Chapter 1200

After five years of marriage, Claire suddenly realized she didn’t understand Felix Quigley in the slightest.

But then again, she no longer cared to.

Without a second thought, she tossed the cufflinks straight into the trash can.

Some things were meant to be discarded a long time ago. And she wasn’t just talking about the jewelry.

About an hour after his arrival in the recovery ward, Felix spiked a fever.

The nurse assured her it was a standard post-operative reaction and simply instructed her to monitor his temperature regularly. Claire dutifully obliged.

But as she reached to check his temperature for the third time, Felix’s hand suddenly clamped around her wrist.

Frowning, she tried to pull away.

Instead, his grip tightened fiercely, his feverish muttering growing louder.

“Don’t go.”

“Claire, don’t leave.”

He wasn’t awake; he was completely trapped in a nightmare.

Clearly, whatever was playing out in his mind involved her, driving him to frantically chant her name.

But as his panicked mumbling dragged on, the name morphed into someone else entirely.

“Don’t jump! Melanie, don’t jump!”

Melanie?

That must have been the name of his tragic first love. Felix’s face twisted into an expression of agonizing grief.

Claire had zero interest in his romantic history; she just wanted her damn hand back.

But without warning, the man on the bed yanked her arm with surprising force. Caught off guard, she stumbled forward, crashing onto the mattress right beside him.

He instantly wrapped his arm around her. His raspy voice cut clearly through the quiet room.

“Claire, let’s not get a divorce. Please?”

“Let’s stay married.”

Even though she knew he couldn’t hear her, Claire answered with absolute, unyielding finality. “No.”

She shoved his arm off and pulled herself upright.

By the third hour post-surgery, Felix finally opened his eyes.

The exact second consciousness returned, he didn’t check the agonizing throb of his freshly sutured arm. Instead, driven by pure instinct, he violently jerked his hand up to stare at his palm.

It was completely empty.

“My cufflinks…” His voice was wrecked, scraping out of his throat like rusted metal.

Claire remained seated in the chair beside the bed. Only when his frantic gaze finally landed on her did she reply, “I didn’t see them.”

Felix froze.

The heart monitor hitched, its steady beeping accelerating into a rapid, frantic rhythm.

He tried to push himself up. The motion violently tore at his stitches, cold sweat instantly beading on his forehead, bure ignored the blinding pain. He just kept stubbornly repeating himself.

“That’s impossible… I vividly remember grabbing them right before the crash. I had them in my hand. I caught them, Claire. I was holding them so tightly.”

“How could you not see them? Did they drop in the ambulance? Or the operating room?”

He sounded utterly desperate—a pathetic, pleading tone he had never once used with her before.

“I have no idea,” Claire said, her voice

dea,

completely devoid of emotion. “Next time, don’t risk your neck over something so trivial. You only get one life and you’re the last living member of the Quigley family. Try not to forget that.”

Felix slowly unclenched his trembling fingers, letting his arm drop limply onto the stark white sheets.

Something trivial?

Then why did it feel like a gaping hole had just been ripped straight through his chest, as if he had lost the most vital piece of his soul?

A nurse pushed the door open. Seeing Felix awake, she quickly checked the monitors and jotted down his vitals.

Claire immediately stood up and walked over, asking the nurse a barrage of highly detailed medical questions.

She looked exactly like a devoted, fiercely concerned wife.

Felix slowly eased himself back against the pillows, his gaze anchored entirely on Claire.

A sudden, desperate spark of hope ignited in the dead ashes of his heart.

The fact that she was even here meant she still cared about him, right?

Why else would she stand vigil by his bedside?

Why else would she interrogate the nurse about his condition?

Didn’t all of this prove that she still held a place for him in her heart? Even if it was just a tiny fraction…

But Claire’s next words shattered his fragile illusion into a million jagged pieces.