Page 136 of Be My Wife

“Yes, honey.” I ease forward.

“Have you… proposed to Elizabeth yet?”

Lana’s eyes widen. “What are you saying, Steph?”

“Uncle Brogan and… Elizabeth are my first match.” She sucks in a deep breath. “I want to see them together before I… before…”

“Don’t say that, sweetie. You’ll be fine. The doctors are going to help you.”

Lana pulls her bottom lip in between her teeth.

Just then, the medical team arrives with Elizabeth. We step back so they can check Steph over. I move to Elizabeth’s side and try to slide my arm over her waist.

She shifts away from me.

I give her a questioning look.

She ignores it.

The pressure in my chest gets worse. Even when the doctors assure us that Steph is in the clear—for now—and that the sooner we can schedule the heart transplant, the better, I don’t feel relieved.

My wife keeps avoiding my gaze.

There’s this huge wall between us.

I keep running into it.

Keep getting dazed.

It doesn’t make sense.

After last night—

I thought we’d knocked that wall down.

It feels like we’re strangers.

More than strangers.

The first time we met in that coffee shop opposite Make It Marriage, I felt a connection to her. Now, it feels like that connection disappeared.

On the drive home, I try to clear the air. “Liz.”

“What?”

“I’m not going back to Lana.”

She stares straight ahead and doesn’t answer.

“I don’t want you to misunderstand what you saw or heard. Lana probably found out about the inheritance and thought she could—”

“It doesn’t matter,” she says firmly.

“It does.”

“No, it doesn’t. I don’t care what you do with Lana or any other woman.”

Other woman? “Liz…”

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