The Contract of heart

Gerald pov Over a year plus “I can’t believe you did this to me,” my fiancee screamed at me."I can't marry you in this condition. I can't even bear to look at you, let alone be intimate with you.You’re…disfigured.” Francisca’s face was almost pink as she backed away from my hospital bed, an imperfection I knew she’d hate if she knew her face was that color. Her words struck deep, but I was in agony, and it wasn’t my heart that was causing the excruciating pain. It was my broken body and leg, throbbing with such torment that I wished I could just be put out of my misery. “I can’t have this discussion with you right now, Francisca,” I said through gritted teeth. “There’s nothing to discuss. I can’t be married to a man who is never going to be able to go to social events and dance with me. Instead of being envious of me, my friends will feel sorry for me because I’m married to somebody who’s disabled. I can’t stand being pitied. You know I want to be revered. I deserve it,” she said with a small huff of displeasure. Jesus! How had I never noticed what a superficial woman my own fiancee was, or how petty? Probably because I haven’t had much time for anything other than work. Francisca and I got together for s*x and parties. Generally, I wanted the s*x, so I took her wherever she wanted to go. She hadn’t asked for anything more from me, and I hadn’t needed anything else. Sure, we’d talked about setting a wedding date, but Francisca seemed content with the expensive diamond I’d slipped onto her finger. The date itself never felt all that pressing for either of us. Lately, I was beginning to wonder if she loved the idea of the flashy ring more than the thought of actually being married to me. Maybe the delay had been a blessing since she was in the process of dumping me while I was still trying to recover from my last surgery. According to my best friend, she hadn’t been able to come see me earlier because she couldn’t tolerate sick people. But she’d run her ass up here in a hurry as soon as I was conscious to break our engagement. Okay. Yeah. Maybe I’d known that she wasn’t exactly an intellectual, but I wondered why I’d never realized how narcissistic she was. Maybe because I’d never done something she didn’t approve of before. I’d never told Francisca about PRO, the volunteer organization that my best friend, Kendrick Dave, headed up to rescue kidnapped victims and political prisoners in hostile countries. Maybe the fact that I’d never trusted her enough to tell her about PRO should have been a big red flag, but I’d told myself that she didn’t need to know, and that PRO was a secret group. The team had all kept a low profile. Honestly, I’d pretty much known that she just didn’t give a damn, but I’d never admitted it to myself. Funny what nearly dying will do to a guy. I was thinking about all kinds of s**t I never had before. Strangely, Francisca had never even asked how I’d gotten into a car crash. Obviously, the only thing that mattered was how my injuries affected her. “I suppose I should return the ring,” she said, her voice cold, almost too calm. “We can discuss it later,” I replied, trying to steady my own voice. “No.” Her words cut through the air. “I want this over. I don’t want to marry you.” It was nothing I hadn’t already realized, but hearing it... the finality of it... hit like a gut punch. My throat tightened. She wanted out, and there I stood, exposed, vulnerable, knowing that the person I thought would stay by my side couldn’t wait to leave. I looked bad. I knew that. When the car stumbled in the air, I’d been on the side that hit the ground, and my whole body was torn up from one end to the other. My leg had gotten mangled, and the doctors were still trying to put it back together. “Keep the ring,” I rasped. All I wanted right now was to suffer in silence without her irritatingly shrill voice lamenting about how I’d ruined everything for her. Honestly, since I’d been in the accident, I hadn’t really thought about how my injuries were going to affect the rest of my life. Hell, I’d just been trying to make it through the day