Chapter 184
[ 494 words ]
Chapter 184:
Caroline reached down and carefully lifted the small animal onto the bed. It curled up against her side and pressed its warm body against her ribs.
Caroline turned her head and buried her face in the dog’s fur. A single, hot tear slipped out of the corner of her eye and soaked into the pillow. She lay there, trembling, and watched the digital clock on the nightstand slowly tick toward dawn.
The next day at noon, the hospital cafeteria was a chaotic sea of noise. Nurses and doctors rushed around with plastic trays, shouting over the clatter of silverware.
Caroline sat at a small table in the far corner. She was staring blankly at a bowl of wilted salad, mechanically stabbing a cherry tomato with her plastic fork.
Her skin was pale. The dark, bruised circles under her eyes were impossible to hide.
Brenna slammed her tray down on the table and slid into the chair opposite Caroline.
𝗤𝗎𝘢𝗹𝗂𝘁y 𝗍ra𝗇𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘁𝗂𝗼𝗇ѕ o𝘯 𝘨𝘢l𝗇o𝘷𝗲𝗹𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺
Brenna leaned forward, her eyes narrowing as she scrutinized Caroline’s face.
“You look like a corpse,” Brenna stated bluntly. “Did you sleep at all last night? Is this about the HR meeting? I heard Eva Rostova requested an emergency transfer to the surgical ward this morning, looking like she’d seen a ghost.”
Caroline blinked, her brain struggling to pull itself out of the dark, terrifying warzone it had been trapped in all night.
She looked at Brenna. She couldn’t tell her best friend that she was having a nervous breakdown because her billionaire, black-ops husband was currently missing in action.
Caroline dropped her fork. She rubbed her temples, forcing her face into an expression of intense, civilian annoyance.
“It’s not work,” Caroline lied, her voice raspy. “It’s my mother.”
Brenna rolled her eyes. “What did she do now?”
“She tried to set me up on a blind date,” Caroline fabricated, her voice tight with manufactured stress. “With a guy from high school. The one who used to follow me home. She doesn’t believe he was a creep, and I spent the entire night on the phone arguing with her, trying to make her cancel it. It was a complete nightmare.”
Brenna snorted, taking a bite of her sandwich. “That sounds exactly like your mother. Just tell her you have to work.”
Brenna paused, chewing slowly. She pointed her fork at Caroline.
“But wait,” Brenna said, her eyes narrowing with sudden suspicion. “If you are so stressed out about a date, why did you agree to go out with Julian this weekend?”
Caroline’s heart skipped a beat. The lie had backed her into a corner.
“That’s different,” Caroline said quickly, her palms starting to sweat. “Julian and I are just friends. It’s just lunch. And I need to take the dog somewhere with an outdoor patio.”
Brenna let out a loud, mocking laugh.
“Caroline, please,” Brenna scoffed. “The entire ER knows Julian is obsessed with you. You are playing with fire.”
While Caroline sat in the cafeteria, desperately trying to hold her fragile lies together, a very different scene was unfolding inside the penthouse.
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