Gavin was sitting by the side of the bed, upper body naked with a sling around his arm. There was a chair in front of him.
Sydney knew he’d kept the chair close to him on purpose, so, she stayed by the window instead.
It seemed like deja vu.
A bleak smile tugged the corner of his lips knowing she stayed. He’d seen her and Gabriel in front of the ward door; he saw Gabriel was trying to make her not come in, but she refused. At least, there was still a space for him in her heart.
” I thought you’d leave as soon as you got treated.” He stared at the unharmed part of her face since she had her face turned away from him.
Sydney replied emotionlessly, ” It hasn’t been long since I got treated. I was about to leave before the Doctor told me you wanted to talk.”
She flicked the lone tear off her eyelid.
Gavin knew she was lying but he played along.
” Where’s Ethan and Emily?”
” Somewhere safe.”
Gavin wondered who that guy was or at least who had sent him to attack Sydney. It had better not be who he was thinking.
Sydney stood straight and spoke since Gavin wasn’t saying anything else, ” Thank you for saving me; I didn’t ask you to, so I don’t owe you anything. Safe recovery, I’m leaving.”
As Sydney walked past Gavin, he grabbed her hand with his unaffected one and pulled her back. He didn’t expect her to tumble over and sit on his lap.
Without a second to spare, Sydney pushed away from him quickly. Unintentionally, hitting his affected arm.
Gavin sucked his breath and winced in pain, holding his elbow and trying to quell the pain.
Despite the look of pain on his face, she barked at him in mortification.
” How dare you do that?! Have you gone mad!”
Gavin groaned. ” I forgot you are weightless.”
Sydney felt the urge to smack him in his face. He wasn’t her husband anymore; he had no right to pull her into such an intimate position; in fact, he’d lost the right the day he cheated.
Being a man led by hormones, Gavin had a huge bulge in his pants from the incident and Sydney didn’t miss it. She flushed and looked away.
He spoke briskly before she could leave, ” I still need to speak to you privately.”
Her back was faced at him.
” And I told you I don’t want to hear it!” She headed for the door.
” I was wondering if we could talk over dinner.”
Clearly, there was something wrong with him upstairs.
Sydney stopped and looked at him with icy eyes. ” Are you deaf? The bullet must have botched your brains.”
” I’d find out where you stay and pick you up by seven on Friday, is that fine by you?”
Sydney’s eyes fell on his body as his muscles bulged. She swallowed hard and looked away. Immediately, she realized what she was doing.
” There’s something really wrong with you.” She looked at him in awe and walked out of the ward.
She was too busy boiling in anger; she didn’t realize when she passed Gabriel, who was seething over her and Gavin’s intimate position.
Gavin’s teasing voice only made matters worse, ” Don’t you know it’s wrong to eavesdrop on people’s conversation?”
Gabriel glared at him through the open door. As he walked into the room, he tried to avoid eye contact with anything he could possibly use to kill Gavin.
” I didn’t expect you had concerns about me. It’s sweet of you to stay.” Gavin goaded sarcastically.
” That’s a premature thought but if it makes you feel good, who am I to say otherwise?”
Gavin’s laughter made Gabriel’s blood boil. Smooth talker, isn’t he?
Gabriel cut in through Gavin’s laughter, ” I see you enjoy hurting Sydney or you are just blind to the fact.”
At Gabriel’s statement, Gavin’s face turned rigid. He knew he was hurting her but hearing it from Gabriel made him flip over.
” And you must be doing a great job doing the opposite.” Again, that exasperating sarcasm.
Gabriel’s hands went behind him, and he grabbed a medical scissor.
Control Gabriel Control.
” I haven’t made her cry as much as you did. She’s happy when she’s with me and far away from you. You asked for a divorce, and you’ve got it, so what damn reason do you have for waltzing back into her life?!”
Yes, Gavin was goddamn aware he asked for a divorce. But there was no way he’d allow another man to have what used to be his.
Gavin stood, his nose flaring. ” You think you make her happy? Don’t be delusional. She can’t be happy when I’m not in her life. No matter how much you try to please her, don’t forget I’m the only man she’s loved; she married me, and she has my kids.”
Gabriel’s fist tightened on the scissors. He used every ounce of his self-control not to stab Gavin.
So what if they used to be married and she bore his kids, feelings could change. Yes, they could. He’d been there for her when Gavin wasn’t, isn’t that enough to create a spark somewhere in her heart for him?
His mind raced back to the look on Sydney’s face when she looked at Gavin.
His heart shrunk. He wanted her to desperately look at him that way. With compassion, not lust. He’d try everything to please her yet she still loved the man who hurt and cheated on her countlessly?!
What had Gavin done to her that made her so in love with him?
What could move a woman’s heart?
Gavin released a breath and walked back to his bed. ” Leave, I need to take a nap.”
Gabriel could make it long and eerily silent.
Gabriel scowled at him and uttered bitterly, ” You should hope her heart stops beating for you before I stop it myself.”
In a fit of rage mixed with jealousy, Gabriel threw the scissors to Gavin, missing his heart by a small distance.
Gavin’s eyes widened in bewilderment, and they watched him storm out of the ward. He didn’t know what to be more petrified about, Gabriel’s statement or the scissors on the life support monitor.
Still bubbling with anger, Gabriel walked through the hospital hallway. A nurse had seen his bleeding hand and called him for treatment but he callously disregarded her.
He needed someone to punch desperately before he went insane. Sydney had no right to make his heart pace anytime he saw her and still be mulling over that b**tard.
He held his hair in frustration, his breathing loud.
It was happening again. The raw unholy covetion. He thought he’d begun to heal from whatever shit was wrong in his head, but instead, it only got worst. He’d do anything to get what he wanted; he’d destroy every obstacle that came his way.
First, he needed to give the b**ch that disobeyed his orders a befitting gift.
As soon as he stepped out of the hospital, his phone rang.
He yanked it out of his pants, his hand shaking uncontrollably.
” Speak!”
” She just left her father’s house and is currently walking somewhere else.”
” Keep following her; when she reaches a lonely area, seize her, knock her out, and bring her to the torture house. And… Use the drugs.”
” Which one boss?”
Gabriel paused for a while, thinking. ” The one that makes her unable to see everyone except me.”