment around my mother.

"She looks so worrying, poor thing, suffering like this..."

Before she'd finished, she reached out her hand.

With a single click, she pulled my mother's oxygen tube right out.

"What are you doing!"

My eyes nearly split, and I lunged forward and shoved her away.

Evangeline shrieked and fell hard onto the floor.

The fruit basket toppled, the expensive imported fruit smashed to pulp across the ground.

She lifted her head, crying more piteously than I ever could.

"I only wanted to see how your mother was doing..."

"Cicely Swanson! What do you think you're doing!"

The ward door slammed open, and Jack stood in the doorway holding a thermal container of soup.

3: 3

The sight of Evangeline sprawled on the floor turned his face ashen in an instant.

He strode over and swung his hand across my face.

The crack of it rang out, brutally loud in the silent ward.

The soup thermos hit the floor, porridge spilling everywhere.

"Cicely Swanson, I try to do you a kindness and this is what I get. I never should have come to see you."

I held my cheek, shaking all over, and screamed at him.

"She just pulled out my mother's oxygen tube!"

"What nonsense are you spouting?"

Jack helped Evangeline up, aching for her.

"Eva's father was gravely ill for years. No one understands that pain better than she does. She's always been kind. How could she ever put someone else through the same suffering?"

"Jack, don't blame your wife..."

Evangeline slumped against his chest, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.

"She's just worried about Auntie. I'm fine, really..."

Her forgiving words only made Jack ache for her more.

He shot me a vicious glare, gathered Evangeline up, and turned to leave, murmuring soft comfort to her the whole way out.

The ward door slammed shut behind them.

I turned back and, with trembling hands, pushed the oxygen tube into place again.

Touching my swollen cheek, I felt something in me cut like a blade.

But those two short minutes without the tube were enough. The monitor suddenly let out a piercing alarm.

My mother's heart rate spiked into chaos, the waveform breaking apart.

I scrambled for the call button at the head of the bed.

I pressed it over and over.

No one came.

I yanked the door open and ran out, searched the entire floor, and found not a single doctor or nurse on duty.

The basement level was silent as a grave in the dead of night.

Helplessness came down over me like a flood.

"Is anyone here? Doctor! Nurse! Please, help me!"

My breaking voice echoed down the corridor.

Nothing answered.

Just when I was about to give up, a figure appeared at the far end of the hall.

Someone in a mask and a white coat, walking slowly toward me.

I lunged at him like he was the only rope left to grab and seized his arm.

"Doctor! Please, save my mother! Please!"

He stopped where I held him, his voice low.

"Take me to her."

I pulled him into the ward.

He glanced at the monitor and frowned.

"Get out. Wait outside. I'll do the resuscitation. Don't come in and disturb me."

I hesitated, thrown.

"Doctor, shouldn't you call the others? Can you handle this... alone?"

He didn't turn around. His voice went sharp.

"Are you questioning my competence? Fine, then I won't treat her. I'm the only one on duty tonight. If you don't trust me, wait until the hospital opens tomorrow and get her treated then."

I went silent at once and rushed to apologize.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry to trouble you. Please, you have to save my mother."

I backed out of the ward and eased the door shut.

Minute by minute, the time crawled by.

I sat in the chair outside the ward and waited. Six hours.

It wasn't until the sky went faintly gray that a nurse coming on shift wandered over on her rounds, yawning.

I stood up quickly and stopped her.

"Nurse, please, go in and help the doctor. He's been doing resuscitation in there all night."

She listened, then looked at me, thoroughly confused.

"Resuscitation? Our night-duty doctor isn't in this building. And there's no sterile environment in a patient room. You can't do a procedure in a ward. Are you sure you haven't got this wrong?"

Something dropped in my chest. In an instant I knew something was wrong.

I shoved the ward door open.

It was empty. The doctor was long gone.

Only my mother lay there on the bed.

The heart-rate leads had been pulled off.

The window beside her stood wide open, cold wind pouring in.

My legs gave out and I fell against the bedside.

"Mom! Mom, wake up!"

I reached out to touch her face.

All that met my hand was the cold of it.

I collapsed against the bed and wept until my voice broke.

In that frantic moment, the first person I thought of was Jack.

The Henson family's hospital had the best doctors and resources in the country. He had to have a way!

4: 4

I pulled out my phone and called him.

Again and again. No one picked up.

There was nothing else I could do. I stumbled out of the ward and ran all the way up to the top floor.

My shoes came off somewhere on the stairs. I ran barefoot on the steps.

