27 Blind Love
Theo’s hands clenched at his sides, every fiber of his being on fire with emotion.
"Obviously! Why the fuck did you never question why she suddenly married me right after leaving you? Did you never suspect that maybe it wasn’t just her ‘mood’ change? She was with you for five fucking years, and then suddenly she decided to marry someone else. Did you never wonder why she would throw away five years with you to marry someone else? She was never heartless. She didn’t want this. She loved you, but you didn’t see it, did you? You pushed her away! You broke her, you fucking, fucking asshole!”
Theo’s voice was seething with rage, disappointment, and fear of losing Sienna forever.
The pain in Adrian’s body intensified, the sharp ache in his stomach nearly overwhelming him. His vision blurred, and before he could even process what was happening, he stumbled forward. His legs gave out, but before he could crash to the ground, Matthew caught him.
Adrian blinked, pushing aside the intense nausea and the pain. His body trembled, and he clutched his stomach. Through gritted teeth, he spoke, his voice softer this time, devoid of ego and anger. It was a broken plea.
“Where is Sienna?” His voice was quieter this time, stripped of the anger and arrogance that usually defined him. It was raw, desperate. "Please, tell me where she is."
Theo stared at Adrian, shocked and surprised. ‘The man who has the power to ruin my entire billion-dollar business is now begging in front of me for a woman?’ Theo thought, looking for any sign of deception. But it was clear: Adrian wasn’t acting. He was desperate. He was truly in love with Sienna.
"Please tell me where Sienna is," Adrian begged again, his voice trembling with pain. "I will give you your business back, every project you want for your entire lifetime, I will make sure it’s yours. I just want Sienna."
Theo’s face hardened.
‘I still remember the day Sienna came back, the day she gave up on Adrian, how she broke down crying, shaking when she told me how that bastard had treated her like nothing. He said he was going to marry another woman, didn’t even consider her his girlfriend.’ The memory filled him with hatred. The pain in her voice, the way her heart had shattered right in front of him, it had etched itself into his soul.
‘That’s why I hate Adrian so much. I saw what a broken Sienna looked like, and I’ll never forget it. And now? Now I have no sympathy left for a man like him.’
Theo clenched his jaw. He knew what love was. He had loved Rosie from the moment she walked into his life. He couldn’t even imagine losing her.
There were moments, dark, terrifying moments, where he feared Sienna might break down completely. But she proved him wrong. When she agreed to marry him and went along with their plan, it made him the happiest man alive. Because he just wanted to protect her. That’s all he ever wanted.
Theo's eyes locked onto Adrian with icy disdain. His voice was sharp, his anger barely held back.
“You deserve every bit of what’s coming to you,” he spat. “Sienna loved you— blindly . She gave you everything she had, every part of herself, and what did you do? You broke her. You came back only to ruin whatever peace she had left, trying to control her like she’s yours to command.”
Theo’s chest rose and fell, breath heavy with fury. “You’re the reason she left again. You. Every time, it’s you pushing her away. And now? You don’t deserve to know where she is.”
Theo grabbed Rosie’s hand and stormed off, fury still burning in his eyes.
But Rosie couldn’t stop herself from glancing back.
Adrian’s face had turned frighteningly pale, each passing second draining the color from his skin. He looked sick, like a man running on nothing but sheer will. Like his body was finally giving up on trying to keep him alive.
Then, something made her stop cold.
Adrian suddenly clutched his stomach, his fingers curling into his shirt. The next second, he dropped to the ground—hard.
Unconscious.
The sound of his body hitting the floor was sharp and brutal. Rosie’s eyes widened in shock.
She yanked her hand free from Theo and turned back completely.
“Adrian!” she gasped.
Theo, startled by her sudden halt, turned too, just in time to see Matthew drop to his knees beside Adrian, trying to shake him awake.
But Adrian didn’t respond.
He lay still, unconscious, his chest barely rising.
***
“Doctor?” Matthew rushed to meet the doctor emerging from the operating room. “Is he alright? What’s wrong with him? Has he woken up yet?”
The doctor glanced at Matthew, his expression grim. “Where is his family?” he asked.
“He doesn’t have any family. I’m his secretary. Please, tell me what’s wrong with him. I have the authority to make decisions about his well-being.”
The doctor’s voice lowered. “He is very sick. His stomach is severely inflamed. We had to pump blood from his stomach.”
