Taylor glanced at Maya, then back at Dr. Lee. “Then that’s what it’ll be.”
Maya almost interrupted. He heard her inhale and said, without looking away from the doctor, “Don’t.”
Dr. Lee gave the faintest smile. “She’ll be here for observation. We’ll run a fuller cardiac workup in the morning. If the numbers stabilize, she can go home in a day or two.” She set the chart down. “And if either of you treats this as a wake-up call that only matters emotionally for the next forty-eight hours, I’ll be annoyed to see you back.”
After she left, the room felt smaller.
Taylor sat again. The heart monitor kept time.
Maya said, “You don’t need to take this on.”
He looked at her as though she had said something irrational. “You’re my wife.”
“For three more months.”
His jaw shifted. “You really think that sentence means nothing to me now?”
She did not answer, because she did not know how to. Because the problem with men like Taylor was not that they lacked feeling. It was that they were used to feeling things intensely and briefly, then reshaping the world around their comfort.
He rubbed both hands over his face and exhaled. “I know I don’t deserve trust from you. I know I built this whole mess on arrogance. But I’m asking you to let me help.”
“Why?”
He stared at her, almost offended by the question and almost broken by it. “Because I care about you.”
Maya looked at the IV taped to her arm. “People say that when they’re scared.”
“Then I’m scared.” His voice roughened. “I’m terrified. Is that what you need me to admit? Fine. I’m terrified.”
The honesty of it pinned her.
He went on, slower now. “I don’t know exactly when this stopped being a contract for me. Maybe that first morning you drank terrible coffee in my kitchen and told me my apartment looked like a luxury hotel for ghosts. Maybe when I realized you never asked me for anything. Maybe tonight, in that ballroom, when I heard those women talk about you and wanted to burn the room down.” He shook his head once. “Maybe it’s all of it. I don’t know. But I know I can’t sit in that chair and wait for you to pretend this doesn’t matter.”
