He Left Me Broken, Now He Wants Me Back novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Seven Days
On day seven of her rehab stay, Jo plays cards when Graham storms in, demanding to know why she lied. She ends it in front of the ward, and he takes Daphne's call in the corridor and says Jo never leaves.
The old man across from me dealt the cards on the rehab ward's game table and said, "Your move, Madam Chair."
The man with the rebuilt shoulder snorted.
"He calls everyone that," I told the table. "Whoever's winning."
I was not winning.
My left leg was propped on a pillow in a cast to the knee, and the cards in my hand were garbage.
It was day seven on the rehab ward, and I had not told one person from my real life where I was.
My phone buzzed on the table. The screen said Graham.
I picked it up and turned my chair toward the window.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"Out of town. A client had an emergency. I told you."
"You told me Tuesday. It's Thursday."
"Clients have long emergencies."
The old man cleared his throat and said, "Jo, look up."
I looked up.
Graham stood in the doorway in dark blue scrubs, his phone still at his ear, his jaw tight.
He crossed the ward in six strides and stopped at the foot of my bed.
"Your surgeon is on the Lakefront staff," he said. "He called me this morning to say my girlfriend was on his ward with a broken tibia."
I had given the hospital no one's name. Someone had seen my chart and made a call.
"You broke your leg and I heard it from a stranger," Graham said. "Why did you lie to me?"
"You're busy," I said. "You've told me often enough that I started believing it."
The other players put down their cards and left the table one at a time. Arthur Dunleavy went last, slowly, with his walker clicking.
A card slid off the bed. Graham picked it up and set it on the blanket by my hand.
"You're still angry about the dinner," he said.
He had the face he used when a conversation was over and he hadn't finished it.
"I didn't plan to leave. A patient needed me. How long are you going to punish me for it?"
Seven days ago was our second anniversary.
I booked Aldine twelve days ahead, because that's how far ahead Graham's calendar opens.
We had been seated for four minutes. The bread had come.
His phone lit up and he stood and said, "I have to go."
I told the waiter to cancel the table and charge us the cancellation fee anyway.
Forty minutes later I opened Instagram and saw Daphne Roarke's photo from the gala she was hosting at the Drake.
In the corner of the frame was a man's wrist, and on the wrist was the watch I'd picked out for Graham that morning.
I was still looking at it when I missed a step on the Riverwalk stairs.
A stranger called the ambulance. By the time I'd been through the ER and surgery, it was almost eleven.
That was when Graham called and said, "I'm home. Where are you?"
I asked him if he had gone to see Daphne.
"Her back went out at the event," he said. "I couldn't walk away."
Her back had gone out at the dentist's in April, the week of my birthday dinner.
Her back had gone out in June, in the middle of a movie we were watching on his couch.
Every time, there was a reason he had to go.
I had said nothing then. I lay in a hospital bed and said nothing again.
Now he stood at the end of that bed in scrubs and waited for me to be sorry.
"Graham," I said. "We're done."
He almost smiled.
"Jo. You're tired and you're on painkillers."
"I'm not on anything. I'm done."
"Fine. Be done. We'll talk when you're home and your head is clear."
His phone rang in his hand.
He looked at the screen and his whole face changed. It softened.
"I have to take this," he said, and walked out into the corridor.
He didn't close the door.
I heard him say, "Hey. No, I'm here. She's fine. She's sulking."
A pause.
"She won't leave, Daph. She never does."
Then footsteps, and then nothing at all.
A nurse came in a minute later with a clipboard and said, "Your emergency contact form, hon. Is Dr. Ellery still the right name?"
I took the pen.
I crossed out Graham Ellery and wrote Arthur Dunleavy's name in the box, and Arthur's number, which I knew by heart.
My phone buzzed on the blanket.
Saturday. Lakefront gala at the Drake. The chief names the Institute finalists and I need you there. I'll send a car at six. Wear the blue.
He hadn't heard me say it.
I put the phone face down on the card table.
Arthur had come back, as I knew he would, and lowered himself into his chair with the cards already in his hand.
"I'm going Saturday as well," he said. "You turned down my invitation three weeks ago."
"I had plans," I said.
"And now?"
I picked up my hand.
"What time are you picking me up?"
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