Chosen as the Cursed Alpha's Seventh Bride

Chapter 268: Chapter 268 The Anniversary

Sebastian’s POV

I stepped out of the ward.

"When are you coming home?" Emilia asked the second I picked up.

"Late, probably. Abigail’s still on the drip. It’s going to be a while." I leaned against the cold wall. "Go to sleep. Don’t wait up for me."

"Don’t they have nurses for that? You know, people who actually get paid to sit next to sick patients?"

"It’s the middle of the night. There isn’t a nurse assigned to stay with her." I lowered my voice. "Be a good girl and go to bed, all right?"

"I’ll go to bed when you walk through that door. Not one minute sooner."

And she hung up. Just like that. She didn’t even give me the chance to argue her out of it.

I stared at the dead screen and dragged a hand down my face.

Back in the ward, Abigail lay curled under the thin hospital blanket, the IV line taped to the swollen back of her hand. She looked small. Fragile in a way that scraped against something old and buried in me.

An hour crawled by. I couldn’t sit still, so I made two trips to the vending machine down the hall and drained a paper cup of coffee that tasted like burnt cardboard. Anything to keep my hands busy.

At half past eleven, my phone lit up again.

"Not done yet?"

"No. There’s still some left in the bag."

"So you’ll make it home before midnight?"

"Why aren’t you asleep?" Irritation slipped out before I could catch it. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"I already told you. I don’t sleep until you’re home."

"Emilia, you’re being ridiculous. She’s sick. What exactly am I supposed to do, rip the needle out of her arm and leave?"

"Then quit asking whether I’m asleep." Her tone flattened, gone cold. "My mate is out playing bedside nurse for the woman who stood up in public and swore she’d take him from me. You tell me how I’m supposed to shut my eyes and drift off."

That shut me up.

I understood it, actually. That quiet fear underneath the sarcasm. The fear of losing something you’d only just let yourself hold onto.

"Fine," I said after a long pause. "The second her drip’s done, I’m out the door."

The bag emptied right at midnight. I pulled the blanket up over Abigail’s shoulders and turned to leave.

A hand caught the hem of my shirt.

"Sebastian. Don’t go."

She looked up at me, eyes wet and pleading. "I can’t stay here alone. Take me home, or stay with me. Please."

"The doctor wants you here overnight for observation. I’ll come get you in the morning." I peeled her fingers off my shirt.

"Then stay." Her voice cracked. "Today is the anniversary of my parents’ deaths. I don’t want to be alone tonight. Not tonight."

Everything in me went still.

I didn’t know the date her parents had died. I’d never asked. But looking at the raw grief in her face, I couldn’t make myself believe she was lying about this one.

"I need to make a call first."

I stepped back into the hallway and dialed Emilia.

"You asleep?"

"No."

"I can’t come home tonight." I braced myself. "Go to sleep without me, okay?"

"Why?"

Not a question. A demand.

"It’s the anniversary of Abigail’s parents’ deaths. She’s falling apart—"

"So every time she falls apart, you’ll be there? Is that the arrangement? Should I pencil this in for every year going forward, Sebastian? Same date, same hospital, same devoted ex-fiancé?"

"This is different. She’s got no one. If Damien were in town, I wouldn’t be standing here."

"That is a garbage excuse and you know it. Come home. Now."

Her voice was iron. Four hours she’d been waiting. No reason on earth was going to soften that.

Ryder shifted uneasily. "Our mate is angry. This ends badly."

I ignored him. "Emilia, why can’t you be a little generous about this? I’m here out of obligation, nothing more. Don’t confuse duty with feelings."

"Being reasonable toward a woman who publicly threatened to take my man isn’t generosity, Sebastian. It’s stupidity. And I’m not stupid."

"Why won’t you just understand the situation for once—"

"Don’t bother explaining. Go comfort your first love. Don’t come home at all."

The line went dead in my ear.

I stood there gripping the phone.

When I walked back into the ward, Abigail took one look at my face.

"What happened? Did you two fight?"

"No. Get some rest. I’ll be right here."

I dragged a stool over to the window and dropped onto it, staring out at the smeared gold of the city lights.

"If you need to smoke, go ahead," Abigail said quietly. "It’s a private room. No other patients to bother."

"I’m fine. Sleep."

"Just have one. It’ll take the edge off."

I hesitated. I hadn’t touched a cigarette in months, barely smoked at all these days. But the knot in my chest wasn’t loosening, and every time I pictured Emilia stubbornly sitting up in that big empty bed waiting on me, it pulled tighter.

I fished the crumpled pack out of my jacket pocket and lit one.

Smoke curled up through the dim light. I meant to smoke just the one. But before I even noticed, I’d lit a second, then a third. Inside an hour, half the pack was gone.

"Feeling any better?"

Abigail’s voice startled me. I turned. "Why aren’t you asleep?"

"I don’t dare. I’m scared that the second I close my eyes, I’ll open them and you’ll be gone."

"Relax. I’m here till morning. Go to sleep."

I dragged the stool back over to her bedside and sat.

"You must be exhausted too," she said. "The bed’s big enough. You could lie down for a while."

I refused flat out. "No need. I’ll just rest my eyes here."

Something flickered across her face, a shadow of hurt, and she rolled over to face the wall. Neither of us said another word after that.

I rested my head against the cool edge of the bedside table, and worn out from the whole miserable night, I drifted off without meaning to.

I don’t know how long I was under. What pulled me back was warmth against my cheek.

My eyes snapped open. Abigail was sitting bolt upright, inches from my face.

"What are you doing?"

She didn’t answer. She slid her arms around my neck and looked at me with an expression I hadn’t seen in years, soft and desperate and aching all at once.

"Sebastian," she breathed. "Let’s get back together. You and me."

Then she closed her eyes and leaned in to kiss me.

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