Chapter 17
A full month had passed since the surgery.
Callum made a point of visiting the hospital daily, determined to personally oversee Laurina’s recovery unti discharge. Despite his still healing incision, he showed up every morning, coffee in hand, newspapers tacked under his arm.
She noticed immediately that Cassie wasn’t with him. “Where’s Cassie? I haven’t seen her once during my entire stay.”
A flicker of something–panic? grief?-crossed Callum’s face before he manufactured a casual smile. “She’s pregnant, you know. Not really in a condition to be hanging around hospitals with all these germs. I’ve insisted she
rest at home.”
Laurina accepted this without pressing further, nodding slightly. She gestured for him to take the chair beside her bed and spoke with sudden seriousness. “You need to focus on your marriage, Callum. Let go of the past–all of it Promise me you’ll be good to her. She deserves that.”
Callum’s gaze slid away as he mumbled vague agreement, quickly changing the subject by helping her adjust her pillows. He methodically peeled an apple, cutting it into perfect bite–sized pieces and feeding them to her one by one with the practiced care of someone who’d done this before.
Each day followed the same pattern. He arrived with vitamin supplements and homemade chicken broth “for strength,” keeping her company through countless reruns of procedural dramas. Each evening around dinner time, Laurina would insist he leave.
“Go home,” she’d urge, practically pushing him toward the door. “Cassie shouldn’t be alone in her condition.”
As days passed, Laurina couldn’t help noticing his reluctance to leave, his increasingly haggard appearance, and the way he never mentioned his wife unless directly prompted. Something was clearly wrong, but she found herself selfishly enjoying these quiet moments too much to disrupt them with uncomfortable questions.
One weekend, while making her slow way through the hospital cafeteria, she spotted a visibly pregnant woman leaning against her husband, her face glowing with unmistakable joy despite her obvious discomfort. Something about the tender way the man supported her weight while whispering in her ear stirred a complex mix of emotions
in Laurina.
When Callum arrived later that afternoon, she finally confronted him directly.
“Callum, has something happened to Cassie?” she asked, studying his face carefully. “Why hasn’t she called or texted
me even once?”
“And you,” she continued, noting the dark circles under his eyes, “you look terrible. You’re here constantly when you should be at home with your pregnant wife. What’s really going on?”
Callum defaulted to his practiced excuse. “She’s just not feeling well. Having mobility issues with the pregnancy.”
This Time I Chose To Reclaim My Own Life
11.7%
Chapter 17
“Wouldn’t she at least send a text?” Laurina pressed, her suspicion hardening into certainty. “Have you two been
fighting?”
As his evasions continued, her patience evaporated. “Call her. Right now. Put her on speaker.”
Cornered, Callum’s shoulders slumped in defeat. The proud, confident man seemed to physically diminish as he finally confessed everything–the divorce, the terminated pregnancy, Cassie’s disappearance.
Horror and guilt washed over Laurina’s face. “This is all my fault,” she whispered, striking the mattress with her fist. “If I’d never come back to New York… if I’d just stayed in Paris where I belonged… none of this would have
happened.”
She grabbed his sleeve urgently. “Where is she now? Is she safe? Have you been in contact?”
Callum sighed, rubbing his temples. “My investigators traced her to Rome. She’s alive and apparently doing well, though I haven’t spoken to her directly. She’s… gone completely dark.”
“This is entirely my doing,” he added, seeing Laurina’s distress. “You’re not responsible for any of it.”
Then, perhaps sensing vulnerability, he placed his hand over hers. The heat of his touch made Laurina instinctively pull away, but he persisted, capturing her hand once more.
When their eyes met, Callum saw the conflict raging behind hers.
“Laurina, we can finally be together. Like we were always meant to be.”
She shook her head, anguish evident. “We can’t. Not like this. Not at Cassie’s expense.”
Ignoring her protest, Callum embraced her. For a moment, surrounded by the familiar comfort of his arms–a feeling that had defined her formative years–Laurina allowed herself to remember. After a brief hesitation, she returned his embrace, permitting herself this small moment of weakness.
Their hospital days fell into a pattern eerily reminiscent of their college years. Callum would hold her hand during movies in the patient lounge, covering her eyes during frightening scenes just as he had a decade earlier. He attended to every detail of her care personally–traversing six flights of stairs when the elevator was slow, meticulously arranging the flowers he brought daily.
Each evening, he’d wheel her through the hospital gardens, occasionally stopping to watch elderly couples playing chess in the golden hour light. To casual observers, they appeared to be any ordinary couple enjoying each other’s
company.
Yet Laurina increasingly noticed how Callum’s attention seemed to drift–his gaze lingering on pregnant women or certain objects that appeared to trigger distant memories.
At first, she attributed this to adjustment. But one afternoon, she caught him staring transfixed at a young couple sharing cotton candy near the hospital entrance. The woman was laughing while her partner pretended disgust, playfully turning away.
Something in Callum’s expression–a strange mix of longing and pain–told Laurina this wasn’t simple food envy. He was somewhere else entirely, lost in a memory that clearly didn’t include her.
Addin In The Stand In Past. This Time I Chose To Reclaim My Own Life
11.9%
Chapter 17
Later, she learned he was remembering his fire shopping trip with Candia after wedding fr& perband expensive clothing for her, but she’d remained side will he finally agreed to key her cotton candy from a mo vendor. Her face had lit up with such genuine delight as the tried to convince him to taste the “didyo confection, which he’d firmly refused.
“If you’re craving sugar, just go buy some,” Laurina teased, pretending to miderstand station
Callum shook his head absently. “Cassie loved cotton candy.” Then, catching himself “trandom memesy
That night, while pretending to sleep, Laurina overheard Callow’s unconscious morming ‘Cause why did you
leave?”
The unguarded vulnerability in his sleep talk made her heart constrict in the silvery moonlight fluminating his troubled face, Laurina finally acknowledged what she’d been denying for weeks
The next morning, she sent Callum to meet an allegedly arriving relative–a fabrication that gave her time to complete discharge paperwork and arrange for her departure.
When Callum returned to an empty room, his heart plummeted. On the neatly made bed lay a single envelope
His hands trembled as he read her familiar handwriting
“Callum,
Have you considered that perhaps you’ve already fallen in love with Cassie without realizing it?
I’ve watched you these past weeks. You may be physically present with me, but your mind constantly drifts to her. You speak her name in your sleep. Those shared moments between you two can’t be replaced by our nostalgia–not
anymore.
Love isn’t about who came first. It’s about finding the right person at the right time in your life. Cassie is that person for you now, not me.
Stop torturing yourself. Go to Rome. Find her. Make things right.
As for me, it’s time I returned to my own life in Paris.
With love and gratitude for my second chance, Laurina”
3
