Chapter 18 That’s My Husband #2
“I found Mia,” James said without greeting, his voice barely holding together. It shook so badly that even Neil—who usually never missed a chance to joke—went silent.
“She’s not forgiving me,” James whispered. His voice broke completely. Tears slid down his face as he covered his eyes with one hand. “Neil… how do I get her back?”
There was a pause.
Then Neil spoke quietly. “James, let go of her. She’s a good woman. Just… let her live her life now.”
James’s chest tightened violently. Panic surged through him.
“No,” he snapped. “Why should I?”
Neil’s voice sharpened. “Have you lost your mind? You divorced her. There’s nothing left to fix. It’s over, James. Don’t you understand that?”
“I’ll marry her again,” James said immediately, desperation bleeding through his words.
Neil exploded. “Are you insane? She’s already married to someone else! You’re divorced—you can’t—”
James surged to his feet, fury overtaking reason. He ended the call mid-sentence and hurled the phone across the room.
It smashed into the side table.
The fruit basket toppled. Apples and oranges scattered across the floor, rolling in every direction.
James staggered back, his vision spinning violently. His legs buckled.
He tried to grab the table—but missed.
His head hit the wall with a sickening thud. The table crashed down beside him as he collapsed to the floor, his body hitting the ground hard.
The noise echoed through the room.
Moments later, doctors rushed in.
“Call for assistance—now!”
They lifted him onto the bed quickly, checking his vitals, treating his injuries again. His body lay still, unconscious.
Eventually, the room fell quiet once more.
James lay on the bed, eyes closed—but his lips moved faintly.
“Mia…”
Again.
“Mia…”
He kept whispering her name, over and over, as if he couldn’t stop himself.
In the darkness behind his closed eyes, he stood alone on a silent path. The street stretched endlessly ahead, trees lining both sides. Everything was still—except for one figure walking away from him.
Mia.
His chest hurt so badly he could hear his own heartbeat pounding, each thud heavy and desperate. He stood frozen in his suit, perfectly dressed, unable to move.
“Mia?” he called.
She kept walking away.
“Mia!” he shouted louder, his throat turning hoarse.
Suddenly, she stopped.
She turned back.
Her eyes met his—and she smiled.
She lifted her hand and beckoned him forward, her voice warm and familiar.
“What are you doing standing there?” she asked softly. “Come on. Let’s go.”
James’s heart slammed violently in his chest. Tears filled his eyes as he ran toward her, faster than he ever had before.
As he reached her, he immediately wrapped his arms around her. He held her tightly, burying his face against her neck, his body shaking uncontrollably.
“You came back,” he sobbed. “You really came back…”
He was crying—shaking even as he cried.
Mia gently pushed him back.
She looked down at him, her brows knitting together when she saw his wet lashes, the tears clinging stubbornly to his eyes. She lifted her hand and touched his face, her fingers warm.
“Of course I’m here. Where would I go?” A small smile curved her lips. “Did you forget? We’re married. Why are you crying?”
James sniffled sharply and dropped his head, wiping his face with both hands.
“I’m not crying,” he said quickly, swallowing hard. “I’m fine. Everything is fine.”
He scrubbed at his eyes again, then straightened, clearing his throat and forcing his voice to steady.
“I was just—”
He lifted his head to look at her again.
She was gone.
All that remained was a dark, empty street. Snow covered the ground, thick and endless, the cold seeping straight into his bones. The road stretched endlessly, empty—no sign of Mia anywhere.
“Mia?” he whispered.
No answer.
Panic clawed up his chest.
“Mia!” he called louder, spinning around frantically. “Mia—!”
Nothing.
His heartbeat thundered violently as he shouted her name again and again—until—
“MIA!”
James bolted upright.
His scream echoed through the room.
His eyes flew open, sweat soaking his skin, his chest heaving as reality slammed into him. White walls. Harsh lights. The steady beep of a monitor.
He wasn’t on the street.
He was in a hospital room.
Kylie stood beside his bed. The moment she saw him sit up, she rushed forward, gripping his shoulders.
“Oh my God, James—you’re awake,” she said breathlessly. “You scared me so much.”
He shoved her hands away and swung his legs toward the edge of the bed.
