The Girl I Fed For Five Years Stole My Fiancé Chapter 03
The Check That Broke Me
I sprint into the ER building.
The red light above the trauma bay is still glowing. I sag against the wall, praying to a God I’ve never believed in. Please. Please let her be okay.
Fifteen minutes later, footsteps pound down the hallway.
I lift my head slowly.
Kane and Mia. Rushing toward me.
Kane’s chest is heaving. He’s out of breath, like he actually ran.
He stops in front of me and pulls a check out of his jacket. Holds it out.
“Mia told me everything. She didn’t mean to. She just forgot to hide the post.”
“Grandma’s tough as nails. She got a little shock, that’s all. Stop making everything into a crisis.”
“There’s three million dollars on that check. Call it Mia’s apology. Plus five years of tuition, paid back with interest.”
“Now stop holding your charity over her head. She’s sensitive. It’s crushing her self-esteem.”
I stare at the check like it’s roadkill.
Grandma is dying behind that door and this man came here to write me a check? To protect his mistress’s feelings?
I slap his hand aside. The check skids across the tile into some corner.
Kane’s face goes murderous.
“Ronnie, don’t push your luck.”
I look at him, shaking with rage.
“Self-esteem?”
“That leech survived off my handouts for five years. And you’re talking to me about *her self-esteem?*”
“Where was her self-esteem when she was crying on her knees begging me for tuition money?”
“Where was her self-esteem when she was in bed with you in the Maldives?!”
Mia bursts into fresh tears, like I flipped a switch.
“Ronnie, how could you talk about me like that?”
“I know I owe you. Fine—I’ll pay you back. Every single penny. I swear!”
Kane shoves her behind him, glaring at me like I’m the villain.
“You are unbelievable, Ronnie!”
“You think a little money buys you the right to own someone’s whole life?”
“You’re always so aggressive. Never think about how anyone else feels. I am *done*.”
“If you weren’t such a bulldozer, do you think I’d have fallen for Mia?”
“Do you think I would’ve slept with her the night you were in the hospital coughing up blood?!”
Everything goes silent. Like the world flatlined.
“…What?”
Last week. I drank three bottles of whiskey with an investor to lock down the biggest deal of Kane’s IPO. I ended up vomiting blood in an ambulance.
I lay in that hospital bed in agony. I called Kane. His phone was off. Off all night.
The next morning he came in looking wrecked, hugged me, said he’d pulled two all-nighters at the office and passed out at his desk.
I believed him. I felt sorry for him. My chest ached for how hard he was working.
And the whole time…
The whole time he was between Mia Jensen’s legs.
Tears finally break loose. I can’t hold them back anymore.
“Kane, are you even human?”
I lunge at him. I want to tear him apart with my bare hands.
Mia grabs my arm, yanking. “Ronnie, don’t hit Kane!”
I fling my arm back hard.
Mia flops backward, landing flat on her ass, clutching her ankle and moaning.
“Ow… it hurts…”
Kane instantly drops me, sprints over, scoops her up like she’s made of glass.
He turns back with dead eyes.
“You’re hopeless, Ronnie. Sit here and think about what you’ve done.”
He carries her off down the hall.
I slide down the wall to the floor. I can’t even laugh anymore.
Then the trauma bay door bursts open. The doctor walks out, drenched in sweat.
“Family of Rose Sanders?”
I scramble across the floor, grab his white coat with both hands.
“Me! It’s me!”
“Doctor, how is she?”
He pulls off his mask. Sighs.
“She’s alive.”
“But she’s not out of the woods. She could crash at any moment.”
“We’re moving her to a room for observation.”