At that very moment, the hospital room door swung open, and Adrian staggered out. He couldn’t even stand up straight, his hand pressing tightly to his stomach as his legs wobbled beneath him. His chest heaved with the effort to stay upright, his face pale and drawn, eyes bleary with exhaustion.
“We need to go,” he said hoarsely, looking at Matthew. “I have to find Sienna. There’s no time to waste. Come with me. Drive the car. I can’t... I can’t drive.”
His knees buckled mid-step, and he was about to collapse when Matthew rushed forward, catching him just in time.
“Mr. Vaughn,” Matthew’s voice was firm, frustrated. “You can’t go anywhere like this. Look at yourself—you can’t even stand properly!”
Matthew’s grip on Adrian tightened, concern flickering in his eyes. It had been over a week. Adrian hadn’t eaten properly. He barely drank water. Sleep was a rare accident, something that happened when his body finally gave out at a desk or on the cold floor.
All he did was talk about Sienna. Obsessively. Restlessly. She was the only thing that mattered. The obsession was eating him alive, and it was clear he was hanging by a thread, dangerously close to losing control of his own sanity.
But Adrian didn’t listen.
He pushed Matthew away weakly and continued limping down the corridor, gritting his teeth against the pain.
Matthew tried again, "Mr. Vaughn, please. At least stay a few hours. You’re in no condition to leave right now. Your body—"
Before he could take another step, Adrian’s body gave way, crumpling as the pain in his stomach overwhelmed him. He collapsed into one of the cold metal chairs in the hallway, his body giving up, breathing heavily, pain twisting his features.
A doctor rushed over, his expression tight with urgency. “Mr. Vaughn, you need to sit down. You can’t move like this.”
Matthew stepped forward. “What is it, doctor? What’s going on with him?”
The doctor handed the X-ray file to Adrian. “We found internal bleeding, Mr. Vaughn, so we had to perform an emergency procedure to stop it. During that, we noticed severely inflamed tissue and took a biopsy.”
Adrian’s brows furrowed. “Biopsy?”
“Yes,” the doctor said carefully. “We’re still waiting for the results, but there are signs that point to possible stomach cancer.”
Matthew went pale. “Cancer?”
The doctor nodded, looking serious. "Yes. We need the results to confirm, but there’s a possibility you’re suffering from it. If it’s not cancer, the inflammation should subside, and we can figure out why you’re in so much pain."
Adrian, who had been desperate—impatient—to get to Sienna just moments ago, now sat frozen in place. His mind was spinning with a thousand thoughts a second, but one echoed louder than all the rest:
‘Will I not live long enough to be with Sienna anymore?’
His heart pounded harder than the pain in his stomach. It was the ache in his chest that truly broke him. It overwhelmed him, forcing him to fall back into the chair, clutching the armrests as if they could steady the chaos inside him.
‘I wanted to be with her. I wanted to spend my life with her. But if I really have cancer, then how am I supposed to live with her?’ His thoughts spiraled, each one darker than the last. ‘How am I going to live without her? I can’t show her this, can’t let her carry this pain. Maybe leaving me was for her own good.’
A bitter breath left his lungs as he closed his eyes, trying to stop the tears from spilling.
‘She deserves happiness. The kind of joy that doesn’t come with pain. She deserves someone who can give her the whole world.’
And for the first time, the thought struck him like a blade.
‘Maybe this is the sign that this really is the end of us.’
***
Leaning quietly against the wall, Rosie stood frozen.
Her hand flew to her mouth as she listened to the doctor's words. She had followed Adrian to the hospital, too worried to stay away after his outburst. But she hadn’t expected to hear this .
Her heart pounded.
She had wanted to protect Sienna from all the pain she was feeling, but now she couldn’t ignore the fact that Adrian’s life was hanging by a thread.
‘Sienna still loves Adrian. I know that.’ Rosie thought, her heart pounding. ‘But should I tell her? What if it’s too late? Should I hide this from her and let her move on? Or will she hate me for keeping this from her?’
She leaned against the wall, feeling suffocated by the pressure. The decision tore at her, but in the end, she turned away and left the hospital.
When she arrived home, Theo was waiting for her. The moment he saw her, he rushed over.
"Where did you go?" he asked, his voice laced with worry. "I’ve been worried about you. You left so abruptly."
Rosie ignored him. She walked past him, picked up her phone, and dialed a number with trembling hands.
On the other end, Sienna answered after a few moments.
