Chapter 12

• Max stopped inside the door, his gaze bouncing between the two women sleeping. His eyes remained fixed on the beeping monitor as he blinked multiple times, trying to control the overwhelming emotions. His mother lay on the bed with tubes stuck in her arm. Next to her, Lisandra was sleeping after spending the night looking after her. Whenever he thought of scenarios like that, the person standing beside him was always Emilia. She would support him through hard times and her presence would calm him. Because she was his anchor. But at the moment, he felt lost. Unsure of how to react to everything happening around him. One second he was thinking of what to get his pregnant wife and the next she was nowhere to be found. His mother was in the hospital and his sister claimed it was his wife's doing.
• Of course, he didn't believe it. Emilia, his sweet Emilia, would never hurt a fly. If she had been the one lying in that bed and she told him his mother did it, Max would have believed it. He knew his mother and sister didn't like his wife and they often ganged up on her. Now that she was pregnant, he hoped they would get along before the baby arrived and if not; he planned on moving out with his family. But now they were saying she'd hurt his mother and had run away to avoid going to prison. As if he'd let anything happen to her. She knew how much he loved her. He'd never let any harm come to her. So why had she run away? Where was she? She had no one to turn to. The thought of her wandering the streets alone while she was pregnant...
• "Hey, you're here," Lisandra said, stretching.