The pain cut straight through me, but I didn't dare stop.

I reached the door of the ward, and just as I raised my hand to knock, it opened.

Evangeline stepped out and pulled the door shut behind her.

She crossed her arms. The soft, fragile look she always wore was gone. All that was left was a cold smile.

Why are you here? Shouldn't you be calling the funeral home to make arrangements for your mother?

I froze on the spot, every drop of blood in me turning cold.

How do you know about that?

I thought of that strange doctor last night, and my face went dark.

That manyou sent him? You killed my mother? Why would you do this?

I never made things hard for you. I already stepped aside for you! I don't want anythingI just wanted my mother to live!

With Jack gone, Evangeline dropped every pretense, her smile vicious and cruel:

Why? Cicely, just you existing makes my skin crawl. You dared to take my place, so you should pay the price.

Your mother's death is only the first step. If you still won't take the hint and get lost, I have plenty of ways to make you wish you'd never crossed me.

Next is your father, then you, your whole family. Not one of you gets away!

Rage shot straight to my head.

I lunged at her like something gone mad, my hands locking around her throat as I screamed:

I'll kill you! Pay for my mother's life!

Her face flushed red fast, but she didn't struggle. She was seconds from suffocating.

Cicely! Stop!

A furious shout came from behind me.

A kick landed on the small of my back.

It sent me flying, and I slammed hard onto the floor.

Jack dropped the insulated container in his hand and shoved Evangeline behind him.

He pointed at me, his chest heaving with fury:

What is this insanity, first thing in the morning? I already arranged a ward for your motherwhy are you still going after Eva?

Cause any more trouble and I'll have you thrown out of this hospital along with your mother, right now!

Evangeline covered her face, sobbing, playing the pitiful victim:

Jack, don't blame her, please... it's really all right...

The more reasonable she acted, the more Jack loathed me.

You're just too kind, that's why she can bully you like this!

Watching my own husband shield the woman who'd murdered my mother, every last shred of my reason collapsed.

I screamed with everything I had:

She killed my mother!

I don't just want to strangle herI wish I could kill her!

Jack froze.

But Evangeline cried harder, shaking her head desperately:

I didn't... I was in the ward the whole night, I never left. I don't understand why she'd rather curse her own mother than stop framing me...

Jack pulled out his phone at once and called the duty station.

He asked whether any patient had needed emergency care last night.

A second later, the voice on the other end came through clearly:

Mr. Henson, it was quiet on the ward last night. No patient had any incident.

He hung up and looked at me with pure disgust.

Cicely, how can your heart be this poisonous? You'd curse your own mother just to frame Eva?

Since you don't want proper treatment, then take your mother and get outnow!

Then he dialed his bodyguard:

Take some men to the basement level and get Cicely's mother out of this hospital. Now!

No!

Panic hit me instantly.

Seeing I couldn't stop it, I turned to run back to the ward.

But he grabbed my wrist.

If you had the nerve to do it, you should pay the price. Your mother is about to be thrown out of this hospital, but before that, you're going to kneel and kowtow to Eva to apologize for what you just did.

I won't kneel!

I clenched my teeth and stared him down.

He didn't give me the chance to say anything.

He grabbed a fistful of my hair and forced my head down hard.

With a loud crack, my forehead slammed into the floor.

My scalp screamed where he pulled it, and blood came up on my forehead in an instant.

He held my head down and drove it into the floor, again and again.

Until all ten kowtows were done.

I lay collapsed on the ground, my heart gone to ash, no strength left in me at all.

Jack let go of me in revulsion and ordered the bodyguard beside him:

Drag her out. Throw her out of the hospital.

I didn't struggle anymore. Like a rag doll with no soul, I was dragged toward the exit.

My figure disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Jack held Evangeline close, ready to take her to have the bruising on her neck seen to.

He'd just reached the outpatient area when his phone suddenly rang.

When he answered, the bodyguard's trembling voice came through.

Mr. Henson, it's bad! The old lady, she... she's already dead. The doctor says she stopped breathing last night!

Jack's pupils shrank, and his heart dropped hard.

He hung up and immediately called the bodyguard who'd just taken me downstairs, a panic in his voice he didn't even notice himself:

Bring her back to me! Now!

But the words had barely left him when he heard a wave of screaming on the other end.

The bodyguard's voice shook so badly it was barely words:

Mr. Henson, it's too late...

I'd just gotten Mrs. Henson out of the hospital when she suddenly ran into the traffic like she'd lost her mind. Just now... right in front of me... a car hit her and sent her flying...