“The doctor said your fifth rib was too badly damaged. It could only be replaced with a titanium one.”
“This next stretch is the adjustment period. If your chest hurts, you tell me. Don’t you dare grit your teeth and bear it. I’m sorry. I didn’t protect you well enough.”
If I hadn’t heard those words with my own ears, I probably would have done what I always did, sinking into this counterfeit tenderness.
But I knew the faint bruised shadows under her eyes right now.
They hadn’t been earned staying up for me.
I slid my hand free without a word and opened the dial screen.
The moment Ursula saw the three numbers I’d typed, her face changed.
“You’re calling the police? To arrest who?”
I lifted my head, my voice even.
“The one who shoved me down the stairs and turned my rib into a guitar pick.”
Ursula seized my hand, her eyes sharp.
“Have you lost your mind? Aaron’s concert is a week away. How can you have the heart to ruin his future?”
My wrist ached under her grip. I looked at her.
“So I just deserved to have my career destroyed by you people?”
“Ursula, stop the act. Anesthesia takes time to fully kick in. I heard everything.”
Ursula froze for a beat, a flush of guilt rising in her face.
I didn’t deal with her. I used my other hand to place the call.
“Hello, I’d like to report a crime…”
Before I could finish, Ursula tore the phone away and smashed it to pieces.
Her eyes blazed as she jabbed a finger at me.
“Thomas, you’re just sore that Aaron kissed me. I already told you. He studied abroad for years. It’s normal for him to be a little more open about how he greets people.”
“If you hadn’t been so petty and thrown your drink at him, he wouldn’t have pushed you. He who provokes first pays for it, don’t you get that? This was always the compensation you owed him!”
Watching her stand there so righteous, I suddenly laughed.
“I’ve never heard of a single country whose etiquette involves tongue-kissing another man’s fiancée.”
“Or is it that you just enjoyed it? Fine. Then let’s break up.”
Five years together, and this was the first time I’d ever said the words.
Ursula’s expression stiffened, then she let out a scornful snort.
“Break up? Don’t make me laugh, Thomas. You became a private-jet captain because it put you close to rich people, so you could land yourself a golden goose and fill that bottomless pit of a family, didn’t you?”
“I already agreed to marry you. Who exactly are you putting on this self-made act for? Quit playing hard to get!”
I stared at her in disbelief.
It was true. I’d joined the private-jet charter company because the pay was better.
That was because my family was buried in debt, and I had to earn more.
But I never knew this was how Ursula saw me.
No longer the person who, when she confessed to me, said she’d been drawn to the way I fought and worked for everything.
Ursula glanced at her phone.
“Aaron wakes up in half an hour, and I need to bring him breakfast. If you’re hungry, have the nurse send up a patient meal.”
At the door, as if remembering something, she turned to look at me.
“Thomas, don’t forget. Last year your father racked up another million in gambling debts and got stabbed, badly. I called in a specialist overnight, saved his life, and paid off his debts.”
“And it was your parents who signed off on the surgery, because your brother wanted a wedding house in the city and came to me for two million. That much money, all for a single rib of yours. You made out like a bandit.”
“Be good. Don’t stir up trouble. At the end of the month I’ll still marry you as planned. But if you still want to call the police, I won’t stop you. Just give me back your father’s life and my money.”
The door swung shut in front of me.
I collapsed against the bed, buried my face in my hands, and laughed at myself.
So in her heart, our love, my career, my body, all of it was just a transaction to be measured in money.
But money could maybe be paid back. A life couldn’t.
