Malik and Jade

Chapter 2 (Jade): I Can Ignore It

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

Malik's face looked stricken when he saw me there, clearly having seen and heard him, but I found I didn't care as I looked away from him. Before this, just five minutes ago, love for this man had filled me. I was terrified of what our son was facing, but I also knew Malik and I would support each other through it. Malik was steadying and calm, a rock for me since we'd been married two years ago, through one negative pregnancy test after another.

But I'd just witnessed the new reality of our lives: Malik had another woman to support him through this scary time, and now I was left without the comfort of my husband's strength and encouragement. This was no longer something we would get through together but individually. Inside I felt as if someone had drained the bathtub and it was now empty. I had nothing for him, felt nothing toward him. I was frozen inside, and even if it was temporary, I appreciated my body moving to protect me from the pain I would no doubt feel at some point. For now, my feelings had disappeared like vapor.

Except, perhaps, contempt, and even that was fading, like the half-hearted flares that sputter just before a sparkler gives out.

"Jade." I'd always loved his voice, from the first time he'd called me on the phone to ask me out and I'd about sighed at how sexy it was, low, rumbly, intense.

He stopped after saying my name because it probably hit him that there simply was nothing to say. He was caught, and not just by me. I raised my eyes to the nurses behind him, and they suddenly, awkwardly lurched into motion, caught staring at this sordid tableau playing out in front of them. Had they seen this before? Had they known? Did the hospital staff know that the very-married surgeon was cozy with his ex? Was she an ex? Or was she a current?

As if feeling their eyes on him, Malik tossed a look over his shoulder and they all scattered.

"Let's go see our son."

Our son, as if he was reminding me of our shared bond. I wasn't the one who had needed reminding. He reached for my arm but I sidestepped.

"I'm going to see him. By myself," I said quietly. So quietly, he had to bend down to hear me.

Sorry I'm so short and not taller like your blonde.

"Jade." There was a hint of a plea embedded in my name.

Why did he keep saying my name? Was it to remind himself of it? So he wouldn't accidentally call me the blonde's name?

"Go away," I said, my words barely a whisper in the charged air between us.

"At least let me walk you there."

"No." Then I had a horrible thought. "Did she go in to see my son with you?"

"She saw me in the hall when I was going in to see him and she wanted to go in, but I asked her to wait for me in the hallway."

I asked her to wait for me.

And that admission burned off any residual feeling I had. Did he even realize what he was doing to me? What he was saying, admitting to?

"Is she his doctor?"

"No." He hesitated, debating how much to share. "She's a heart surgeon. For adults, not pediatrics. She's just a friend, a colleague --" 

I stopped his rush of lying words with a look. At this point, I didn't care what she was to him or he to her; my focus was my baby.

"She will not see my son. You make sure that never happens, or I will make a scene like you can't imagine, and I don't care that you work here. She stays away from him whether I'm here or not."