"I am not going to the hospital?" I cocked an eyebrow.
"It's not as severe that you need your stomach pumped, the doctor said, and it would be just a precautionary measure. But if we do, father will find out somehow and you know how he is."
"Oh, right." Nolan Sr was next level insane when it came to his precious golden boy. If he were to find out I had to have my stomach pumped to remove some exotic drug out of my system, he would freak out. He might kill me and erase any record of my existence. "Is that why you called the doctor to the rich?"
"Darcy called her. But yes, Dr. Miller is a concierge doctor and she's pretty good at keeping secrets."
I rolled my eyes. "You people live in a world of your own."
Carey smirked. "We? You're one of us now."
"It doesn't feel like it sometimes."
His gaze raked my entire body. "The evidence says otherwise."
"If you think I am going to stop talking to Darcy because of this, you're fooling yourself."
He shook his head. "I don't know why you keep her around. How many times will you let her skid close to ruining your reputation? Or dare I say life?"
"Darcy is the only person who doesn't make me feel like I don't belong."
He looked like he was about to object, but then stopped himself. His features hardened. "People tend to not like people who sell themselves to the highest bidder."
My phone dinged from somewhere on the nightstand beside me. Instead of responding to him, I chose to pick my battles and reached for the phone. It was Darcy.
Darcy: I think your man might be into you way more than you think.
My heart skipped a beat. I glanced at Carey. Another message from Darcy came in.
Darcy: You should have seen the way he acted when you fainted in his arms.
Yeah. The same man who was just now calling me a prostitute without calling me a prostitute. I typed back a response.
Me: It's all for show.
Darcy: I don't know about that. You kinda had to be there. He went feral.
She added a heart eyes emoji. I looked at Carey again. Carey going 'feral' over me, was an incomprehensible image. He was way too cool to act like that for anyone, let alone me.
The quiet and emptiness of our apartment was comforting after coming back from Darcy's.Our apartment?Strike that. His apartment.His. I was quickly forgetting who I was and what my role was. He had been so caring I had temporarily fooled myself into believing what Darcy said. Instead of letting me walk, which I was fairly capable of doing, he carried me in his arms from the car right to my bed and laid me there and removed my shoes.
"Thank you," I said to him after he finished removing the second shoe.
"Do you want a shower? Or I could run a bath for you."
I shook my head. "The show is over. You don't have to keep pretending."
He picked up my shoes and put them in my closet. When he returned, his brow was furrowed. He looked pained. "I wasn't pretending."
I rolled my eyes.
"Do you ever wonder where our relationship would have gone if— "
"If I didn't take your father's deal."
He nodded slightly.
I sighed. I thought about it all the time. Whether he would have eventually fallen in love with me. If our marriage would be as cold as it was now. If we would still maintain the passion we had for each other during that blissful period.
