I lock down any feelings of safety it threatens to drag up.
“The doctor has just finished with Cora, if you want to go straight down.”
“Thank you, Mary,” Theo says, his voice cool and demanding.
Mary smiles back at him, her cheeks heating despite being at least twenty years too old for Theo.
But I get it.
Annoyingly, he’s just that hot.
“Come on, babe,” he whispers in my ear, although not quietly enough for Mary not to hear and literally melt into a puddle.
I, however, don’t react at all. Instead, I just take off down the hall.
I’ve been up here before to visit Stella—twice—so I’m not unfamiliar with the Cirillo ward at the private hospital, but I have no idea what room Mum is in, so unfortunately, I need Theo.
“This one,” he says, quickly catching up with me and pressing a hand to the door to push it open.
I freeze on the spot, my nerves beginning to get the better of me.
Is what Theo has said to me true? Did she really have nothing to do with this sham marriage between us? Or is he covering for her? Is he protecting me in his own fucked-up way after listening to everything I said about her?
All the questions I have for her fly around my head. My hands shake and my palms sweat as I think about looking into her eyes and finding out the truth once and for all.
“We don’t have to do this if you’re not—”
“No,” I say, cutting off his concern.
Without another thought, I step forward, forcing him to move out of the way as I march into the room with my head held high.
Why should I be the nervous one, anyway? I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong here.
But the second I turn into the room, I discover that I’m not going to be getting any of the answers I crave, because my mum is lying hooked up to a bazillion machines with tubes coming from everywhere, and her eyes are firmly closed.