Chapter 1 - With His WifeAllison Hale walked into St. Vincent Private Hospital carrying a brown insulated lunch bag against her hip.
Inside was rosemary chicken, lemon rice, and the cinnamon apple slices Derek always stole before touching anything else.
She had made the meal at six that morning after catching the first flight home from Boston.
Derek had been admitted the previous night after another episode of rapid heartbeat. The doctors had assured Allison over the phone that he was stable, but she had barely slept.
Derek had told her not to rush back.
“I’ll probably be discharged tomorrow,” he had said. “Finish the property meeting. I’m fine.”
Allison had ignored him.
She wanted to surprise her husband.
At the nurses’ station, a young nurse with KEIRA BENTON printed on her badge looked up and smiled.
“Can I help you?”
“Excuse me, do you know where Derek Hale is?”
Keira glanced toward her screen.
“Mr. Hale? Yes. He’s in a private room with his wife.”
Allison’s smile vanished.
For a second, she wondered whether she had misheard.
“With… his wife?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
Keira’s expression remained friendly.
“I’m sure.”
Allison didn’t move.
Keira continued, unaware of what was happening.
“His wife comes here all the time, so I know her.”
Allison’s fingers tightened around the lunch-bag handle.
The paper underneath the insulated lining crinkled softly.
“I’m Derek’s wife.”
Keira froze.
Her eyes widened.
Her lips parted, but nothing came out.
Then her gaze moved instinctively toward the private-room corridor.
That glance told Allison everything she needed to know.
Not what was happening.
But that something was.
“Which room?”
“Mrs. Hale, I—”
“Which room?”
Keira swallowed.
“Four-seventeen.”
Allison nodded once.
No tears.
No shouting.
She turned.
Her heels struck the polished floor in quick, measured steps.
She did not call Derek.
She did not text him.
She did not call Camille, her twenty-seven-year-old younger sister, who had sent Allison a message that morning asking whether Derek was okay.
That thought made Allison slow for half a second.
Camille had known he was here.
Of course she had known.
Allison kept walking.
Room 417 appeared at the end of the corridor.
Beside the door was a physical nameplate.
DEREK HALE.
Her husband.
Nine years of marriage.
A mortgage.
Shared vacations.
Thousands of quiet mornings.
Arguments about towels on the bathroom floor.
The way he always touched the small of her back when crossing a busy street.
The way he had held her at her father’s funeral three years earlier and whispered, You still have me.
Allison looked at the handle.
Her breathing deepened.
Then she opened the door.
The first thing she saw was Derek.
He was seated in the large chair beside the hospital bed, wearing gray sweatpants and a hospital T-shirt.
The second thing she saw stopped her heart.
Camille was sitting directly on his lap.
Not beside him.
Not leaning over him.
On him.
Her younger sister’s arm rested loosely near Derek’s shoulder.
Their faces were close.
Comfortable.
Familiar.
Camille turned toward the door.
Derek looked up.
Allison’s lunch bag slowly lowered beside her leg.
Camille’s eyes widened.
Derek’s shoulders went rigid.
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Allison stared at her sister.
Not her husband.
Her sister.
The little girl who used to crawl into Allison’s bed during thunderstorms.
The teenager Allison had taught to drive.
The woman Allison had loaned money to when her design company nearly collapsed.
The last person Allison had expected to find in her husband’s arms.
Recognition became disbelief.
Disbelief became pain.
And pain burned into fury.
“CAMILLE?!”
Camille jumped off Derek’s lap.
She stumbled backward one step.
Her face turned pale.
Derek stood.
“Allison—”
Allison barely looked at him.
Her eyes remained locked on Camille.
Camille opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Then Allison noticed something on the small table beside Derek.
A cream-colored folder.
Stamped in dark blue across the top were four words she knew better than almost anyone:
GRANT MEDICAL PROPERTIES LLC.
Her father’s company.
Her company now.
And Derek’s hand moved immediately toward it.
Allison saw him.
She saw the folder.
May you like
And in that instant, the betrayal in the room became bigger than an affair.
“What,” Allison whispered, “is that doing here?”
Related Stories
