The Ceo's Accidental Wife

Chapter4

Maya's Pov

Her name was Elaine Hale-Mercer and she arrived at St. Michael's on Saturday at eleven fifty-eight, two minutes ahead of schedule, like punctuality was a form of aggression she had perfected.

I was doing George's morning obs when she walked in. She was in her late sixties, dressed in a charcoal coat that hadn't come off a regular rack, silver hair pulled back with the kind of precision that took effort to look effortless. She scanned the room the moment she entered and her eyes landed on me before they landed on her brother.

"You must be the nurse," she said.

"I'm Maya," I said. "I'm covering Mr. Hale's care this morning."

"Maya." She repeated my name like she was filing it somewhere. Then she crossed to George's bed and took his hand and the sharpness dropped just enough to show she genuinely loved him.

"You scared me," she said to him.

"I'm fine, Lainey." George patted her hand. "Stop frowning, you'll stay that way."

"You've been saying that since 1987 and I look perfectly fine." She sat in the chair beside him. Her eyes moved back to me briefly. "Could you give us a moment?"

"Of course," I said.

I stepped out, pulled the door halfway closed, and stood at the nurses' station writing up his morning notes. I was two lines in when I heard the elevator and looked up.

Dominic stepped out with the same energy he always carried contained, deliberate, taking up space without trying to. He saw me immediately and walked over.

"She's in there," I said quietly.

"I know. Her driver texted me." He stopped beside me at the station. For a moment neither of us said anything. "She's sharp. She's going to watch everything."

"You could have warned me better than you did on Wednesday."

"I told you she had questions."

"You didn't tell me she looked at people like she was cross-examining them."

The corner of his mouth moved. It was barely anything, not quite a smile, but it was the first time I'd seen his expression do anything close to it. It was gone quickly.

"She was a barrister for twenty years," he said. "She still thinks like one."

That was genuinely unhelpful information to receive thirty seconds before meeting her properly.

The door to room 412 opened and Elaine appeared in the frame. Her eyes went from Dominic to me and then to the six inches of space between us. She said nothing about it. She just stepped back and held the door open.

"Come in," she said. "Both of you."

***************

George looked happier than he had all week. He was sitting up slightly and there was color in his face that hadn't been there on Thursday.

Elaine sat across from the bed and I stood near the monitors, close enough that it looked natural and far enough that I wasn't crowding anyone. Dominic stood near the window. It was the same position he'd been in the morning I woke up in his penthouse slightly apart, watching.

"So," Elaine said. She folded her hands in her lap and looked at me. "George tells me it was very sudden."

"It was," I said.

"How long had you been seeing each other before you married?"

I had thought about this. I'd spent part of Friday thinking about exactly this kind of question and how to answer it without lying in a way I couldn't take back.

"We didn't have a long courtship," I said. "But it felt like a clear decision when we made it."

Elaine's expression didn't change. "Where did you meet?"

"Through a mutual friend," Dominic said from the window. Which was technically not false. We had both been connected to Lena's event in some capacity, even if neither of us could remember the specifics.

"And you married after how long? A few weeks?"

"Elaine." George's voice was mild but firm.

"I'm asking a question, George."

"You're conducting an inquiry. There's a difference." He looked at her with patient exasperation. "She's a nurse. She works hard, she's kind, and she makes Dominic less like a machine. That's more than I ever hoped for."

Elaine's eyes stayed on me. "You're his nurse specifically."

"I'm assigned to this ward. His admission was routine in terms of the assignment process."

"And you don't find that arrangement uncomfortable? Being professionally responsible for your husband's grandfather while also being personally connected to him?"

She was good. The question was framed reasonably enough that I couldn't object to it without sounding defensive.

"I find it complicated," I said honestly. "But my care for Mr. Hale doesn't change based on my personal life. It's the same either way."

Something moved in Elaine's expression. Not warmth exactly, but the slight adjustment of someone who has found the answer less unsatisfactory than expected.

"What are your intentions long term?" she said. "With the marriage."

"To take it one day at a time," I said. "I'm not someone who makes five year plans for things I can't control."

George made a small sound of approval.

Elaine turned to Dominic. "And you? You've never brought anyone to meet us. Not in fifteen years. You marry a woman in secret and I'm supposed to simply accept that."

"You're not being asked to simply accept anything," Dominic said. "You're being asked to respect it."

"Those are very different requests."

"Yes," he said. "They are."

The two of them looked at each other with the particular friction of people who had been having versions of this argument for decades. George watched them both like a man who had seen this match before and was waiting patiently for a draw.

Elaine stood. She smoothed the front of her coat and looked at me one final time.

"I'll be in London most of next month," she said. "But I'll be back in six weeks for George's follow-up review." A pause. "I imagine I'll see you then."

"I imagine so," I said.

She leaned down to kiss George's cheek and said something low to him in what I thought might be Cantonese, and he responded in kind, and for a moment she was just his sister and he was just her brother and the sharpness fell away completely.

Then she straightened, nodded once at Dominic, and walked out.

The room was quieter without her.

George exhaled and settled back against his pillow. "She likes you," he said to me.

"She interrogated me," I said.

"Same thing with Elaine." He smiled. "If she didn't like you she wouldn't have bothered asking questions. She'd have just been polite."

I looked at the door she'd left through.

Dominic caught my eye from across the room. His expression said nothing, but I'd started to learn the difference between his silences. This one was not indifferent. This one was paying close attention.

Then his phone buzzed and he looked down at it and every trace of that attention disappeared.

"I have to take this," he said, already moving to the door.

He stepped into the corridor and I watched through the small window as he answered and stopped walking. His back straightened in a way that was different from his usual posture. Stiffer. His hand came up and pressed flat against the wall like he needed something to push against.

He was on the phone for less than two minutes.

When he came back in, his face was arranged carefully but his eyes gave it away. Something had happened. Something he hadn't expected.

He looked at me across the room and said, "Can I speak with you outside?"

George was already watching him with quiet concern.

I followed Dominic into the corridor and let the door close behind me.

He turned to face me and for a moment said nothing, like he was deciding how much to tell me.

"There are photographs," he said finally. "From Thursday night. Someone at the venue had a camera and they've sold them to a tabloid. They run tomorrow morning."

I felt something cold settle in my stomach. "Photographs of what?"

He looked at me steadily.

"Of us getting married."