Chapter 3 A Twisted Love

• Ariana Sutton’s POV
• I stared into his fury-laced eyes, fear welling within me. My heart skipped a beat just from me seeing him at such a close range. “I—”
• The sentence was cut short. Once again, he insulted, “Know your place. You’re no different from a bar girl to me. The only difference is that I allow you to stay here.”
• He didn’t like my making breakfast for him. To him, it must’ve looked like I was trying to inveigle myself into his heart. And he left. I watched him as he departed the house, my face as pale as a ghost. My heart felt like it was torn to pieces, but I held them together by the seams. Not the first time he did this. No need to feel down.
• …
• I composed myself and left for work. It was another day at the hospital. As I made my way to the cardiology department, I heard, from the inspection area, a silvery voice belonging to a woman. “How long do I have to wait for my results?”
• I heard that voice before. It belonged to the same woman who begged Stefan not to put her through the abortion. That event happened just one day ago. I stopped in my tracks and looked in the direction of the voice. The woman was wearing a tight suspender dress paired with some heels that showed off her legs in their entirety. She was tall, beautiful, and a man magnet. Her makeup was a little too much, however. So that’s his type?
• For some reason, I was starting to imagine her having sex with Stefan. A sense of nausea overwhelmed me, but only for a moment. The hospital’s laboratory area was on the third floor. Must be here for her abortion results. I went to my office and changed into my coat, but all I could think of was that woman.
• And then, mystifyingly, I found myself in the OBGYN department. “Dr. Lester, it’s about that patient in the black suspender dress. She just had an abortion, didn’t she? How did it go?” I asked.
• Dr. Lester mused over the question for a moment. “Oh, that one? Yeah, just had that surgery. Her name’s Veronica Hudson. Pretty poor choice of post-op clothing given that it’s only early spring. She’s going to catch a cold at this rate. But she’s young. She can handle it. Oh, do you know her, Dr. Sutton?”
• I shook my head stiffly. “No. She’s… my friend’s girlfriend. Never seen her before.” For nineteen years I lived with Stefan, and yet I had no idea what kind of relationship we shared. Laughable, to say the very least. I couldn’t even call him my friend confidently.
• It was then Veronica stormed into the consultation room with her results in hand. “The results are out, Dr. Lester. Mind taking a look? Please?”
• Our conversation came to a halt, and I put my hands in my pockets stiffly. Snooping around for gossip wasn’t what I usually did, and I panicked a little seeing Veronica come in. Sometimes I felt like my love for Stefan had twisted into something more. Gods, I was acting like a stalker. Why am I trying to find out about Veronica? Am I actually trying to see if she actually got an abortion? If she’s still carrying the child, they’re going to get married, aren’t they? Deep down, I might actually hope that her surgery was a success, but I refused to unveil that part of me.
• Veronica noticed me as well, and she was giving me a quizzical look. “I think… I think I’ve seen you.”
• I looked at her calmly. Quickly, I thought back to every person I had seen in my life, but Veronica was not one of them. Even if I had seen her, at most she would be my patient.
• Then she had a look of realization on her face. “Oh, I remember now. It was at Ste—”