Chapter 10 - Chapter 10 - THE UNEXPECTED VISITOR
At 4:00 PM on Tuesday, my hospital room door creaked open. I expected Marcus returning with paperwork, but instead, a pale, exhausted-looking woman stepped hesitantly into the room. It was Chloe Miller, holding her infant baby tightly against her chest in a worn-out fabric carrier. Her designer clothes from last week were replaced by a simple gray hoodie, and the fierce, defiant arrogance she had worn on Ethan's porch was completely gone.
I didn't speak. I simply leaned back against my pillows, crossing my arms as I watched her nervously shift her weight from one foot to the other.
"Clara," Chloe whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "I... I know I have zero right to be here. I know what I did. But the nurses at the front desk said you were recovering, and I... I had nowhere else to turn."
"If you're looking for Ethan, you're barking up the very wrong tree, Chloe," I replied, my tone flat and devoid of emotion. "He's currently being evicted from my house and dodging federal investigators."
"I don't want Ethan," Chloe blurted out, tears welling up in her eyes as she gently patted her sleeping baby. "He’s a monster. The moment the federal marshals froze his accounts, he told me to figure out the baby's expenses on my own, and suggested I 'take care of the problem' if I couldn't afford diapers. He’s completely heartless."
I studied her for a moment. It was almost poetic. The woman who had proudly helped Ethan tear apart my marriage was now discarded just as easily the moment her utility to him ran out.
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"What do you want from me, Chloe?" I asked quietly.
"Nothing," she sobbed softly, wiping her cheek with her sleeve. "I just... I wanted to apologize. When Ethan told me you were just a boring, sickly legal liability holding back his career, I believed him. I didn't care who got hurt because I thought I was winning a prize. But looking at where we both are now... I realize he was lying about everything. You were the only thing keeping his entire life afloat."
