If Your Heart Doesn’t Lean Towards Me I Don’t Want It Chapter 04
Before I could speak, Ellis cut in, his voice dark.
“No.”
In all the time I’d known him, it was the first time I’d ever seen him react so quickly to anything.
Avoiding my gaze, Ellis said in a low voice, “It’s not entirely Tessa’s fault.”
“This is on me. I never should have kept a private video like that on the cloud.”
A private video.
I pressed a hand to my stomach as a cold sweat broke out across my forehead.
Tessa was trembling from head to toe, still crying.
“Ellis, I don’t want to go to jail.”
Ellis lowered his voice, soothing her.
“I’m here. I won’t let anyone touch you.”
The moment my mother heard that, she began to shake with rage.
She raised her hand and slapped Ellis hard across the face.
“Ellis Lombardi, have you no shame?”
The force of the blow snapped his head to the side. Tessa immediately cried harder.
“Mrs. Ricci, it’s all my fault! If you want to hit someone, hit me! Don’t take it out on Ellis.”
“But the most urgent thing now is figuring out what to do. The video is spreading everywhere. If it were me, I don’t know how I’d ever face anyone again.”
She looked at my mother. “How is your daughter supposed to live with this?”
My mother swayed, grabbing the bedrail to steady herself.
She lifted her hand as if to slap Tessa, to shut her up.
But Ellis caught her by the wrist.
“Mrs. Ricci, she already said she was sorry. What more do you want?”
My mother’s voice trembled with fury.
“Ellis, my daughter is carrying your child, and you still—”
She never finished the sentence.
Suddenly, she clutched her chest, her face draining of color before she collapsed to the floor.
“Mom!”
I shot upright, and a sharp, tearing pain ripped through my abdomen.
Doctors and nurses rushed in, lifting her onto a gurney.
“She might be having a heart attack. We need to move.”
One of the nurses turned to us.
“Who’s family? I need you to come handle admissions and the consent forms.”
The gurney was wheeled past me in a blur.
Barefoot, I tried to follow.
The nurse immediately blocked my path.
“You need to be on bed rest. You’re at risk of a miscarriage—you cannot get out of bed.”
I could only clutch desperately at Ellis’s sleeve.
“Go. Stay with my mother.”
But Ellis didn’t move.
Tessa was staring at her phone, her expression anxious.
“Ellis, the video is still spreading.”
He turned toward the door without a second thought.
“I need to handle this first.”
“We’re about to get married. I can’t have this blowing up online.”
A roaring started in my ears.
“What did you just say?”
I stared at him, unable to believe it.
“If you cared so much, why did you ask me to film it? And why did you let Tessa keep using your accounts?”
Ellis frowned.
“She didn’t do it on purpose. We’ve shared accounts for years. We never drew a hard line between them.”
But it was never just the accounts they hadn’t separated.
I was shaking with anger. The pain in my abdomen grew sharper, a heavy, dropping sensation.
I clutched my stomach, my voice trembling.
“Ellis, the baby…”
Ellis looked at me, his eyes filled with disappointment.
“You shouldn’t use the baby to manipulate me. That’s your child, too.”
He turned, resting a hand on Tessa’s shoulder.
“Let’s go.”
After he left, a slow warmth spread beneath me.
Soon, a wide patch of red stained the white hospital sheet.
I stared at the stain, my voice sounding distant, as if it belonged to someone else.
“I’m bleeding…”
I’m terrified of blood. My hand shook violently as I reached for the nurse call button.
Then my phone lit up.
It was a message from Tessa.
A man is never more attractive than when he’s solving a woman’s problems for her.
Beneath the text was a photo.
In it, Ellis was driving, his profile sharp and clear.
I stared at the picture as tears fell onto the screen, one after another.
My mother was still in the ER. I closed my eyes and ripped the IV from my hand.
Blood welled from the puncture. The blood on the sheets continued to spread.
Bracing myself against the wall, I stumbled out of the hospital room.
I had only just made it to the doorway when a pair of strong hands caught me.
“Don’t panic. I’ve already taken care of your mother’s paperwork.”
The voice was calm, gentle.
“Coralie, give me a chance to handle this. Please.”