The Donna Who Vanished from the Portrait Chapter 06

The Donna Who Vanished from the Portrait Chapter 06

At dawn, Matteo stepped out through the side entrance and left an umbrella on the stone steps.

It sat there, soaked through by the rain, untouched.

That morning, I collapsed from a high fever while hanging paintings.

Matteo rushed me to a nearby clinic, Adrian arrived less than twenty minutes later-he’d had the estate staff

track my phone.

I woke to the icy sting of an IV in my hand.

Adrian sat beside the hospital bed. His damp suit jacket lay draped carelessly over a chair, and underneath he wore a crisp clean dress shirt. The same pair of silver cufflinks glinted on his wrists, as if his bedraggled

state from the night before had never happened at all.

A bowl of oatmeal sat before him-no sugar, no peanut.

“You’re awake?” He spooned up a mouthful and tested the temperature against his lips. “Eat.”

I said nothing.

Adrian set the bowl aside. He picked up a cotton swab and pressed it to the oozing puncture site on the back

of my hand.

His fingertips were dry and warm, holding firm so I couldn’t pull away. “Margaret, you need to know when to

stop playing these games.”

His voice dropped low when he spoke my name. “Don’t make a scene in the hospital.”

A nurse walked in holding admission paperwork. “Mr. Moretti is here. Ms. Margaret, please confirm-for your

emergency contact…”

Adrian held out his hand. “Give that to me.”

He took the form, his gaze landing on the name Matteo Rossi.

The pen scratched across the paper, crossing the name out completely.

He slid the clipboard and pen toward me. “Put my name down.”

“What good would putting you down do?”

Adrian’s gaze turned cold. “I’m your husband.”

“When exactly did the hospital reach you?”

Silence hung heavy in the hospital room. Adrian crumpled the form and tossed it into the waste bin. “I don’t

want to relitigate old arguments.”

He picked the bowl back up. “Tomorrow we will run a full set of follow-up tests. I’ll bring in the top specialists. From now on, if you’re hospitalized, you call me first. Anyone who dares ignore this will

disappear.”

He had already been on the phone with his Consigliere arranging medical experts, yet not a single word of

apology crossed his lips.

His phone rang. Elena’s tear-clogged voice came through the speaker, thick with tears. “Adrian, Sophie has been crying for you since she woke up. The doctor says she’s extremely agitated. Nonna too..”

“Have her take her medicine and go to sleep,” Adrian cut her off. “The doctors and Nonna are right there.

She’s not going to die.”

He hung up and set the phone face-down on the bedside table.

His eyes never left me.

He reached for my hand, wrapping my cold fingers inside his palms. “I’m here. This ends right now. Margaret,

stop testing how far I’ll bend.”

I slowly pulled my hand free. “If they need you so badly, go to them. You’re staying only so you can get me to give you the reassurance you’re fishing for.”

“The fact that you can see I stayed ought to be enough.”

“I don’t need to see it.”

Rage burned behind Adrian’s eyes, barely contained. “It’s so easy for you. I’m stuck placating an aging matriarch and caring for a sick child. Do you have any idea what a mess you’ve left me to clean up?”

He leaned over, bracing both arms on the edge of the hospital bed. “Margaret, do you truly want to force me

to take harsh measures?”

“Do whatever you want. Take it out on me if you must.” I pressed the call button.

By afternoon, my fever had broken.

The doctor cleared me for discharge. The nurse removed my IV line, and I signed the release paperwork.

“Keep them. Keep the Moretti name, your good reputation, all of it. Just leave me out from now on.”