On Our Fifth Anniversary My Husband Begged Me Not to Leave Chapter 16

On Our Fifth Anniversary My Husband Begged Me Not to Leave Chapter 16

My mother was recovering well after the surgery.

The doctors were optimistic.

But then, without warning, everything fell apart.

The nurse called me, her voice frantic.

“Your mother’s condition just took a sudden turn for the worse. You need to come to the hospital right now.”

By the time I arrived, the doctors already looked baffled.

“The surgery was textbook. There’s no medical reason for her to crash like this.”

One of them frowned.

“Unless she was exposed to some kind of extreme emotional stress.”

A cold hand gripped my spine.

“What kind of stress?”

“Post-operative patients can’t handle major emotional swings—especially not with unstable cardiac and blood pressure readings. You need to think—did anything unusual happen today?”

My mind raced.

My mother had just come out of surgery.

Aside from the medical staff and our immediate family, no one else had access to her.

—

And then it hit me.

“Check the security footage.”

Half an hour later, I was standing in the surveillance room.

The footage rolled.

Nurses came and went.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

And then—a figure appeared at the door of my mother’s room.

Maren Walsh.

My breath stopped.

Behind me, I felt Ethan go rigid.

There was no audio.

Just the silent, grainy footage.

Maren walked in, leaned close to the bed, and began speaking.

At first, my mother seemed to respond.

But within minutes, her body language changed—her hands started slapping at the bed rails.

The monitors began to spike.

And Maren just stood there, her lips still moving.

She didn’t press the call button until my mother’s face had turned ashen gray.

—

The footage stopped.

The room was silent except for the hum of the machines.

“I’m going to find her.” My voice didn’t sound like my own.

I turned and walked out.

I caught up with Maren at the train station.

She was about to board, bags in hand, ready to disappear.

When she saw me, she still had the nerve to put on that wounded, innocent face.

“Stella…”

I slapped her.

Hard.

The sound echoed through the station.

She clutched her cheek, eyes wide with disbelief.

“You hit me?”

“You know exactly why.” My voice was ice.

“What did you say to my mother?”

Maren’s eyes darted sideways.

“I was just… I was just checking in on her. Out of kindness…”

“Kindness?” I shoved my phone in her face, the surveillance stills pulled up.

—

“Then explain this. What did you say that made her crash?”

Every trace of color drained from Maren’s face.

But she still set her jaw.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Maren.” A deep voice cut through.

Ethan stepped forward, his eyes fixed on her.

There was nothing warm in them.

Nothing forgiving.

“This is the last time I’m going to ask you. What did you say to my mother-in-law?”

Maren’s shoulders began to shake.

The tears came, fast and messy.

But she finally broke.

“I told her the truth! I told her you and Stella were already divorced. I told her you never really loved her daughter. And I told her…” She looked straight at me, and the venom in her eyes was unmasked at last.

“I told her that her precious son-in-law had been cheating for years.”

—

The words hung in the air like a bomb waiting to detonate.

Ethan’s face went white. “That’s a lie. I never—”

“Didn’t you?” Maren cut him off, laughing through her tears. “You might not have slept with me, Ethan, but you let everyone believe you did. You let her believe it. You let me sit at her table, smile at her face, and whisper in her ear while you did nothing. That’s worse than cheating. That’s cruelty.”

I felt the ground tilt beneath me.

My mother had just come out of major surgery. Her heart was fragile. And Maren had walked into her room and told her that her daughter’s marriage—the one thing my mother still believed in—was a lie.

No wonder she crashed.

I turned to Ethan. My voice came out cold and flat.

“Get her out of here. And don’t come near my mother or me again.”

“Stella, I didn’t know she would—”

“Get. Out.”

Ethan opened his mouth, closed it, then grabbed Maren by the arm and dragged her away.

I stood there in the empty station, shaking from head to toe, and let the tears finally fall.