Rosie forced a casual smile onto her face, trying to hide the panic in her chest. She sank onto the couch and placed her free hand over her stomach.
“Sienna, how are you?” she asked gently.
Sienna sat in a cozy hotel room in Paris, looking calm on the outside. She had planned her escape well. The moment the conference ended, she vanished, and no one had been able to trace her. Only Rosie and Theo knew where she was.
“I’m fine,” Sienna said with a small smile. “You, on the other hand, look like you just ran a marathon. You’re drenched in sweat.”
Rosie chuckled softly, trying to mask the tension in her chest. "Oh, I’m fine. Just... you know, busy. Anyway, how are you? Are you settling in alright?"
Sienna smiled on the other end of the line, teasing, "You look like you need a break. If Theo is bothering you, tell me, and I’ll kick his ass for you. When you're done with the pregnancy, you can join in, and we’ll give him a few extra kicks."
Rosie chuckled faintly, but deep down, her heart was heavy. She didn’t know how to break the news to Sienna. She only hoped it wouldn’t be too late.
Rosie saw through her. That spark, the one Sienna had when she secretly loved Adrian, was gone again. Her eyes were dull. Empty.
Rosie’s heart clenched.
Rosie’s heartbeat quickened as her fingers tightened on her thighs. “I… I need to tell you something. But I don’t know if I should,” Rosie said hesitantly.
“What’s wrong?” Sienna’s tone turned serious. “Is it the baby? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Rosie replied quickly, seeing Sienna relax.
Then Sienna stiffened. “Is it about Adrian?”
Rosie hesitated, then nodded.
Sienna’s face hardened. “Then I don’t want to hear it. Let’s not talk about him.”
“But this is something you should know before you decide anything,” Rosie insisted. “Please, just listen.”
Sienna didn’t respond, but she didn’t hang up either.
“Adrian came across me and Theo today at the theater. He was furious when he saw us together. Then he found out everything—about you, about me, and about your fake marriage with Theo.”
Sienna’s heart skipped a beat, her grip tightening on the phone.
She hadn’t expected the truth about her and Theo’s marriage to come out in front of Adrian like this. She had imagined a thousand ways Adrian might find out, but none of them were anything like this. The press conference and everything else had taken a toll on her, leaving her drowning in self-doubt and worry. Now, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Adrian would do now that he knew the truth.
‘Is he going to think this was my way of trying to get him back? Or that I was trying to trap him?’ Sienna’s mind spiraled, flooded with a hundred thoughts at once, each one louder than the last, blinding her with fear and confusion.
‘Will he think I did it all just to humiliate him? To insult him? Or… is he really going to come after me again? Like he did last time? Like he promised he would?’
Her heart stuttered. And just as quickly, she forced herself to stop. ‘Let him come back? After everything? Have I not endured enough? Why am I even thinking about this again?’
Shaking off the flood of emotions, she tried to center herself. Her finger hovered over the hang-up button on her phone.
“I’m ending the call, Rosie,” she said flatly. “I don’t want to hear anything about Adrian. Or his life.”
“No—just listen to me once,” Rosie pleaded from the other side of the line.
But before Sienna could respond, Theo leaned over, gently grabbing her hand.
“Let it be,” he said softly. “If she doesn’t want to know, don’t force her. She doesn’t need to stay connected to Adrian.”
Sienna closed her eyes tightly, heart racing. But Rosie’s voice came again, urgent this time.
“This is important. Please. Just listen to me. It won’t take long. But I know if I don’t tell you now, I’ll regret it later. Just once—for me.”
There was silence, and then Rosie spoke again.
“After the confrontation, Adrian fainted in the street. Matthew took him to the hospital. I—I followed them there because I was worried. And then I overheard what the doctor said…”
Sienna held her breath.
“They think Adrian might have stomach cancer.”
Silence. For a heartbeat, it was as if time had stopped.
Then, the sound of something crashing.
The phone slipped from Sienna’s hand and hit the floor.
But only for a moment.
She quickly bent down, picked it up, and pressed it back to her ear. Her voice came out too quickly. Too tightly.
“It’s nothing. My phone just slipped. That’s all.”
Then she forced a smile, one that didn’t reach her eyes.
“I can’t do anything about it. Anyway, I’m leaving for Germany tomorrow,” she said quickly, her tone brisk and final. “I’ve been in Paris too long. I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
“I’ll call you later, okay?”
Before either Rosie or Theo could say a word, the call was cut off.