The Bride He Replaced novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Scan

The clinic waiting room had a fish tank and a row of women in chairs.

I checked in at the desk with Bea beside me.

"Hannah Draycott, ten o'clock," I said. "I filled out the form online. It says who is allowed in the room with me."

The receptionist found my name.

"One person," she said. "Bea Moran."

"That's right. No one else, under any circumstances."

She looked at me a beat longer than she needed to.

She had seen the video, and she kept her eyes carefully on my face.

"Understood," she said.

At five past ten the door opened, and Miles came in with Camilla on his arm.

He wore a grey suit and an easy, worried face.

Camilla wore a cream cardigan and carried two paper cups.

Every woman in the waiting room watched them cross the floor.

"Han," Miles said, softly, so the room could hear how soft he was being. "We came as soon as we could."

"I told you not to."

"You never answered my text. I'm assuming that's shock."

"It's not shock. It's no."

Camilla stepped forward and held out a cup.

"Ginger tea, no honey, with the lemon on the side," she said. "I called the shop on the way. Here, sit down."

It was exactly the way I took it.

I had made a hundred cups of tea for her in eleven years, and she had made one for me every day since the test came back positive.

Bea took the cup out of Camilla's hand and set it on the fish tank ledge.

"She's not thirsty," she said.

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