mid-thirties, and looked tired. “We had to take him in to surgery for the laceration. It hit a main artery, but he should be okay as far as that is concerned. He’ll need a blood transfusion.”
Damn.
“Okay.” Numbness started to creep into my body as I remembered the night the nurse told me Colin died. Blood. There was so much blood.
“What I need to talk to you about is his liver.” That snapped me right out of my trance.
“Liver? Oh yes. He’s an alcoholic. The family has tried to help him but…”
The doctor nodded. “I understand. Because of the alcoholism I can’t get him on a liver transplant list, but if your husband could be tested, he might be able to do a living donation. You just donate a small lobe and it grows back in six to eight weeks.”
Liver donation?
“Wait, what?”
The doctors face fell, “I’m sorry, ma’am, but your father-in-law is in end-stage liver failure. Without a liver donation, and stopping drinking … he won’t make it.”
My stomach dropped at his words. End-stage liver failure? Won’t make it?
No.
“I’m not donating shit to my old man,” Ashton’s gravelly voice said from behind me and I froze.
The doctor stiffened. “Is this your husband?” he asked me and I flinched.
“Hell no,” Ashton said, and I didn’t turn around. I was too embarrassed I’d been telling the whole hospital we were married so I could get info on his dad.
“I’ll leave you two to talk.” The doctor must have assumed we were having marital problems and left the room.
My phone buzzed then and I wasn’t going to look, but I saw the words “911.” Opening the text from Julie, my stomach turned over. She’d texted five times and I hadn’t noticed.
Julie: Ashton knows!
Julie: He overheard me talking to John.
Julie: FUCKING CALL ME.
Julie: Millie, he just left in his truck. I think he’s coming to the hospital.
Julie: 911 CALL ME.
I spun and my heart fell into my throat when I saw Ashton’s fury. He was pale, forehead beaded with sweat.
“Ashton…”
“Don’t. Just get the fuck out of my life and don’t ever come back.” His words were filled with such malice, I wasn’t prepared for it. My head reeled back in shock.
“Ashton, let me explain…”
He laughed, walking closer to me, and I was suddenly grateful we had the room to ourselves because I had a feeling I was about to get my ass handed to me.
“Explain what?” He reached up and gripped the neck of his shirt, yanking so that it tore open, revealing the scar. “This is why you’re here, right?” He tapped his chest. “Your dead husband’s heart?”
Nausea rolled through me at his words.
I lowered my head. “No.”
He stepped closer, jaw clenched. “No?”
I swallowed hard. “That’s why I came here, but not why I stayed.”
“Oh bullshit, Millie!” he shouted and I jumped. “You’re a psycho!” He seethed, “You’ve wormed your way into my life, stolen half my bar, and had sex with me, all in the name of getting closer to your husband’s memory.”
His words hurt; they weren’t true. But did I deserve them? I should have told him day one. I looked into his eyes and saw so much hurt there. I hoped he saw equal emotion swimming in my gaze. “No.” I shook my head fiercely, tears streaming down my cheeks. “I didn’t know you were going to be good looking, I didn’t know we would have chemistry, I … hated you when I first met you.”
“Ditto,” he growled.
This was going off the rails.
“That night with you … at your grandmother’s guest house, I never once thought of him. I—”
Ashton shook his head. “I can’t believe a word out of your lying mouth.”
Tears blurred my vision and I realized in that moment that I was going to lose him. Lose Ashton, the bar, his dad, everything I was trying to save. I had really started to fall for him, allowed myself to open up for the first time since Colin. I’d imagined a future with this man, and by withholding the truth I’d fucked it all up.
“I’m sorry.” Tears splashed down my cheeks. “What if it was Jenna. What would you have done?”
He seemed to consider it before that mask of anger was back. “Not this. Not fucking this.”
I reached for him, suddenly desperate to make him see, but he recoiled. “Get out. I want you out of the apartment by tonight or I’ll call the sheriff and have you evicted.”
My mouth popped open. “Ashton, let me explain. This wasn’t—”
He stepped forward,