23. Emmett #2
“Your name is Alessio?” she asks out of nowhere, choosing to switch the topic from the hurt of health issues.
“Yes.”
“And Damian?”
“Yes.”
“From your mother?”
“Father.”
“And Alessio?”
“Grandfather.”
“What about Emmett?”
I fall silent, the one-worded answers stopping there.
“You still haven’t answered about this,” she says, pointing at the inhaler.
“I know everything about you,” I answer after a while, my voice low.
“Evidently,” she says sarcastically, but then she asks seriously, “Then it means you knew all along that I have COPD?”
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease .
I stare at her profile, watching her every minute expression.
“You were diagnosed with bronchopulmonary dysplasia at birth,” I tell her, which shocks her. “Due to your grandparents’ meticulous care, your symptoms have been mild since you were a baby.”
“What?” she gasps. “How do you know?”
“I know.”
“And yet you and I jumped over the cliff in that damn blizzard!”
I’d gladly take the blame for every hurt, ache, and injury in her life, but because of the situation now, I want her to always know the truth as much as possible.
“Had I known back then, I wouldn’t have done that, but I also didn’t see any other way out.”
My wife silently glares at me, so I continue telling her what I found out.
“Your mother abandoned you because you, just like me, were born sick,” I explain gently. “I think Nurse Marie and Spider never told you this because it wasn’t necessary for you to know the truth at the time.”
“Wow,” she chuckles drily, her eyes glowing with unshed tears, “you really know more about me than I know about myself, huh?”
For the life of me, I wasn’t prepared to see my wife in this much pain over her entire life crumbling in front of her.
“Yes,” I mutter.
“For how long?”
“Not long.”
“Liar.”
“I’m sorry. If I had a better choice back then, I would’ve never jumped over the cliff with you. I also lost a fresh new heart transplant.”
Angel grows incredibly still on the bed like a statue in a blizzard.
It’s my first time ever telling her about this, which stuns me too. Why am I telling her this now?
“You had a heart transplant around that time?” she questions softly, turning onto her side to look at me.
I look away, unable to look into those expressive eyes that draw me in every single time.
“Emmett?” she presses, with an urgency in her voice that I can’t ignore. So, I tell her.
“My mother ran around this planet recruiting surgeons, making sizable donations to medical researchers for congenital heart defect pioneers, cardio experts, and anyone she thought could help me,” I start, my mind flashing back to the time I was ten years old, about to die.
“By some miracle, they found a matching donor. The donor was around my age too, which devasted my mother and made me hate myself even more. Another kid had tragically lost his life for me to keep my underserved one. How unfair was that?”
Angel is silently listening, her brown eyes set on me.
“So, Mom went above and beyond to find the family of the child. She wanted to know for certain that there was no foul play around that child’s passing, and when she finally concluded her investigation, I was already semi-dead.”
“Wait, what?”
I turn to look at Angel fully. “You already know my case is extremely rare. Even with a heart transplant from an almost matching donor, the weak construction of my arteries and heart valves makes it difficult to sustain regular heart function, so even though the donor and surgery were a miracle from God, it never quite guaranteed my health for long, but then that very week, my mother disappeared.”
I remember every detail of that time.
The distraught look on my mother’s face.
The way she had been constantly spooked by small matters, was running her hands through her hair every two minutes, looked so nervous and out of sorts that I knew I was the cause of the stress.
It’s only later that I found out that the people who hated my mother were going to use me to get her punished and ousted. After listening to the conversation between my wife and that old geezer, I have more information, coupled with what I found… I have to go talk to that man.
“I was just a kid then. I knew my mother had disappeared under the most suspicious activities, and that I was to blame, so I didn’t care anymore.
By some fluke chance, I met a dazed and out-of-sorts girl who wanted to throw herself away.
I was fascinated. But then someone wanted to snuff out that glimmer of curiosity, so I didn’t think twice to jump with you. ”
A quick glance at the quiet girl lying on the bed tells me that she’s deep in thought with a mix of complicated emotions in her eyes.
“It was my fault,” she whispers.
“Yes,” I tell her, not bothering to be easy with her.
“I spent a forever and a half trying to hate you, blame you, and ignore you, but you wouldn’t let up.
Constantly bulldozing your way into my life and now, after all these years, we’re now married when we shouldn’t be because now you hate me and blame me and want to use me. ”
I glare at Angel, but I’m not really angry at this development at all, and she somehow knows it. I tap my wedding band, noting the way her gaze fixes on it for forty-three whole seconds.
