Almost a Wife Never His Love novel Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The operating room light glowed steadily. Silence hung thick in the corridor, broken only by the sound of breathing.

Nova sat on the waiting bench, fingers leaching cold. Across from her, Ivy Callahan dabbed at red-rimmed eyes, her gaze flickering anxiously toward the surgery doors.

Finally, Ivy spoke, her voice thin with tears, "Ms. Sterling… I'm sorry for causing trouble again."

Nova met her eyes but remained silent.

Ivy wiped fresh tears, "I never imagined… after all these years, Zane would still feel this deeply for me." She paused, lost in memory. "You know? Last year on my birthday, he flew to Val-de-Rêve just to deliver a necklace… a style I'd casually mentioned liking years before. He remembered. And I—I was still angry with him. I threw it back at him. Didn't even let him inside."

Nova's fingers clenched. Her nails bit deep into her palms.

She remembered it all too clearly—last year, when Zane Blackthorn told her he was going on a three-day business trip overseas. He'd returned with a necklace, handing it to her carelessly. She'd treasured it, storing it in the deepest corner of her jewelry box, too precious to wear. Now she knew—it was Ivy's unwanted discard.

Ivy continued, her voice trembling, "Then Christmas the year before… My boyfriend and I had a huge fight. I posted something bleak online. Zane saw it. He flew through the night and stood outside my apartment building until dawn. He stood outside my apartment building until morning. In the middle of a snowstorm, no less. Just… waiting. But he never once knocked.."

Nova's heart twisted like a knife.

She remembered that Christmas night.

Zane had taken her seven times with desperate intensity. She'd thought passion had finally sparked between them. When she woke, his side of the bed was cold. She assumed he'd left to handle some urgent business.

So... he had rushed to Ivy after all.

"These three years…" Ivy's tears fell freely now, "I ignored him. Cut off contact out of spite. But Zane never forgot me. Not one day. He wrote me a letter every single day—even when I never replied."

Nova felt the air thicken, suffocating.

How many late nights had she seen the study light on?

She'd thought he was working, bringing him coffee.

So... he'd been writing love letters to Ivy.

She'd believed—during those years Ivy was gone—that Zane had genuinely tried to build a life with her.

Now she understood. It had always been her own delusion.

Memories flooded her—years spent caring for him just as diligently:

Brewing bone broth each dawn for his delicate stomach.

Leaving lights on when he worked late into the night.

Placing peeled, pitted, perfectly sliced fruit by his hand…

Now he did these things for another.

Nova drew a shuddering breath. She wiped her tears.

It didn't matter.

When she stopped loving him?

She would learn to love herself.