"I'm feeling much better now. Yesterday was so touch-and-go, I really owe it all to you, Dr. Simmons. I haven't even had the chance to thank you properly."
"The moment I woke up, I had a banner made to show my gratitude. I hope you won't think it's too much."
I smiled, but my gaze drifted to their interlocked hands.
On Maxwell's finger, which had always been bare, sat a ring identical to Olivia's. An unusual, distinctive design.
Noticing where I was looking, Olivia twisted the ring on her finger, her voice brimming with pride.
"My husband designed these himself. They're one of a kind. The only pair in the world."
"A little ugly, maybe, but I love them."
I dropped my gaze quickly, swallowing the storm rising behind my eyes.
The day after our wedding, Maxwell had taken off the ring I'd had specially commissioned by a master jeweler. I watched him seal it in its box and shove it into the back of a drawer, never to see the light of day again.
"Why won't you wear it?"
He'd frowned and shaken his head.
"It's too expensive. If I lost it, that would be a shame."
I hadn't said another word. I just quietly slipped off my own ring and tossed it onto the nightstand.
At home, Maxwell's ring finger had always been empty.
Now it wore a band that wasn't going anywhere.
So in front of me, he couldn't even be bothered to pretend.
The baby slept peacefully in a bassinet nearby. Even at this age, the resemblance to Maxwell was unmistakable in the curve of her brows and the set of her tiny features.
As she shifted in her sleep, a jade pendant slipped free from beneath her collar. The stone was luminous, its quality obvious at a glance.
It was the gemstone cut from the rough stone at our wedding, the one that had been unveiled as a lucky charm for the occasion. Now it had been carved into an ordinary pendant and hung around the neck of Maxwell's daughter.
Something hollow opened up inside my chest. Whatever had once been there, I'd already carved it out myself.
Olivia's sugary voice floated up from behind me.
"Babe, I'm a little hungry. Could you go grab me some breakfast?"
Maxwell hesitated, rooted to the spot.
"I don't feel right leaving you here alone."
Olivia waved him off and glanced my way.
"Relax. Dr. Simmons is right here. Nothing's going to happen."
Only after I nodded did Maxwell finally turn and leave.
The door opened and closed. The room fell quiet.
I couldn't help the bitter curl at the corner of my mouth.
"You and Mr. Delgado certainly have a wonderful relationship."
Olivia pulled Maxwell's jacket tighter around her shoulders and propped herself up in bed.
"Maxwell and I both came from a small town. When you're two people out in the world on your own, you learn to lean on each other."
"Luckily, he's ambitious. He worked hard and built his own company from the ground up."
"If it weren't for that impossible investor breathing down his neck, he'd already be one of the top names in the industry by now."
I raised an eyebrow. A slow heat kindled in my chest.
Maxwell's company, from its initial registration to every round of funding, had been built step by step under my father's guidance. And the biggest investor? Also my father.
Back then, Maxwell had refused a position at Simmons Group, insisting he'd provide me a comfortable life with his own two hands.
But his business instincts were painfully mediocre. The company had been hemorrhaging money for two years straight, and it was my father who'd been quietly covering the losses behind the scenes, all for my sake.
Yet in Maxwell's version of the story, my father was the difficult investor making his life miserable.
An ungrateful snake. That's what he was.
A knock came at the door. Someone stepped in carrying a red banner.
At some point, Olivia had already gotten out of bed and settled into a wheelchair that had been waiting beside it.
