Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 22

Chapter 20: Reunion at the hospital

Logan’s POV

Two days. Sedona had been gone for two full days without so much as a text message or phone call. No demands, no ultimatums, no crying voicemails begging me to understand her point of view for once in my life. Just silence.

It was driving me insane.

I’d expected her to crack by now, to send some passive-aggressive message about how I’d hurt her feelings or how much she missed Nick. Instead, nothing. Complete radio silence, as if she’d simply vanished from the face of the earth.

I stared at my phone, my thumb hovering over her contact. This was ridiculous. If she wanted to play games, fine, but I wasn’t going to let her drag this out indefinitely. We had a child together, responsibilities. She couldn’t just disappear because she was having a tantrum about Katherine.

I typed out a message: “How long are you planning to keep this up? This is getting childish, Sedona. We need to talk.”

I hit send and waited, watching the screen for the “delivered” notification, the “read” receipt that would tell me she’d seen it.

Nothing. The message just sat there, delivered but unread, as if she couldn’t even be bothered to look at her phone.

The irritation that had been sitting inside me for days, just bubbling underneath me, seemed to grow more intense. Who did she think she was? I was Logan Hayes. People didn’t ignore me. People didn’t walk away from me.

My phone buzzed, and I grabbed it eagerly, expecting to finally see Sedona’s name on the screen.

Instead, it was Katherine.

“Hey! I have a follow-up appointment at Northwestern Memorial this afternoon for my wrist. Would you be able to come with me? I’m a bit nervous about what the doctor might say, and it would really help to have a friendly face there.”

I hesitated for only a moment. Sedona was clearly too busy with whatever game she was playing to communicate like an adult. Katherine, on the other hand, was actually asking for my help, actually appreciating my presence, and communicating, something Sedona was clearly incapable of doing.

“Of course,” I typed back. “What time?”

“2 PM? I can meet you there.”

“I’ll be there.”

I was about to put my phone down when Nick appeared in my office doorway, clutching his tablet. “Dad, can we go to Aunt Katherine’s house today? She said she’d show me her trophy room.”

“Not today, buddy. Aunt Katherine has a doctor’s appointment.”

Nick’s face fell. “Can we go with her? Please? I promise I’ll be good.”

I should have said no. A hospital visit wasn’t appropriate for a six-year-old. But Nick looked so hopeful, and after Sedona’s abandonment, I found myself wanting to give him whatever he asked for.

“Alright. But you have to promise to be quiet and well-behaved.”

But what made my blood run cold wasn’t how sick she looked. It was the man standing beside her.

He was tall, probably six-two, with dark hair and sharp features that spoke of wealth and privilege. He had his arm around Sedona’s shoulders, supporting her weight, his other hand resting possessively on her lower back. The gesture was intimate, protective-the way a husband might touch his wife.

The way I should have been touching Sedona.

Jealousy, hot and vicious, surged through me. This was where she’d been? With him? While I’d been worried and confused and trying to figure out what I’d done wrong, she’d been here, letting some other man put his hands on her?

I was moving before I could think, crossing the space between us in long, angry strides. “Sedona.”

She turned, and I saw the exact moment she recognized me. Her eyes widened, then shuttered closed, her expression going carefully blank.

“Logan.” Her voice was flat, emotionless. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” I grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the stranger. “I’ve been trying to reach you for two days. Two days, Sedona, and you couldn’t be bothered to respond to a single message. Is this why? Because you’ve been here with him?”

“Let go of me.” She tried to pull her arm free, but I tightened my grip.

“Not until you explain what the hell is going on. Who is this guy? Why are you at a hospital? Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”