Page 10 of Broken Bonds

I sigh before answering because I need a moment to give her an honest answer. “I don’t know, I really don’t. The first thing is to focus on Lionel’s health. Once he’s conscious, he better start talking, and it needs to be the truth, for a change. In the end, I think I’m going back home.”

“Are you going to leave Lionel?” she asks, raising her eyebrows.

“I don’t know. Sometimes love isn’t enough and I’m not sure what he feels for me is love.” The air leaves my lungs, taking my strength with it. “I grew up feeling loved, Alexandra. My parents had to make many sacrifices to buy a house, to have a good life. I thought that was what I was getting when I married Lionel, but all I got was a ton of lies. Now I don’t know what to do with them.”

Alexandra’s phone chimes and she hurries to reply to the upcoming text.

“Ethan’s here,” she announces.

A couple of minutes later a handsome man with dark hair and impressive blue eyes stands in front of us, bending down to kiss Alexandra gently on the cheek.

Then his attention is on me.

“Ethan Conrad, nice to meet you, Stella Kral.”

???

“Ethan,” Johanna Kral gasps as we appear from the hallway to the room where she’s sitting drinking her coffee. “What are you doing here with that woman?”

Ethan greets her and then nods to the man who dragged me out of this place a while ago.

“This woman, as you call her, is your son’s wife. Whether you like it or not, you can’t take away her right to be here just because you resent not being informed of their wedding.”

She makes a disgusted face, knowing what she has been told is true. Even if Ethan wasn’t here, I would have still gone to speak to the hospital general manager myself if it had been necessary. According to the webpage I visited, California’s law protects my marital status.

Johanna Kral will have to swallow this pill, no matter how hard and bitter it is.

She’s not the only one who has had to learn some shocking news in the last few hours.

“How do you know she’s telling the truth?” she exclaims. “How do you know she isn’t a gold digger?”

Ethan shoves his hands in his tailored pants pockets.

“Because I had my people investigate her on my way to the hospital, Johanna. Their marriage is legal, and there is nothing you can do about it.”

I stare at him with my mouth open. In response, Ethan shrugs.

“It was a mistake hiring you to take care of my son’s safety,” she replies, a muscle on her face tickling.

“Lionel’s safety couldn’t be in better hands,” Ethan argues. “My priority is to take care of him to the best of my skills. That extends to his family, which includes you, and now his wife.”

This time it is she who looks at him with her mouth open. “This scammer is not my son’s wife, that’s impossible.”

“According to my research, it’s perfectly possible. Lionel did marry her.”

“But she lives in Kentucky, when did Lionel go there? You know his routine, my son spends most of his weekends at the cabin.”

Ethan clears his throat before answering. “I have my people turning over every stone, but preliminary results show Lionel has been traveling weekly to Kentucky for several months.”

There it is, I’m not the one lying here.

Mrs. Kral takes a few steps back, holding on to the wall, as she suddenly loses her balance.

The first blow is always the hardest one.

I know all about that.

Chapter 5

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