The CEO's Regret: His Lost Wife's Secret Twins novel Chapter 98

Chapter 98

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Aria wasn’t eating.

Since her father’s death, she’d barely touched food. I watched her grow thinner each day, her body wasting away as if she expected poison

in every bite.

At first, I thought it was grief. Losing Aaron that way-drowning in the lake, dying alone-anyone would lose their appetite. But this was

different. This was fear.

She’d pick up a fork, stare at her plate, then set it down. Her hands would tremble. Her face would go pale. Then she’d push the food away

untouched.

The staff noticed before I did. Whispered conversations in hallways about full plates returned to the kitchen, about trays left outside her

door, about Mrs. Morgan looking more like a ghost every day.

I started paying attention. Really paying attention.

She wouldn’t eat anything unless it came in a sealed package she could open herself. Granola bars from the corner store. Bottled water

with the cap still on. Pre-made sandwiches in plastic containers.

And even then, she barely managed a few bites before her stomach rejected it.

The staff tried to hide it from me, but I heard everything. Their concerned murmurs, their worried glances. How Mrs. Morgan had fainted twice in the past week. How she’d lost so much weight her clothes hung off her frame.

I knew why.

She thought I’d poison her. Thought I’d help Emma hurt her. Every time I came near her, she’d go rigid with terror. If I walked into the

dining room while she was eating, she’d stop immediately and leave.

Days blurred together. She threw herself into investigating her father’s death, spending eighteen-hour days at Redwood Medical Center. My security team reported she was obsessed with the lake behind the hospital, with the dock area, with finding out what really happened.

She left the estate before dawn and returned after midnight. Sometimes later. Sometimes not at all.

When she did come home, she looked worse each time. Thinner, paler, more hollow-eyed. Moving like it hurt to exist.

I’d see her in hallways sometimes, one hand on the wall for support. She’d notice me and freeze, her whole body going tense. Then she’d

turn and walk the other way, taking the long route to avoid passing me.

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Chapter 98

I started smoking more. Two packs a day, then three. My study filled with ash and the bitter smell of tobacco. I couldn’t taste food

anymore. Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t focus on anything except watching for her car.

The staff talked constantly now. I’d stopped trying to avoid overhearing them.

“Mrs. Morgan can’t keep going like this. She threw up again this morning.”

“She only ate a protein bar yesterday. One protein bar in twenty-four hours.”

“And Mr. Morgan isn’t any better. Have you seen him? He looks like death.”

One afternoon, I stood at the top of the marble staircase and heard two housekeepers below.

“I don’t think Mrs. Morgan has an eating disorder. I think she’s terrified.”

“Terrified of what?”

“Of the food. Of Mr. Morgan. Of everything. She acts like someone’s trying to kill her.”

They saw me and scattered, faces white with horror. I stood there alone, unable to deny a single word.

That evening, I waited in the entrance hall.

My security team had sent an update: Aria was leaving Redwood Medical Center, would arrive in twenty minutes.

I couldn’t sit still. Paced to the window, checked my watch, paced back. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

When had I become this person? Waiting like a fool for a woman who couldn’t stand to breathe the same air as me? A woman who’d rather starve than accept anything from my hands?

But I couldn’t stop myself. Couldn’t watch her waste away anymore.

At ten-forty-seven, her car pulled up. I heard the engine, the doors, footsteps on gravel.

The front door opened, and Aria stumbled inside.

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She looked worse than I’d imagined. Gray skin stretched over sharp bones. Eyes sunken into purple shadows. So thin I could count her ribs

through her shirt.

She swayed, gripping the doorframe. Then she saw me and went completely still.

“Don’t run,” I said. “You’ll pass out.”

She didn’t respond. Just stared at me with those haunted eyes.

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Chapter 98

“When did you last eat?”

Not your concern.

“It is when you look like you’re dying.”

She tried to walk past me. Her legs gave out. I caught her before she hit the marble floor, and she weighed nothing. Nothing at all.

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