The Billionaire Regretted Losing His Invisible Wife novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Both Heartbeats

Willa wakes in hospital with both heartbeats alive, Stuart still believes the report, and Rosalind arrives with a packed suitcase.

I woke in a hospital bed with both hands already pressed against my stomach.

A doctor in green scrubs stood beside me, reading a screen.

"Don't move yet," she said. "You fell a full flight of stairs."

"The babies," I said.

"Two heartbeats," she said. "Both strong. You bruised every part of yourself except them."

I started to cry and could not stop.

She waited until I was done, then wrote something on her chart.

"You came in with a husband and a woman who said she was your sister," she said. "They're in the hall."

"She's my stepsister," I said. "Please don't let her in."

The doctor's pager went off before she could answer, and she left at a run.

The door opened a moment later.

Stuart came in first, still in his black suit with one cuff undone.

Celia walked half a step behind him, with her hand on his sleeve.

Her eyes were red, and her mascara had run.

Two nurses stopped at the foot of my bed to check the monitor and stayed.

"How are you feeling?" Stuart asked.

It was the first question he had asked me in three years that was not about a schedule.

"Ask the doctor," I said. "She just told me. Two heartbeats."

His face did not change.

"The doctor is the one who signed off on the fall," he said. "She said nothing about a pregnancy to me."

"Because you didn't ask her."

"Stuart," Celia said softly. "Let her rest. She's confused."

"I'm not confused," I said. "She pushed me."

The room went quiet.

Celia put her hand over her mouth.

"Willa," she whispered. "I was holding your coat. I reached for you. I couldn't catch you."

"Her hand was on my back."

"Because I was trying to steady you."

A tear ran down her chin.

Stuart turned to me, and for the first time that night his voice rose.

"Celia has been home for six hours," he said. "She came down those stairs after you and screamed for help. Don't you dare say that to her face."

"Your guests watched me fall," I said. "Ask any of them where she was standing."

"They were at the table," he said. "They were all at the table."

I had no answer to that.

Stuart took a long breath and spoke more quietly.

"I'm not going to argue with you in a hospital bed," he said. "Here is what's going to happen."

He put a single sheet of paper on the blanket by my knee.

"It's a statement that you slipped on the stairs by yourself. Sign it, and I'll pay for your care and add two hundred thousand to the settlement. You can leave tonight."

"Add to what? Clause nine ended the settlement."

"I'm not holding you to it," he said. "Take it, Willa. Take the money and stop."

I looked at the paper.

I looked at the nurses, who were both pretending to read the monitor.

Then I picked up the paper in both hands and tore it in half.

I tore the halves in half.

"I'm not signing that I fell," I said. "And I don't want your two hundred thousand."

"Then what do you want?"

"Bring me the contract."

He frowned.

"I want it ended in writing," I said. "Tonight. Your lawyer can type it in the lobby."

"You'll walk out with nothing."

"I'll walk out with my babies."

Celia sat down on the edge of my visitor's chair and cried into her hands.

Stuart looked at her, and then at me, and I watched him choose.

He took out his phone and called his lawyer.

It took very little time.

A man in a grey coat brought two copies to the bedside, and I signed both with an IV in my other arm.

Under my name Stuart signed his in one hard stroke.

"The contract is over," the lawyer said. "Mrs. Ashcroft receives nothing under clause nine."

"Willa Lothrop," I said. "I'm Willa Lothrop again."

Stuart did not answer.

He stood at the window with his back to the room, and I saw his reflection in the glass.

He was looking at my hands.

Celia stood up, smoothed her skirt and came to the bed.

"I'm so sorry it ended like this," she said, and kissed my forehead.

Her lips were cold.

She leaned close enough that only I could hear.

"He'll never look for you," she said. "He doesn't know how."

Then she put her arm through Stuart's and led him out.

I lay still until their steps were gone.

I was reaching for the call button when someone knocked, softly, twice.

The door opened and my stepmother stood there in her good wool coat, with my old green suitcase in her hand.

"Darling," Rosalind said. "Come home. I've already packed for you."

I had not called her.

Nobody had told her I was in the hospital.

It was after midnight, and the suitcase was zipped shut.

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