Married to the Monster They Said Was Dead Chapter 05

Married to the Monster They Said Was Dead Chapter 05

I had thirty seconds.

I shoved the diagnostic kit under the bed, killed the lamp, and was halfway back to my cot when the doorknob rattled.

“Adriana?” Ottavia’s voice, sweet as poison. “Open the door.”

I unlocked it, blinking like I’d just surfaced from sleep. “It’s the middle of the night.”

She swept past me, eyes going straight to Lorenzo. He lay perfectly still now, his vitals settling into the fake flatline rhythm. Whatever instinct had pulled him under had saved us both.

“His readings spiked,” she said. “On my app.”

“He had a minor arrhythmia. I adjusted his fluids.” I let irritation color my voice. “I’m a surgeon, Ottavia. I know what I’m doing. Did you climb three flights of stairs just to second-guess me?”

Her eyes swept the room, lingering on the extra blankets I’d arranged to hide the equipment. Then on me. “You spend a great deal of time in here. For someone who married a man she’d never met.”

“I take my commitments seriously.”

“How admirable.” She moved toward the door, then paused beside me, close enough that I could smell her perfume—lilies and something colder underneath. “A word of advice, dear. Don’t get attached. His condition is terminal. The kindest thing you can do is accept it.”

She left. I locked the door, leaned against it, and waited until my heart stopped trying to crack my ribs.

By morning, Lorenzo was awake again—and angrier that his body had betrayed him.

“It’s the withdrawal,” I told him, checking his pupils. “Your nervous system is recalibrating. The spikes will keep happening for another week. You can’t control them yet.”

“I can’t afford not to.” He gritted his teeth and forced himself upright on shaking arms. “Help me up.”

“You can barely lift your head.”

“Then I’ll learn fast. Get me on my feet, Doctor. We’re running out of weeks.”

We worked through the days like soldiers planning an escape. Passive range-of-motion at dawn, before the staff arrived. Cognitive drills in the afternoon, while Ottavia held court at her charity luncheons. Strength training at night, behind a locked door, every movement won in by brutal inch.

By day ten, he could stand for ninety seconds.

By day twelve, he took four steps gripping the bedpost, his legs shaking violently but refusing to buckle.

“Again,” I said.

“You’re enjoying this,” he muttered, sweat dripping down his temple.

“Immensely. Three more.”

He made it five before his knees gave out. I lunged to catch him—and his full weight took us both down onto the carpet.

For a frozen second I was pressed against his chest, his arm instinctively wrapped around me to break my fall. Our faces were inches apart. His breath came ragged, but his eyes were steady, dark, unblinking.

“You’re not what they said you were,” he murmured.

“And you’re not what they buried.” I pulled myself free fast, ignoring the heat crawling up my neck. “We need to work on your core.”

“You do that a lot.” He sat up slowly, watching me retreat to clinical distance. “Pull away the second anything feels real.”

“I’m your doctor.”

“You’re my wife.”

“On paper.”

“Paper’s a start.” His tone was light. His eyes weren’t. “Most things begin with less.”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t—not when his recovery hinged on me staying objective, not when Ottavia had started watching me like a hawk circling a wounded animal.

That night, I tried again to ask the question that had haunted me since he’d collapsed mid-sentence.

“Lorenzo. Before you passed out, you said Ottavia wasn’t working alone. That there’s a man she’s grooming to take your place if you die. Who is he?”

His face went still. The kind of stillness that comes before violence.

“You’re not going to like the answer.”

“I haven’t liked anything since I walked in here. Tell me.”

He looked at me for a long, dangerous moment. Then he said a name that stopped my heart cold.

“Alessio Conti.”

The room tilted. “Alessio. My— Alessio? The man my family wanted me to marry?”

“The same.” Lorenzo’s voice was iron. “The Contis and Ottavia have been carving up my empire in secret for two years. Your engagement wasn’t an alliance between your family and his, Adriana.” His eyes locked onto mine. “It was a way to put a Greco close enough to me to make sure I never woke up.”

The blood roared in my ears.

I hadn’t escaped my family’s game by marrying a dead man.

I’d walked straight into the center of it.