He Bet I’d Crawl Back—My New Husband Was Waiting Outside Chapter 02

He Bet I’d Crawl Back—My New Husband Was Waiting Outside Chapter 02

Two days later, I woke up from shock.

When I opened my eyes, Sebastian was sitting in the hospital room reading corporate documents.

The Varenna family had long since moved beyond casinos and smuggling. They controlled several of New York’s largest cybersecurity firms and private security companies. In every public profile, Sebastian was the young, handsome, ruthless heir to a tech empire.

No one knew that the night before, all it took was a single word from him to have his company’s security personnelstrap his wife to a hospital bed.

We stared at each other for a long time.

Without any expression, he brought over a bowl of soup and made as if to feed me.

I shook my head.

“I can do it myself.”

He watched me eat half the bowl, then asked:

“Is anything hurting?”

I ignored the question entirely.

“Give me back my phone.”

Maybe it was how distant I sounded. Sebastian froze for a few seconds before contacting the butler to have my phone brought over.

When he saw the screen full of missed calls, he asked, almost too casually:

“Who called?”

He’d never taken this much interest in my life before.

“No one you know,” I said.

Sebastian undid the top button of his shirt and looked down at me with cold eyes.

“Ginevra, how long are you planning to keep up this attitude?”

“I give you a little leeway and you actually think you can challenge me?”

In the past, whenever he got angry, I would examine what I’d done wrong and do everything in my power to soothe him.

But now, I just pointed at his phone, which was buzzing on the table.

“Tessa’s calling.”

At the sound of her name, warmth flickered instantly in his eyes.

Out of habit, he stepped away from me and walked into the hospital corridor to take the call.

The moment he left, my phone rang.

I answered, and before I could say a word, the voice on the other end was already speaking, urgent and worried:

“You said you were coming to me

. Ginny, did you change your mind?”

“No.”

“Something came up, that’s all.”

“Something came up? Are you hurt? I’m flying back to New York right now.”

“Declan.”

I cut him off.

“Just give me a few more days.”

Sebastian walked back into the room just as I was hanging up.

When he saw the trace of a smile on my lips, a smile he hadn’t seen in a very long time, his expression darkened for reasons he couldn’t quite name.

But he’d already promised Tessa he’d head straight back to the estate to read a bedtime story to her and the baby.

So he didn’t have time to ask who I’d been talking to.

He probably assumed it was some female relative.

After all, once I married him, every male friend I’d ever had was systematically removed from my life by the Varenna family’s security team.

Sebastian picked up his documents and said without looking back:

“Something came up at the office.”

“I’ll come by tomorrow.”

Tomorrow.

The day after.

The day after that.

He never showed.

But thanks to mutual acquaintances, I kept receiving videos of him and Tessa.

He took her to tech summits, charity galas, and corporate receptions. Like a young man in love for the very first time, he couldn’t wait to introduce her to everyone he knew.

The day I was discharged, Sebastian posted a set of photos.

In the golden light of sunset, he stood in a hot air balloon, cradling Tessa’s face in his hands, kissing her deeply.

I left a comment underneath:

[Wishing you both a beautiful baby and a lifetime of happiness.]

Ten minutes later, Sebastian called me.

I didn’t pick up.

Half an hour later, I finished my discharge paperwork alone and ran into them outside the OB-GYN department.

A young nurse smiled at Tessa:

“Mrs. Varenna, your husband really does adore you. Every time you come in for a checkup, he insists on warming the ultrasound gel in his hands first because he’s afraid it’ll be too cold.”

The other expectant mothers nearby looked on with envy.

I instinctively touched my stomach.

There had been a baby there once, too.

The day of the car accident, the day Ibled and lost the pregnancy, I called Sebastian on video, sobbing.

Tessa answered. Completely naked.

She smiled and told me:

“Mrs. Varenna, Sebastian lost a game to me, and right now he’s handcuffed to the bed as punishment. Was there something you needed him for?”

I didn’t answer. I just hung up.

Less than a minute later, Sebastian called back himself

. He had his arm around a teary-eyed Tessa, and he called me petty, called me pathetic beyond belief.

He said:

“You can’t even keep your own child alive. What exactly are you good for?”

“Ginevra, why didn’t you just die in that crash?”

I pulled myself out of the memory and tried to walk around them.

But Sebastian came toward me, his face hard.

“What are you standing there for?”

I lowered my head instinctively and started to explain.

“I wasn’t following you. I just happened to run into you. I’m sorry for the intrusion.”

“Wait.”

Sebastian frowned and called me back.

A flash of jealousy crossed Tessa’s eyes.

She hugged Sebastian’s arm tighter and smiled at me.

“Ginevra, I’m really so grateful you donated blood for me. If it weren’t for you, I’d probably still be

dizzy. Sebastian, let her come home with us, okay?”

Sebastian tapped the tip of her nose with his finger, indulgent and adoring.

“You’re too kind.”

“Whatever you say.”

I’d been planning to go back to the estate to pick up my documents anyway, so I didn’t refuse.

Inside the spacious black sedan

, it didn’t take long before I found exactly what Tessa wanted me to find: a pair of lace underwear, still damp, wedged between the seats.

“How is this still in the car?”

Tessa bit her lip and burrowed into Sebastian’s arms, swatting his chest with a coy, embarrassed little fist.

“You promised me you’d already had someone get rid of it!”

Sebastian chuckled and murmured an apology.

But his eyes drifted to me, watching my reaction from behind a carefully neutral expression.

When he realized I wasn’t the least bit upset, that same nameless irritation from the hospital room surged through him again.

“Ginevra.”

“You’ve been staring at your phone since you got in the car.”

“Texting a relative, or that person I don’t know?”

I finished booking my flight to London and turned off the screen.

“Just reading the news.”

That answer only deepened the displeasure between his brows.

Before I could react, he snatched the phone from my hand.

“Passcode.”

“My birthday.”

Nine years of marriage.

Six simple digits. Sebastian tried again and again until the phone locked him out completely, and he still couldn’t get in.

Neither of us spoke for the rest of the drive.

When we arrived at the estate, Sebastian immediately helped a nauseous Tessa into the master bedroom, then ordered the chef to prepare her favorite dinner.

On his way back downstairs, he saw me walking toward the guest room alone.

He hesitated for a moment, then told the chef:

“Make two of the dishes my wife usually has.”

“Set three places.”

In the guest room

, I opened my suitcase and found that every piece of clothing had been cut to shreds.

But the passport and documents hidden in the lining were still there. Thank God.

I gathered everything I needed and headed for the door.

Tessa was blocking it.

She held a black metal canister in her hand and looked me up and down with undisguised contempt.

“Ginevra.”

“I have to say, you can really take a beating.”