kidn*pped Together, I Learned Who My Husband Truly Loved

Chapter 2

Once the plane leveled out, I checked my phone and saw Wendy's latest i********: post.

In one photo, Adrian stood with his back to the camera in front of a window while Wendy tilted her head behind him. Their shadows overlapped perfectly.

Of the nine photos in the photo carousel, I appeared in only one, and even then only from behind.

For someone I care about, I'd cross a thousand miles just to know they're safe.

Comments poured in almost immediately.

A: [Wow, this is so romantic. Wendy and Adrian actually look great together.]

B: [Seriously. If I didn't know better, I'd think you two were the couple.]

I turned toward Adrian.

He was smiling at his phone as he typed.

Adrian: [Thanks to the gorgeous Wendy for coming all this way to meet us.]

He made no attempt to correct the comments implying that they were together.

Nothing had changed overnight. I had simply spent too long refusing to see what had been in front of me all along.

My grip on the phone loosened, and I left a comment of my own.

Claire: [They do look good together.]

"Why are you being so passive-aggressive?" Adrian snapped.

He snatched my phone and deleted my comment.

"Our friends always joke around. Can you please stop reading so much into it?"

He said nothing to the friends teasing them as a couple. He only scolded me for noticing.

I stared at him, ready to argue, when the plane lurched violently and dropped.

"Claire, don't be afraid!"

Adrian pulled me tightly against him until the aircraft stabilized.

"Ladies and gentlemen, due to a typhoon, we will be making an unscheduled landing at Myrana International Airport."

I sat frozen. Adrian still held my hand.

"Claire, are you all right? Does your wound hurt?"

The concern on his face left me torn. I couldn't reconcile this man with the one who had repeatedly chosen someone else.

But his concern no longer made my heart jump the way it once had.

"I think the impact reopened my wound," I said.

He immediately asked a flight attendant to bring first-aid supplies.

Then a cry rang out from business class.

"Wendy?"

Adrian's expression changed. Without another word, he hurried toward the front of the plane.

"There's thunder outside. Wendy may be frightened on her own."

He was gone before I could speak.

As pain gave way to numbness, I slowly closed my eyes.

He remembered that Wendy was afraid of thunder. He didn't know that I suffered from claustrophobia during storms.

I didn't call him back. Whatever trust I still had in him disappeared with him.

He didn't return before we landed.

Airport staff took me to a hospital because the wound had reopened. Adrian didn't even think to contact me until after he had escorted Wendy off the plane.

Adrian: Claire, where are you?

Adrian: We didn't see you after we got off. Myrana can be dangerous. Don't wander around alone.

My voice was hoarse when I answered his call.

"My wound reopened. I'm at the hospital getting it treated."

Wendy heard me and anxiously asked, "Adrian, how is Claire?"

The moment Adrian heard I was already at a hospital, he relaxed.

"Don't worry. She's independent. She isn't as fragile as you think."

His words left me colder and more numb than any medication could have.

Wendy tearfully insisted on coming to see me, but Adrian thought she was too shaken and refused to let her come.

"Claire, Wendy had a terrible fright. I'll take her to the hotel to rest first, then I'll come to the hospital."

I always came last.

It no longer mattered. By then, I would have preferred that he never came.

That evening, the doctor returned with my test results.

"Your wound isn't serious, ma'am, but you are 2 months pregnant."

I stared at her. I had never imagined there was a tiny life growing inside me.

The typhoon was still raging at midnight when I received a phone call from Adrian.

"Claire, the storm is too severe. I can't get there. Are you all right?"

My throat tightened. I was about to tell him about the baby when Wendy screamed in the background.

"Adrian, I fell in the shower!"

I froze. "She's in your room?"

After a brief silence, he explained, "The shower in her room is broken, so she came over to use mine. Don't read too much into it. I'll call a staff member to help her."

'If her shower was broken, why didn't she just change rooms?'

I smiled bitterly. The brief hope I had felt at the thought of telling him vanished.

"Adrian, I'm pregnant."