Nine Rejected Marriages, I Wed My Ex's Rival novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Corridor

The cardiac unit was on the ninth floor, and its corridor was bright and quiet.

Preston was already there, in a coat thrown over a sweatshirt, sitting on a bench with his elbows on his knees.

He looked up when the lift opened, and his eyes went to Weston first.

"They put a stent in," he said. "He's awake. He keeps asking if you're here."

"I'm here."

"He's been asking for an hour."

A doctor in green scrubs came out of the room, tired and polite.

"Two visitors at a time," she said. "Five minutes. He shouldn't excite himself."

"I'll wait," Claire said.

"Come in," Weston said. "Please."

The room was small and dim.

Thurston lay propped on pillows with a tube in his arm and a gray cast to his skin.

Without the suit he looked smaller.

His eyes went to Preston, then to Weston, then to the woman at the door.

"Mrs. Crane," he said. "I'm sorry to ruin your evening."

"You didn't."

"Liar." He almost smiled. "Good."

He turned his head on the pillow.

"Weston. Preston. I've had a great deal of time to think, lying here."

"It was an hour," said Preston.

"It was thirty-four years, and the last hour was the only time I did it honestly."

The monitor beeped on, steady and small.

"Preston," Thurston said. "I made you hate your brother so you wouldn't look at what I'd done. I told you he was a man who takes things. He never took a thing from you."

"I know," Preston said thickly.

"And you." Thurston's eyes found Weston. "I sent checks because I couldn't send myself. Your mother never asked for more than my name on the envelope, and I couldn't give her that."

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