Page 16 of The Grump's Fake Wife

“Of course I'll go to dinners with you,” I mutter, a silly giggle escaping my lips as I hold the letter to my chest.

Just then, my phone rings, jolting me out of my reverie. I glance at the screen to see an unknown number. I pick the phone up, taking a deep breath before placing it over my ear.

“Am I speaking with Miss Lilian Thompson?” asks a firm, feminine voice as soon as the call connects.

“Yes. How may I help you, ma'am?”

"This is Kate Sawyer from Hopeville Hospital in Havenbrook. I'm calling about Miss Ella Thompson. We were unable to locate her guardian, and you were listed as her next of kin. I'm sorry to inform you that the patient passed.

“What?” I ask blankly. The words don’t register.That can’t be right. I gave Mom the money. She had her surgery. She’s fine.

“Miss. Ella Thompson. You're her sister, aren't you?”

"Y-yes. But Ella can't be dead. There must be a mistake. She had her transplant just a week ago."

“Transplant?” she repeats, response voice resounding with confusion. “There was no surgery scheduled for Miss Ella. Her condition worsened last month, but she lost the fight a few days ago. Since then, we've tried to contact her guardian to no avail.”

"That's not possible," I say, my head reeling as fast as my pounding heart. "I wired two hundred thousand dollars to Mom for the transplant just two weeks ago. How can there be no surgery?”

"I'm sorry, but we have no knowledge of that transaction," Ms. Sawyer says. A contemplative silence passes, and then she sighs softly. "If your mom is Ella's guardian, then she hasn't comearound since she left after Ella was rushed down here. That was two months ago."

“W-what?” I mutter. My head suddenly feels like lead as I try to make sense of my churning thoughts.

This had better be a dream, because it doesn't make any sense.

“That doesn't make any sense,” I repeat out loud. “I spoke to Mom after the money was deposited and she confirmed the payment. I- I can't believe…”

“Did you speak to your sister?” The nurse cuts in gently. Her voice holds no accusation but a heavy weight instantly settles on my chest. Guilt burns brightly in my throat as it dawned on me how lackadaisical I was about my sister.

“I was busy…” I let my words trail off as they sound lame, even to me.

Busy? Too busy fucking Gabriel Foster to check in on my sister? Sure, that'd be an acceptable excuse.

I would have justified my carelessness with the fact that I had to earn the money for her medical bills, but that isn't true. The money’s been sent. The truth is I've gotten so lost in this magical bubble that's Gabriel Foster’s world, so lost that I've forgotten my reality.

Now Ella is dead and it's all my fault!

“I'm sorry about your loss, Miss Thompson,” Ms. Sawyer says, her voice softening with genuine sympathy. “However, you'll need to come down to the hospital at your earliest convenienceto claim the body and make arrangements for a burial. Goodbye.”

The line goes dead.

“No… No…” I mutter, springing out of bed and running towards the door like the devil was on my heels.

Ella can't be dead.

Chapter Eight

Gabriel

I press hard on the gas, praying to the heavens that she's safe. And that I find her. I never believed in prayers but now I'm desperate enough to supplicate for help from a higher being. I'll kneel – no, I'll crawl on the ground andbegif that's what it takes to bring Lily back to me.

My angel…

It's been three days… Three long, torturous days since I got back home to find her gone. I've called her a million times, but I keep getting her voicemail. Her soft and perky voice, instructing callers to leave a message, is the only thing keeping me sane right now.

I must have gone back to the address she used to live at a hundred times, but each time, there's no one at home. I don't have her friend's phone number and no one in the whole damn apartment building had useful information. It’s infuriating, to say the least. I feel like I’m slowly losing my mind and there’s nothing I can do about it. These past days without her made me realize that I can't live without Lily. It doesn't matter that I haven’t known her that long. One thing is certain: I'm in love with Lilian Thompson:

And that’s why I kept going back to Dana's apartment even though I knew no one was home. It was all I could do to stay sane. Today though, I got lucky. I met Dana at the door on her way to work. Before giving me Lily's hometown address, she'd told me a part of Lily's past that broke my heart and made me angry.

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