“I need to find Mia,” he said hoarsely. “I have to go now.”
Kylie pressed down on his shoulders, panic flashing across her face. “James, stop! Did you forget? She’s married to another man. What are you doing? Where do you think you’re going?”
Before she could say more, the door opened.
William rushed in.
James’s eyes locked onto him instantly. “Bring the car,” he ordered. “I want to see Mia. Right now.”
William hesitated, concern written all over his face as he took in James’s injuries. Then he spoke carefully.
“Mr. Sinclair, you asked me to find out who Ms. Bennet has married,” William continued. “I couldn’t get that information. But there is something else I found out just now.”
James straightened despite the pain. “What is it?” His eyes burned.
William glanced toward the doorway. A nurse was standing there. He motioned for her to come in.
The nurse hesitated briefly, then stepped inside.
William gestured toward her. “Mr. Sinclair, do you remember when Ms. Bennet’s dad had a heart attack five years ago? She was the nurse on duty during his stay at this hospital.”
James’s gaze snapped to the nurse. His brows furrowed as a strange unease settled in his chest.
The nurse clasped her hands together, visibly nervous as she looked between the three of them. After a brief hesitation, she finally spoke.
“After Mr. Bennett completed the emergency procedures, he was recovering at this hospital for a week,” she explained carefully. “His daughter… Mia… she started insisting on marrying the man who had saved her father’s life.”
James’s breath stalled.
“She kept saying he was a good man,” the nurse said, stealing an anxiously look at him.
“That if a man could carry a complete stranger on his back and rush him to the hospital without hesitation, then that man must have a kind heart. She said someone like that would love his wife and parents just as deeply.”
Her fingers twisted together, knuckles whitening.
“I—I’m not saying this because I was spying,” she said quickly, a nervous, awkward laugh slipping out as if she was afraid of being misunderstood.
“It’s just… when the man who saved Mr. Bennett carried him in on his back, the whole hospital was thrown into chaos.
It was impossible not to know about it.”
She paused, then continued, her voice steadier now.
“I was going in and out of Mr. Bennett’s room that entire week—changing his IVs, giving him medication. Every time I passed by, I kept hearing that girl. She begged her parents again and again.”
The nurse’s expression softened, her tone dropping unconsciously. “She was so sincere… so stubborn in her own way. Some of the nurses even laughed at her innocence back then.” She exhaled quietly. “That’s why it stayed with me. I remember it so clearly.”
James’s chest tightened painfully.
He whispered, almost to himself, “I… can’t believe it,” he said hoarsely. “I completely misunderstood her.”
The nurse continued gently. “She told her parents that if she liked him first, and if she tried hard to be a good wife, there wouldn’t be any distance between them.”
James’s fingers curled tightly into the bedsheet.
“She said they would fall in love eventually,” the nurse continued. “That he was the kind of man she wanted to spend her whole life with. And if she had already found him so early… why wait?”
Her words landed one after another, relentless.
“She said getting married early only meant they would have more years together.”
James sat frozen.
The nurse’s voice faded, replaced by memories crashing violently into his mind.
“We’ve found a good match for you.” His mother’s voice echoed in his head. “I asked their family to let you date for a few years. I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t find someone better. If you did, we could’ve simply said it didn’t work out. But they refused.”
He remembered standing in his office, documents spread out before him.
“So the only option is marriage. They’re well-off anyway. And she’s their only child—once you marry her, their assets will eventually come with it.”
At that time, he had just begun taking over the company. He was exhausted, ambitious, focused only on expansion and deals. The future meant nothing to him beyond numbers and contracts.
So he had agreed—because it was convenient.
The wedding was fast. Efficient. Clean. A business arrangement disguised as a marriage. Contracts were signed. Partnerships formed. Future profits secured.
Mia’s parents had signed business agreements alongside the marriage documents.
After the marriage was done, he remembered Mia standing quietly beside him, fingers nervously intertwined, while he signed documents without even glancing at her.
‘James… when will we go on our honeymoon?’ she had asked softly the day after their wedding.
He remembered answering absently, eyes still on the paperwork.
“Soon.”