“Then why did you marry me?” she questions seriously. “Why did you keep me with you all these years? Was it just so I can be your pawn? Your entertainment? Someone to feel sorry for?”
“I’ve never felt sorry for you,” I tell her. “I admire you.”
She scoffs. “Sure.”
“I’m being honest,” I press on. “You and I are cut from the exact same cloth. You’re not a pure, innocent little thing. If you were, you would’ve stayed as far away from me as possible years ago. And whenever I thought you’d finally quit me, you kept coming to me.”
My wife’s eyes flash with too many emotions I can’t name in this moment.
“Where were you these past two weeks?”
“Getting a new heart.”
“What?”
I hold her surprised gaze, waiting for something else from her, but it never comes.
“You left me here to parade around with your rival like a toy while you were getting a new heart? Was I just a mere distraction then?” she demands.
Without waiting for my reply, she launches herself at me, but before she can press her ear against my chest, she pulls back suddenly. “No! I don’t want to know.”
I’m stunned.
How many times has this sacred ritual between us been a vital point of our lives? And now she doesn’t want to know? The fuck?
“Angel—” I start, but she cuts me off.
“I wasn’t joking earlier. I want nothing to do with you ever again!”
This hurts.
Deciding to switch gears, I stalk closer to her.
“You don’t mean that,” I say, pulling her to me. I get up with her in my arms and plaster her against the nearest wall. “You don’t mean that cruel shit.”
“I do!” She glares.
“Are you punishing me?” I grit out, my body coiled tight with so much tension that it won’t take much for me to combust.
If she keeps looking at me like I don’t exist, but was smiling earlier at my dickwad cousin like he’s the sun to her universe, I’ll go insane.
“Punish you?” she scoffs, her gaze and tone still cold and indifferent. “How dare I?”
“And yet you dare to let that bastard touch you!”
“Ahh, so you were watching from a distance!” she mocks. “Up until a few minutes ago, he was the one I was to marry, wasn’t he? Physical connection happens to be something that solidifies the union between two people and besides, I’m a promise keeper.”
“A promise keeper?” I scoff, unbelieving the crap she’s spewing so coldly.
“Yes! I was only following your instructions to a T.”
I pause, catching the expression that flashes in her eyes and disappears almost instantly.
But I don’t need to identify it, I know this girl like she’s a part of me.
I know every emotion in her eyes. I know every ache, crack, and scar she has.
It’s then that everything she’s just said echoes in me and my heart jumps in my chest.
A rush of calm falls over me as soon as I detect the rage concealed in Angel’s seemingly indifferent voice.
“Now, unhand me,” she says almost breathlessly. “What are you doing?”
“It’s our wedding night,” I point out, staring at her lips. “And I did say we’re going to be as traditional as possible.”
“W-what? Y-you can’t do this!” Angel screeches, her eyes wide with a mixture of emotions that I read clearly.
She’s anxious, afraid, panicked… but also interested, curious, and turned on.
“On the contrary, wife, I can do whatever I want with you.” I snake my arm around her waist and hoist her closer to me.
I push her thighs apart with my knee and then pull down up until she’s straddling my thigh and our faces are so close together that our breath intermingle.
“Tell me you’ve never thought of this,” I mutter, nibbling against the nape of her soft, slender neck, my entire soul being lured in by the scent that’s entirely her own.
“Emmett…”
“Tell me you’ve never thought of how hot you and I would be together.”
Angel freezes in my embrace, like a piece of wood in the dead of winter.
“I don’t know… ohh!”
I bite down on a particularly sensitive spot and she comes alive in my arms.
“Liar,” I whisper against the shell of her ear. “I know you’ve dreamed of this.”
A powerful shiver powers through her body. I can even feel goosebumps against the skin of her arms.
“Emmett—”
“Contrary to how we grew up together, it seems you and I are not quite acquainted with what lying means,” I mutter, pulling back to stare at Angel’s fucking stunning face.
Her lips are slightly parted, her eyes wide. I can see the million thoughts she’s processing.
“If you’re cooking up a rebellious lie right now, don’t bother. I’m not interested in hearing your self-deception when it comes to your body’s needs and wants. I know them all and tonight, I’m fulfilling each and every one of them.”
I watch my wife carefully, making sure she’s with me every step.
“Lying is breaking the rules, baby.”