\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
I woke up again in a dim, run-down hospital room I didn\u2019t recognize.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Estelle was sitting across from me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I tried to sit up, but the effects of the sedative hadn\u2019t worn off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She chuckled. \u201cDon\u2019t look at me like that. I just told Nathan that Ricky had a nosebleed, and he panicked. He didn\u2019t even wait for your daughter to wake up. He brought us straight to this private clinic and scheduled the transplant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting up now won\u2019t change anything. She\u2019s already in the operating\u00a0<\/p>\n
room.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A wave of fury and panic threatened to drown me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I knew I had to stay calm. My daughter had only me now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s illegal!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Estelle laughed until tears gathered in her eyes. \u201cThe consent form was signed by her father. Oh, you didn\u2019t know, did you? The only reason Nathan married you and had Veronica in the first place was that I was left so weak after giving birth to Ricky, and he was born with leukemia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe married you because it broke his heart to see me in pain. You were nothing but a backup plan for Ricky\u2019s treatment!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you really believe you deserved that life-the artist\u2019s glamorous wife -while I was stuck with a man who had nothing?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her eyes blazed with jealousy as she spoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n
0.00%\u00a0<\/p>\n
10.58 )\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you know what\u2019s good for you, you\u2019ll sign those divorce papers quickly. Or do you really think I can\u2019t convince Nathan to drain every last drop of blood from your brain-damaged daughter if I want to?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A sharp, suffocating pain spread from my heart through my entire body.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Memories flashed before my eyes-Nathaniel crying tears of joy at our wedding, hitting his head hard enough to draw blood when we found out I was pregnant, asking me if it was a dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those fragments were what had sustained me through all the hardship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They were all lies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A hatred solidified inside me. I felt the reassuring presence of the recorder I had hidden in my sleeve, hoping its battery had lasted through the long hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I spoke to Estelle. \u201cThere\u2019s a signed divorce agreement in my bag. Get Nathaniel to sign it, and I\u2019ll disappear from his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want my daughter to be safe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Estelle opened the bedside drawer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her face lit up with triumph.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She grabbed the papers and hurried out of the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know what story she would spin to get Nathaniel\u2019s signature.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But no one besides my lawyer and I would know the truth: by signing that agreement, Nathaniel would be left with nothing to his name.\u00a0<\/p>\n
49.79%\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joseph King is an editor and storyteller who ensures every chapter is clear, polished, and engaging for readers.<\/p>\n
Broken Yet Untouched by Mark Twain 3 \u00a0 Chapter 3\u00a0 I woke up again in a dim, run-down hospital room […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bound-to-him-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}