Chasing His Rejected Wife
Chapter 74 -

Jessica

He had his back to us and had on a wide and long gray overcoat, but I had spent countless times in the past staring at that back, so I would recognize him anywhere.

Alarm bells went off in my head, and my pulse sped up until it felt like I could my blood pounding in my ears, but I stood rooted on the spot, my eyes unable to tear themselves from him, even as one part of my brain screamed at me to run away before he turned around and saw me.

My body, however, wasn't in agreement and I continued to stand there, staring, my mind curiously falling into silence. In front of me, Anna had walked a few steps forward before she finally realized I wasn't following behind. She stopped and turned to shoot me a puzzled look, her eyes widening when she noticed I had gone white as a sheet.

She hurried back, slipping her arm through mine, fingers encircling my upper arm as she gave me a little nudge. "Jess? What's the matter? Are you ill?"

I snapped out of my paralysis then, though Anna's voice sounded like it was coming out the end of a long tunnel, faint and muffled in my ringing ears. My chest felt tight, like something or someone was squeezing the life out of me and I brought a hand to my chest, mouth falling open in a desperate gasp for air.

"Fuck! Jess? Jess?" Anna cried out, as I swayed, my body sagging against her smaller one. She cried out again, her arms grasping my waist as I slumped against her and we both staggered, she from the unexpected weight and me from losing feeling in my legs.

My vision faded and spots swam before my eyes. I could barely hear anything over the loud ringing in my ears, but I could faintly hear Anna cry out for help, even as she tried to lower me to the ground safely.

Dimly, I wondered what was happening to me and why now, just after spotting Aiden, but that was the last thought I had as darkness swarmed over me.

I woke to the faint sound of raised voices. Opening my eyes sent a sharp, painful streak of light into them, making me wince and tried to raise my hand to shield my eyes, but my arm felt heavy and uncooperative and I only managed a few inches before it flopped back uselessly. So I lay there, helpless, trying to figure out where I was and why...but the loud voices started up again and this time, the voices became distinguishable.

"You don't listen, do you?" I frowned at the bile in Anna's tone as she berated someone. "Maybe now, you'll get it into your thick skull that you're poison to her."

"I know."

My eyes widened at the sound of Aiden's voice and suddenly, the events of the past - how many minutes had it been? - flooded into my head. I struggled to sit up, fighting my weak limbs

"It's my fault," Aiden continued and I was caught off guard by the bitterness and guilt in those three words. "I should have stayed away, but I just wanted to make sure Jessica and the babies were alright."

"She was doing better until you showed up!" Anna hissed, sounding not in the least bit moved by his admission of guilt. "Couldn't you have at least waited until we were gone? You could have called instead, but no...." she dragged out the last vowel in derision. "You had to show your face and make her have a panic attack. Do you know what that means, Aiden? It means she's been so traumatized by you that her brain goes into hysterics rather than deal with your bullshit." I let out a soft sigh and shut my eyes, tired. A panic attack triggered by seeing Aiden? The whole thing struck me as improbable and made my heart hurt a little. Has it really come to this? "Easy on the swearing, okay? There are other patients here." A new voice warned softly. Vincent.

"Besides, we can't say he's the cause of her going into shock." He added, "Her sugar levels are abnormally high, and the body reacted to an increase in stress. So that's the likely culprit."

"It doesn't matter, he still needs to leave before she wakes up. I don't want a repeat episode. I'll give you my number and I can promise to send you updates every week, but for fuc... ugh...just stay away."

"Thank you." Aiden replied, "I'll wait outside, at least until she wakes up, then I'll leave."

"I'll let you know when she does, bro," Vincent assured him.

Aiden must have left because Anna blew out an exasperated breath. "I wanna punch him so badly for hurting Jess."

"Come on, don't you think you're being too harsh?" Vincent asked mildly and Anna must have given him one of her famous death glares because he hastened to add, "Look, I'm not trying to defend or absolve Aiden of blame, but at least look at the situation from his point of view."