But he had never even planned to go on a honeymoon.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
The promise of a honeymoon remained nothing more than empty words he had spoken without thought. And soon after, he left on a business trip.
After he returned and began settling into his own routine, she started sleeping in another room.
In the months following their marriage, she asked him many times about the honeymoon.
Each time, he brushed it off. Ignored it. Changed the subject.
And every time he did, something dimmed in her gaze.
He could see it in her eyes—the hurt, the quiet disappointment—yet he still chose not to respond.
Eventually… she stopped asking.
Slowly, without even realizing it, he stopped involving himself in anything related to her.
Whenever she called him, he told her to handle things on her own. His focus remained fixed on his business, his growth, his life.
In his mind, she had married him for money anyway.
It was a business marriage. A transaction.
So it made sense to him—perfect sense—to keep everything separate. To protect his assets. To protect his company. To protect himself from her and her family.
And the easiest way to do that…
Was to ignore Mia completely.
That belief—that cold, arrogant belief—now ripped through him like a blade.
James suddenly broke.
Tears spilled from his eyes as his body began to shake violently. He bent forward, his hand clutching his forehead as memory after memory crashed into him.
His breath came apart in sobs.
“Do you hate me…?” he whispered hoarsely, voice breaking. “You didn’t even give me a chance to fix my mistakes. You just… left. Without a word. How could you do that to me?”
The words fell apart between his gasps.
He cried openly now—chest heaving, breath stuttering—until he could barely breathe at all.
The nurse looked at him, pity filling her eyes.
She couldn’t believe it.
How could someone love a woman so deeply that he would cry like this? And he was her husband—how could he break down so pitifully?
A strange ache filled her chest as she wondered why that woman had left a man who treasured her this much. It was painful to realize that men like him existed… and that women could leave them so ruthlessly.
The nurse twisted her fingers together before speaking again, still looking at him with sympathy.
“I… I also saw her a few weeks ago. Here. At this hospital.”
James’s head snapped up.
“What?” His voice was raw.
The nurse swallowed.
“When her parents died,” she continued gently. “They were in a car crash.”
His entire body went rigid.
“She was sitting alone on a chair outside the ward,” the nurse said, her voice trembling slightly now. “She cried so hard for nearly an hour. I had never seen anyone cry like that—it felt like her whole world had collapsed. She was shaking, couldn’t even stand properly when we first told her.”
The nurse paused, emotion flickering across her face.
“But then…” she shook her head in disbelief. “After an hour, she wiped her tears. Stood up. And started arranging everything on her own.”
James felt something inside him crack.
“She handled the cremation. The funeral. Every detail so calmly,” the nurse said quietly. “There wasn’t a trace of tears left on her face.”
Her gaze returned to James, heavy and searching.
“I was shocked. The same woman who couldn’t stop shaking when we gave her the news… was suddenly doing everything by herself as if nothing had happened.”
James’s body tightened, muscles locking as if seized by an invisible force. His chest constricted, each breath growing harder than the last as the nurse’s words sank in.
The nurse, unaware of the storm she was unleashing, continued softly, lost in her memory.
“I remember that day clearly,” she said, her eyes distant. “I even walked up to her and asked if she was okay, if there was anyone I could call to help her. But she said there was no one—no family left—and that she would take care of everything herself. All her relatives had died that day.”
The nurse shook her head, pity clouding her eyes. “She looked so sad. Completely distraught.”
She paused, then continued, almost hesitantly. “I asked her about her husband. After all the effort she had made, all the begging and fighting to marry him… he must have been someone devoted, loving… she deserved that at least. But she just… pointed to the news playing on the TV.”
Her gaze drifted, replaying the image in her mind. “There was a man in a suit… hugging another woman. An actress. What’s her name…” She frowned slightly. “Kylie something. Right—Kylie Brown.”
She paused, a shadow crossing her face. “The man’s face wasn’t clear, only his back—but it didn’t matter.
I could hear the reporters, and I heard her saying to that man, ‘I want to be with you, no matter what it takes. And he didn’t answer her.
He didn’t speak, but he didn’t refute her words either. ”
The nurse’s eyes filled with pity as she recounted it.
“And then that poor girl told me—that’s my husband.”