A 12-Year Love Turned to Nothing Chapter 07
After apologizing to the hospital director, Chase hung up the phone, his expression darkening.
He pulled the still-sniffling Alice tight against him and looked at me with pure disappointment.
“Nora, I don’t even recognize you anymore.
“How did you turn this vicious? Putting your own mother up to faking her death just to frame Alice-how could you even think of something so twisted?
“Playing games with death like that-aren’t you afraid it’ll come back on you? That you’ll actually curse your own mother into an early grave?”
Alice cut a glance at me from the corner of her eye, the ghost of a triumphant smile tugging at her lips.
My best friend, Olivia, stood with her arms crossed, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
In that moment, none of it mattered anymore-not proving myself right against Alice, not getting Chase to believe me. All I wanted to know was where my mother’s body had gone.
My mother’s attending physician, Dr. Musk, was a man of real integrity, the kind who genuinely cared about his patients. There was no way Alice and Olivia could have bribed him.
If Dr. Musk had sworn my mother was dead, then she really had died. And yet, the hospital couldn’t produce her body.
I glared at Olivia and Alice with pure hatred. If I’d had the strength to even stand up, I would have thrown myself at both of them and taken us all down together.
They wouldn’t even leave a dead woman alone. They must have stolen my mother’s body.
I grabbed the wooden tissue box off the nightstand and hurled it at Alice with a snarl. “You filthy liar! My mother is dead, and you’re so desperate to smear my name that you’d even defile her body? Aren’t you afraid of what’s coming to you? Give my mother back!”
Chase’s hand shot out, quick as lightning, and he caught the box bare-handed before it could hit Alice in the head.
The wood was hard, and the corners were sharp. The back of his hand swelled up instantly where it struck.
He planted himself in front of Alice, and whatever warmth had still been left in his eyes for me drained away, leaving nothing but a cold, cutting chill.
“Enough! Nora, even now, you’re still trying to smear Alice’s name. Do you really think I’d believe you?
“For the sake of what we used to have, I won’t report you for hurting Alice. But if there’s a next time, I will make sure you go to prison.
“I’ll keep sending you money every month for your mother’s medical bills. But I don’t want to see you again after this. I don’t want to upset my lawful wife.”
Alice let out a dissatisfied little mutter. “Babe, you work so hard for your money. I don’t want you footing some stranger’s medical bills.”
Olivia chimed in to back her up. “Chase, Alice’s just worried you’re too trusting and people are taking advantage of you. Honestly, Nora’s mom was never even that sick. She’s just been milking you for medical expenses every month to line her own pockets!”
Chase shot me a look thick with conflicting emotion, then quickly looked away.
“Whatever else is true, she stayed with me for twelve years, through everything, from nothing to everything I have now.
“Nora, consider Gina’s medical bills my way of settling things. After this, we don’t owe each other anything.”
The door swung shut.
I lay alone on the hospital bed, sobbing one moment, laughing the next.
‘Chase, you absolute bastard. What good is your money to me? My mother’s already gone. I have no use for your filthy money.’
