I Married a Stranger to Ruin Them novel · Chapter 15 of 32

Chapter 15: That Night

"What night?" I said.

Tori smiled at me, a small tired smile with nothing behind it.

Then she put her sunglasses back on and walked to her car.

"What hospital?" Carrie said. "Were you in the hospital?"

"In January," I said. "My appendix."

I was already dialing my lawyer.

She picked up on the second ring.

"The email they fired me for," I said. "The leaked notes. What's the date on it? The exact time."

I heard her pulling a file.

"January twenty-second," she said. "Eleven fifty-two p.m."

I sat down on an overturned bucket.

Matt was beside me before I'd finished sitting.

"Alice?"

"At eleven fifty-two on January twenty-second," I said, "I was on an operating table at the hospital in Shadyside with a surgeon's hands in my stomach."

The shop was very quiet.

I could see it now.

The pain that started at dinner.

Ian driving me to the emergency room, checking his phone at every red light.

Ian kissing my forehead in the hallway at nine and saying he had a dinner with an investor he couldn't move.

Tori texting me at ten: get well soon, babe, I'm right here if you need anything.

They had both known exactly where I was.

They had both known I couldn't touch a laptop that night if my life depended on it.

"Can you prove where you were?" my lawyer asked.

"The hospital can."

"Records take weeks. Do you have anything with the date on it? Anything physical?"

I closed my eyes.

I'd kept a notebook in the hospital.

I always kept a notebook.

"I think so," I said.

Matt drove me to Lawrenceville that afternoon.

My first lab had been in the basement of an old brick building by the river, next to a tattoo shop and a bakery.

← Chapter 14 · All chapters · Chapter 16 →

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