"What he did was cowardly and hurt my friend twice over - the first time when she had to suffer watching him flaunt that bit...woman around. Do you know how humiliating it is to replace out your husband faked an affair to get out of your marriage?"

"Yeah, that was a shitty move and I am disappointed in Aiden about that. I genuinely believed that he and Eli -"

"Don't mention her name here!" Anna cut in coldly. "Look, I don't care if he was wronged or whatever, I think he's despicable and I don't want him around Jess if I can help it. At least, until she's moved past all this. So, do me a favor and keep your friend in check."

Vincent heaved a sigh. "Fine. Let me go check on her."

I stiffened as footsteps approached and seconds later, Vincent walked through the door. He paused, surprised to replace me awake and propped up on the pillows.

"This feels like deja vu," he grinned and came towards my bed, tugging loose the stethoscope draped around his neck. "Hey again."

"Did I... did I really have a panic attack?" I asked, my voice coming out hoarse.

A guilty look flashed across his face and he sighed. "You heard, hmm?"

I nodded and drew my legs close to prop my chin on my knees. "I don't know why I reacted that way," I confessed. "I guess I was just...scared."

Vincent propped himself on the bed and regarded me solemnly. "Jess, I'm sure you must have also heard me say it was due to hypoglycemia. I'm sure Dr. Strand must have told you earlier that your sugar levels are high?" "She did, but -"

He leaned over and took my hand, giving it a light squeeze. "Hey, hey, don't get worked up and start blaming yourself. The last thing you need right now is any form of stress and the priority is getting your sugar under control."

I swallowed all I wanted to say, my shoulders falling as I nodded again. "Can I talk to Anna?"

"Sure, let me just give you a quick look over first."

Once he was done, he left and Anna hurried in. She came to my bedside and pulled me into a hug. "Don't ever do that to me again. You made me age ten years in a minute."

I melted into her embrace, tears swimming in my eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

Anna patted my back and pulled away, her own eyes damp. "That's fine. Just make sure you give me some warning next time you want me to carry you, alright." Her eyes twinkled merrily and she flexed her arms, "I guess this is my sign to hit the gym again."

I smiled and tossed my pillow at her head. "Shut up."

"Oh, someone's feeling much better if they've resorted to violence," she exclaimed and tossed the pillow right back. I caught it, hugged it to my body, and let out a sigh.

"Looks like I have to stay here for a while," I told her, mournfully.

She patted my shoulder in sympathy. "Sucks, but it's only for an extra day."

"Mmn. I heard what you said to Aiden." I hugged the pillow tighter and kept my eyes down.

She groaned and rubbed at her eyes. "Yeah, I may have lost my temper there for a bit." she admitted ruefully. "He looked pretty shaken after seeing you in that condition, and now that I think about it, he didn't look all that great either." "What do you mean?" I frowned and leaned forward.

"He looked less... I dunno, less put together. Not that it was immediately obvious, I mean to a stranger he still looks like some uber-rich, upper-class asshole in a hideously expensive suit. But it was the subtle hints that gave it away." "Oh." I hadn't seen him up close, but I knew Anna was a good judge of people's appearances and for a minute, I worried about him. Had he found a way to sort out the problems at the company? He'd mentioned having a plan, but I knew it wasn't an easy task he had ahead of him.

"You must be starving. Let me see if I can rustle up something to eat."

Alone once more, I sat there, lost in thought. Then I looked around for my phone, replaceing it on the side table. I moved quickly, before my mind could develop second thoughts and typed out a few words and hit send before I chickened out. Me: It's not your fault.

I sat nervously waiting for a reply, trying not to bite my nails. The response came almost immediately.

Ex: Are you okay?

Me: Yes.

Ex: Good. I'm glad.

Ex: I'm sorry I hurt you.

Before I could reply, Anna came back in so I hurriedly switched out of the chat window.