The State-Assigned Husband Chapter 08

The State-Assigned Husband Chapter 08

Ethan was rushed into the operating room.

The entire floor was cleared out. The hallway lined with men in black suits, silent as a wall.

I sat on the bench outside the OR, his blood still staining my hands-

dried now, dark red smudges.

The lead man approached and sat beside me.

“Ms. Moore, I’m Mr. Carter’s private security chief, Mr. Gray.”

“Who… exactly is he?”

Mr. Gray glanced at me, avoiding a direct answer. “Mr. Carter always wears a tracker. When you were abducted, the signal cut out. It took us some time to locate the warehouse.”

“What about his legs…”

“The doctors will do everything they can.

The surgery lasted over four hours.

When the light finally went out, the door opened. The lead surgeon removed his mask, his

expression grim. “The patient is out of danger. But his legs are severely injured. He’ll need an extended rehabilitation period-he likely won’t walk normally for at least six months.”

“Will he make a full recovery?”

“With proper rehab, yes, he should.”

I leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor slowly.

Alive was enough.

Recoverable was enough.

During his hospital stay, I was by his side every day.

His family came to visit his parents, his sister. Everyone treated me warmly, never questioning our whirlwind marriage or my past.

Later I learned that Ethan had called his family the night we married, telling them: “I’m married.

She’s a wonderful woman. I want you to treat her well.”

He’d even taken care of that for me.

One day, he leaned against the hospital bed as I peeled an apple for him.

He suddenly asked, “What you said in the warehouse-were you serious?”

“What did I say?”

“That you’d die with me if I died.”

The fruit knife in my hand paused.

“What do you think?” I asked back.

He looked into my eyes, holding my gaze for a moment before smiling.

“I think you were.”

He took the apple and the knife from my hands and set them aside on the bedside table.

Then he took both of my hands in his. “Mia Moore,” he said, his voice low and certain.

“A woman who was ready to die for me… is a woman I will never, ever let go of.”

“Mia Moore, a woman who’d die for me I’ll never let you go.”

Six mnths later.

Ethan completed his final round of rehabilitation therapy.

On the day of his discharge, the sun shone with a gentle warmth.

He stood at the hospital entrance, drew a deep, unhindered breath, and then knelt down to carefully

retie his shoelaces-a simple action that had taken him six long months to reclaim.

He stood up and walked over to me.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“Where?” I asked.

“Home.”

He meant the Carter family estate. I’d been there many times in the past six months, but this arrival

was different.

This time, he walked through the tall front doors on his own two feet, under his own power.

The wedding was a month later.

He insisted on throwing the grandest wedding the city had ever seen.

I told him a simple ceremony would do-no need for extravagance.

He pulled me into his arms, looking down at me with a tenderness that took my breath away.

“No,” he said firmly. “I want everyone to know Mia Moore is Ethan Carter’s wife.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Aren’t you being a bit dramatic?”

“Not at all,” he replied, kissing my forehead softly as his voice dropped. “Do you remember what

you said in that abandoned warehouse?”

“I do,” I said.

“So do I,” he answered. “Every single word.”

That night, the eve of our wedding, we sat on the balcony watching the stars.

He suddenly asked, “Do you regret it?”

“Regret what?” I asked.

“Regretting meeting Liam? Regretting those six years?”

I paused to think.

“I regret meeting him, but not those six years,” I said. “Without them, I might not have recognized what was real the moment I met you.”

He turned to look at me, moonlight falling on his face, highlighting the faint scar that still lingered.

“Neither would I,” he said.

“Neither would you what?”

“I wouldn’t have known you were the one the second I laid eyes on you.”

I froze for a moment, then smiled.

He smiled too.

Beyond the balcony, the city glittered below, a terrestrial echo of the starry sky above, as if

someone had gathered the night’s dreams and scattered them as light across the earth.