"Honey, what's happening?" Alicia asked, taken aback.
"I'm okay," Jared replied. His words came out weak and unsteady, and even as he answered her, his consciousness was already slipping away.
Seeing him black out completely, Alicia sprinted over, dropped down beside him and reached for his shoulder, shaking him carefully but urgently. "Talk to me. What's wrong? Open your eyes."
Something felt seriously off, and she did not hesitate. She pulled out her phone and called for an ambulance right away.
Jared had collapsed because of a pneumothorax, and he was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
Alicia refused to leave his side for a whole night. While she was sitting beside the bed, his phone slid out of his suit pocket and landed near her feet.
She picked it up without thinking, and her breath caught. The lock screen showed a photo of her.
Alicia froze, shock washing over her.
Wasn't he only supposed to be a stand in?
Why would he keep a picture of her on his phone?
"What are you staring at?" Jared's sudden voice broke the silence.
The sound startled her so badly that she flinched. She quickly looked away and drew in a slow breath, forcing her racing heart to settle. "What would someone like me even be able to look at? Your phone fell on the floor."
She fumbled slightly as she stood, then quietly set the phone back on the table beside his bed.
After that, Alicia lowered herself into the chair beside Jared. "Baby, the doctor said you suffered a pneumothorax. When did this even happen? Why didn't I know anything about it?"
No reply came from Jared. He shifted instead, leaning slightly closer to her.
A sharp intensity settled in his gaze, like he was trying to see straight through her.
Alicia's chest tightened without warning.
Sweat gathered in her palms as her nerves spiked.
Did he notice something was wrong?
"Why are your hands so sweaty, baby?" Jared lifted his hand and brushed it against her skin, as if to wipe the moisture away.
The instant he touched her, Alicia jerked back, fear flashing across her face.
She rushed to cover it up. "It's probably just the heat. The room feels stuffy."
Jared studied her reaction closely, and a faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Anxiety churned inside Alicia, and she could not shake the feeling that he was testing her.
Without lingering, she reached for her cane and pushed herself to her feet. "Honey, I'll go look for a nurse."
Turning away, Alicia swept the cane carefully along the floor ahead of her, continuing the act as she moved forward, feeling her way like a blind person navigating the path.
Once Alicia vanished down the corridor, Jared slowly pulled his attention away from the doorway.
...
Alicia reached a quiet corner of the hospital.
A shaky hand pressed against her chest as she released a long, controlled breath.
No matter how hard she tried, the look in Jared's eyes kept replaying in her mind.
Right then, her phone buzzed in her hand.
The investigation she had quietly arranged earlier finally sent back results.
As she read through the message, fury flared in her eyes.
The man who had officially registered the marriage with her was Michael. Yet the groom standing beside her at the ceremony had been switched.
Everyone believed she had married a jobless man with nothing to his name.
Worse still, Michael had taken advantage of his position as her legal husband and transferred all of her assets away.
Alicia clenched her jaw and forced herself to stay calm while she continued scrolling through the file.
The name listed there was Jared Nelson. He was twenty-nine years old, homeless before moving in with her.
Both of his parents were deceased, and he had been raised by his aunt in Grarmont from a young age.
He dropped out of high school, later moved to Orefield to look for work, and after being deceived by a friend into taking on massive debt, he had ended up begging to survive.
Everything in the report painted Jared as someone who grew up with nothing, which made it seem like his connection to Michael was driven by money alone.
"Is that really all?" Alicia went over the file again and again, but nothing new surfaced.
Disappointment settled into her chest, slow and heavy.
Was it possible that he truly was just an ordinary man?
After deleting the data, Alicia tucked her phone away and turned back toward the hospital room.
She had barely taken a few steps when she collided with someone head on.
"Can you not see where you're walking? You just ran into me."
The sound of that voice made Alicia lift her head at once.
Standing in front of her were Kaelyn and her mother, Jennifer Gill, and what they were holding made Alicia freeze. It was a pregnancy test result.
"Alicia, I got pregnant. Looks like I got there first," Kaelyn said softly, satisfaction thick in her voice, even as her eyes burned with hostility. "You've been married to Michael for a whole month now, but there's still no baby news at all."
She deliberately slowed her words, savoring each one. "Or is it that Michael isn't exactly doing his part?"
A violent shiver ran through Alicia's body.
Her stomach twisted hard, and nausea surged up before she could steady herself.
Jennifer cut in sharply before turning her attention away. "Why waste your breath on her?"
Stepping closer, she wrapped an arm around Kaelyn, her expression soft with care. "Kaelyn, what do you feel like eating? I'll make whatever you want."
The warmth vanished the instant her eyes landed on Alicia. Disdain flashed across her face, and she pulled Kaelyn nearer, as though Alicia posed some kind of threat.
Pain spread through Alicia's chest.
Right then, Michael's voice cut through the tension. "Kaelyn."
He walked straight past Alicia without sparing her a glance and reached out to pull Kaelyn into his arms.
Something inside Alicia shook violently.
Jennifer and her husband had taken her in before she even turned two, back when they believed they could never have children.
Not long after that, Jennifer became pregnant with Kaelyn.
From then on, she understood where she stood and never once allowed herself to want more.
Still, she never imagined Jennifer would treat her like a stranger, or worse, stand by while Kaelyn took Michael from her.
A metallic bitterness filled Alicia's mouth as her heart felt like it was being ripped apart piece by piece.
Everything she believed in, her love and the family she clung to, collapsed in that moment.
It had all been a lie.