His First Love, My Last Goodbye novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: The Question
He found her awake in the big bedroom, propped on his pillows with a book she wasn't reading.
"Matt!" Clarissa held out a hand. "You were gone so long. I was getting worried."
"Where is your chart?"
Her hand stayed in the air.
"I'm sorry?"
"Your biopsy. Your oncologist's note. Your scans." He stood in the door with his coat still on. "I should have asked for them the first night. I'm asking now."
"Matt, it's midnight."
"It's six in the morning in Vienna. Give me the name of the clinic and I'll call them myself."
For the first time since the airport, her face did not arrange itself.
It went blank.
Then the tears came, perfectly, and she put both hands over her face.
"I told you I didn't want rooms like that," she whispered. "Don't make me prove I'm dying. What kind of man asks for proof?"
"The kind who's married to a nurse."
"Clarissa." He kept his voice flat and low. "On Saturday morning you found a card in my wife's cardigan."
The sobbing stopped.
It didn't taper.
It stopped.
She lowered her hands and looked at him over her fingertips.
Her eyes were dry and gray and entirely awake.
"She told you," she said.
"The chart told me."
"Of course it did." Clarissa pushed the book off the bed and sat up straight. "I was going to tell you myself."
"For eleven days."
"She asked me not to."
"She didn't ask you for anything. She wanted to be left alone."
He heard his own voice shake, and steadied it. "You knew she was sick, and you sat at my table. You let me tell her to be kind."
"What was I supposed to do?"
The silk voice had gone thin and bright, and for a second he heard what was under it. "She didn't tell you because she knew you'd choose me."
Keep reading free with an account. Start His First Love, My Last Goodbye from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 11 · All chapters · Chapter 13 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend