Divorcing the Heiress by Mistake

t Con

ia's

with a glance-a quiet and a lingering look into the eyes

e called him friend, lover and family. And m

painful. He lay in that stark white hospital room, machines beepi

ted and feared. Now b

, I do walked past Williams' room. It wasn't curiosity that mad

out the window like he was wait

had lost everything li

t to deliver flowers-leftovers from my father's bouquet tha

as if I were anothe

the window op

e. But I opened it anywa

could be called that at all. I'd greet him quiet

st listened to the rustle of the IV l

e day,

always

suse, but clear. I looked

" I asked, of

dn't

t ask f

ined unconscious too, caught in his silent war between life and d

es-about the book I was reading, or the odd nurse who always wore mismatched socks. Occasi

I wasn

ared the connection migh

I brought him

I set the pieces between

r a long time before reac

hen I guess

d in silence and sometimes he b

ff from months of disuse, but I notic

Like everything in him r

made on the boar

led everything-only to lose it

he asked one day, his to

, my fingers hove

t bothe

underst

and perfection, still bore traces of the man he had been. Cheekbo

had been replaced w

"because you remind me tha

bli

ed my

he

his silence hurt more than my father's lifelessness. Because he

him. Needed to be the one person who di

began t

o me as I helped fold clean sheets in the lounge. "He ha

I didn't want to invade.

ted CEO of Williams Hol

ent-details of which were whispered in rumors. A car cra

: his world had tur

hours, I slipped back into hi

, staring at

ter and too strong," I whisp

at it, t

took

ed in s

name?" he a

phi

ast n

tod

a corner of his lip twitched in what could'

ing foolish, falling fo

point came

asped in his sleep, sheets kicked away. I rushed

lli

, wild and lost. T

phi

was something in it. A r

ng, sitting beside his bed, m

I had cros

were no lo

an he used to be, but the man

f me that was aching for conne

fear

hat my father-the man lying just two doors down in another hospit

ilent war, and I had been raised to co

ere I

fee and smiles like they w

his voice steadier than usual

ight. He was stronger now. He could sit without

to d

h... or keep hidi

, "because I know what it f

that moment, I knew

st enough to make the sile

bition. Ours was born from silence, from wounds neither of u

ow where it

new one

walk away

t

not just the woman who brought cof

idn't know m

e