The CEO's Regret: His Lost Wife's Secret Twins novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11

ARIA

Voices. Beeping. Light too bright even through closed eyelids.

I tried to move. Couldn’t. My hands felt wrong. Heavy. Wrapped in something.

“Don’t try to move.” Matthew’s voice. “You’re in the hospital.”

I forced my eyes open. White ceiling. Medical equipment. Matthew sitting beside the bed, still in his suit from the gala. Blood-my blood-stained his shirt and pants.

“What…”

“You were locked in the wine cellar. Don’t you remember?”

It came back in flashes. The darkness. The bottles. The blood. Running out of air.

“The baby.” I tried to sit up. “Is the baby-”

“Lie down.” Matthew pressed gently on my shoulder. “The obstetrician checked. Baby’s fine. Heart rate’s

good. You got out in time.”

The relief hit so hard I started crying. Couldn’t stop. Just tears streaming down my face while Matthew sat

there looking uncomfortable.

“Thank you,” I managed. “You saved us. Both of us.”

He looked away. “Someone had to.”

A nurse came in, checked my vitals, adjusted my IV. She smiled at Matthew like he was a hero. Maybe he

was.

“Your hands took the worst of it,” Matthew said after she left. “Twenty-three stitches between both palms.

Some tendon damage. You’re going to need physical therapy.”

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Chapter 11

I looked at my bandaged hands. Couldn’t feel them through the painkillers. Probably good.

“Who did this?” His voice turned hard. “Who locked you down there?”

“I don’t know. They covered my eyes.” The memory made me shudder. “I couldn’t see them.”

“Did you hear anything? Voices? Number of people?”

“One man. Maybe two. I’m not sure.” I closed my eyes. “Everything happened so fast.”

Matthew’s jaw clenched. He looked like he wanted to kill someone.

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The door opened. A young doctor stepped in, nervous. “Mr. Redwood, I’m sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Morgan

called. He requested our specialist team.”

My heart stopped. Blake was here?

“They’re attending to Miss Grant,” the doctor continued. “She had a small cut on her hand. Mr. Morgan

insisted on our best care.”

A cut. Emma had a cut, and Blake mobilized an entire medical team.

“Such a considerate man,” a passing nurse added with a dreamy sigh. “The way he fusses over her injury-

you can tell he really loves her.”

The words cut deeper than any glass. Blake knew I was missing. He had to know. But he chose to bring

Emma here for a scratch while I nearly died.

He doesn’t know about the wine cellar, I told myself. He doesn’t know you were hurt.

But he knew I’d vanished from his company’s biggest event. And he didn’t care enough to look. He

prioritized Emma’s papercut instead.

My chest felt hollow. Three years of marriage, and I meant less to him than Emma’s pinky finger. The baby

growing inside me would mean even less.

“Are you crying?” The doctor asked, concerned.

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Chapter 11

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“No. But I was. Silent tears sliding down my cheeks. “Just… the pain. Still feeling it.”

Matthew studied me for a long moment. “I can arrange specialists from another hospital.”

“No.” I kept my eyes on the ceiling tiles. “Regular doctors are fine. I don’t need specialists or department

heads.”

“Your hands are worse than Emma’s cut.”

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t need special treatment.”

“Aria-”

“I said no.” My voice came out sharper than intended. “Please. Just… no.”

He nodded slowly. “Your choice.”

My phone buzzed on the side table. Blake’s name flashed on the screen. I stared at it, watching it ring, then

hit decline and powered it off.

Matthew raised an eyebrow. “That’s new. Usually you jump when he calls.”

“Not tonight.”

“Good. About time you grew a spine.”

The doctor spent over an hour checking my injuries. Beyond the hand lacerations, I had cuts on my arms,

knees, minor oxygen deprivation. Nothing permanent. Nothing that wouldn’t heal.

Except my heart. That felt permanently broken.

“Let me drive you home,” Matthew said when they finally released me.

I nodded, too exhausted to argue. Too broken to care about appearances.

The ride was silent. Matthew focused on the road. I watched the city lights blur past. My hands throbbed

despite the painkillers.

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Chapter 11

Who did this? The question circled my mind. Who hated me enough to lock me in that cellar? To leave me

there to die?

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Victoria? She’d been cruel tonight, but murder? Matthew? No. He’d saved me. Emma? Maybe. But she’d been

with Blake all evening.

Someone wanted me dead. Someone who knew I’d be at that hotel. Someone with access to the wine cellar.

The Hampton estate loomed in the darkness. My legs barely held me as I climbed out of Matthew’s car. He

caught my elbow when I stumbled.

“Easy. You’ve been through hell tonight.”

“I’m fine.” But I wasn’t. Nothing about this was fine.

“Aria-”

Blake’s voice cut through the night. He stood by the entrance, still in his tuxedo from the gala, his face

carved from stone.

“So this is where you disappeared to.” His eyes took in Matthew’s hand on my arm, the hospital bracelet on my wrist, my bandaged hands. “Left my company’s most important event to play midnight romance with the

medical company heir.”

He crossed the distance in three strides and grabbed my wrist. Not hard, but his fingers pressed against the

bandages. Pain shot up my arm.

“Blake, you’re-”

“That’s why you ignored my calls? Too busy with your date to answer your husband?”

Something inside me snapped. All the pain, the fear, the betrayal-it erupted.

“You hypocritical bastard!” I wrenched free. “You gave Emma our family ring! You took her to the hospital for a scratch while I almost died! And you have the nerve to accuse me?”

His face went white. “What did you say?”

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Chapter 11

“You heard me. You’re a cheating, cold-hearted asshole who parades his mistress at company events. What

right do you have to question me about anything?”

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The silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating. Blake’s expression shifted from shock to something

darker.

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The CEO’s Regret: His Lost Wife’s Secret Twins