Page 86 of Forbidden Dark Vows

He doesn’t.

I stay completely still. My pulse is racing, and my breathing is too shallow, but she doesn’t approach the bed. I get an itch in my lower back, and I suck on my bottom lip, trying to ignore it as it spreads across my skin, clamoring for my attention. Just as I think I’m getting it under control, the pain flares in my abdomen again, and I pant through it, praying that she is too preoccupied to notice.

Once it has passed, I open my eyes, and she is gone.

First things first, I slide my hand beneath the covers and around to my back to scratch the tingling skin. The relief is almost instantaneous.

Then, I stare at the ceiling and replay their conversation in my head. Snippets of their voices fading in and out of my head, trying to hear what they were avoiding saying out loud.

They knew each other thirteen years ago, that much was obvious, only I never realized how well they’d known each other. My mom had always made it sound like the friction occurred between Karl Weiss and my dad—she totally downplayed her own role in their problems. And now, she wants to leave my dad for him…That man!

Tears sting my eyes when I think of them together. She doesn’t even care how it will affect my dad because if I don’t marry Harry, I’ll be here to look after him.

Anger swirls around inside my chest, red-hot and bubbling at the way she dismissed my dad’s feelings as if they counted for nothing. All these years she stayed with him when she really wanted to be with another man. I don’t even recognize her anymore. The woman who stood in my room and promised Karl Weiss that she would leave my dad isn’t my mom. She can’t be.

But that isn’t what’s making my heart go slip-sliding around inside my chest. It’s what she said before Karl left and after he issued his ultimatum: “Ruby must never know that I married the wrong man. She must never find out that I’m in love with you.”

Why did she marry my dad if she didn’t love him? Why live a lie all these years if she was that unhappy?

My thoughts start tumbling into a rabbit-hole that I might never be able to crawl out of. What else don’t I know about her? How many other secrets has she been hiding from me and my dad? Did she know Karl before they even met?

But then, the final piece of the puzzle stabs me in the chest like a knife.

My dad’s stroke wasn’t caused by the stress of losing his business. It was the stress of finding out that his wife was in love with another man. She isn’t trying to protect me with this secret, she’s trying to protect herself.

I can’t stay here and wait for her to come back in the morning. I won’t be able to face her. I won’t be able to look her in the eye ever again and pretend that everything is alright.

I push back the covers and sit up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. The room spins, and I grip the edge of the mattress tightly to stop myself from toppling forwards. My hand stings, dragging me back to reality, and I wrench the cannula of the IV out, tossing it onto the floor. Blood wells on the back of my hand, but I ignore it.

I’m wearing the pajamas that I was wearing when mom brought me into the emergency room. I open the nightstand, hoping to find clothes that will make me look less conspicuous, but I only find clean panties. She didn’t even bring my purse. My coat is on the back of the chair though—it will have to do.

Slipping my arms into it and fastening it over my pajamas, I pull on my boots and tiptoe to the door. I open it a crack, wincing at the clicking sound. Outside, the corridors are dimmed, the hospital dozing for the night.

I hold my breath, step outside, and close the door behind me. Hushed murmurs to my right, a chuckle followed by a question: “What are you wearing to Stacey’s bachelorette party next week?” Must be the nurse’s station.

Left it is.

I stick close to the wall, out of sight of the nurses, my heart hammering inside my chest. I’ve no idea where I’m going. AllI know is, I’m not staying. I’m not going to be here when she comes back with her fake smiles and her perfect makeup and her, “I’ll look after you, sweetie.”

“Like fuck you will,” I whisper to myself. My mom has only ever looked after one person: my mom.

Through the swing doors, and I’m in another corridor with a sign that points to the elevators. I can’t risk using them in case a member of the staff gets in on a lower level. I head in the opposite direction to the stairwell, push open the heavy fire door and am greeted by a rush of cold air. It hits my face with a whump at the same time as pain flares inside my abdomen.

I let go of the door, watch it closing slowly, the stairs disappearing behind it. My escape route. Clutching my stomach, I bend double, holding the pain in, focusing on breathing through it. My knees hit the floor, and I don’t even know how it happened, and then the world goes black.

“Ruby… Can you hear me, Ruby?”

A woman’s voice. I push her away and open my eyes, my cheek on the cool tiled floor. “How did I…” I roll onto my knees, try to stand up, but my legs feel like Jell-O, and I lean against the wall for support.

“Ruby, I want to help you.”

I move my eyes, waiting for my head to play ball, and look at the woman who owns the voice. I don’t know her, but I recognize the blue uniform. She’s a nurse. She’s going to stop me from leaving.

“I can manage.” I push myself away from the wall, sway giddily, and instinctively grab her warm hand to keep me upright. “I’m fine.”

“Come with me.” She keeps her voice low, and it seems strange, but I’m still wallowing in the dull ache that follows the pain, and my brain is screaming at me to get away from her.

“I’m not going back.” I tug my hand from hers. “You can’t make me go back.”

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