Chapter 3 - The Results She Never Shared|
Anna reached for her phone, but Gabriel was already standing.
“What results?”
She looked at the message, then at him.
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“When I understood what they meant.”
“You said that six weeks ago.”
“And I was wrong to wait. I know that. But I can't have this conversation every time you discover a piece of information I haven't shared.”
Gabriel stopped.
He wanted answers. Every instinct he had developed in the criminal world told him to demand the facts, identify the threat, and act before anyone else could move.
But Anna wasn't a rival, a witness, or a man hiding money from him.
She was his wife.
He forced himself to sit down.
“All right. Tell me what you're comfortable telling me.”
Her expression softened slightly.
“The first treatment didn't work as well as they hoped. The doctors adjusted the medication. The second treatment was harder, and my blood counts dropped. I developed a fever, so they kept me overnight.”
“You were hospitalized?”
“For two nights.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
Gabriel looked at her in disbelief.
He had been in the mansion last week. He remembered a late dinner, a call from his operations manager, and a disagreement with one of his captains that had lasted until nearly midnight.
He had slept in the same bed as Anna after returning.
He had kissed her forehead.
He had never noticed the hospital bracelet beneath her sleeve.
“Why didn't you call me?”
“I did.”
He looked at her.
Anna unlocked her phone and scrolled through the messages.
There it was.
Can you come home? I don't feel right.
His reply had arrived twelve minutes later.
Meeting ran long. I'll be there as soon as I can.
He had arrived at two in the morning.
She had been asleep.
Gabriel stared at the message until the words seemed to blur.
“I thought you were tired.”
“I was.”
“Why didn't you wake me?”
“Because you looked exhausted. Because I was scared. Because I didn't want to be the reason you abandoned another meeting and resented me for it.”
“I would never resent you for being sick.”
Anna gave him a sad look.
“You might not resent the illness. But you resent anything you can't fix.”
He had no answer.
She sat beside him, leaving a small space between them.
“Gabriel, I know who you are. I know what you do. I know that when someone threatens you, you make sure they never do it again.”
“That's not how I want to handle this.”
“But it's how you handle everything.”
He looked at the message again.
“What does the doctor mean by the next stage?”
“I don't know yet.”
“Then we'll ask him.”
“We will. But you need to let me finish speaking before you start making decisions.”
Gabriel nodded.
At the cancer center, Dr. Elliot Reed greeted them in a small consultation room. He was in his forties, with tired eyes and a patient manner that suggested he had learned to deliver difficult news without making people feel abandoned.
He reviewed Anna's bloodwork and explained that the initial treatment had not produced the response they had hoped for. More tests were needed to determine whether the next course should be intensified or changed.
Gabriel listened carefully.
For once, he did not interrupt.
He wrote down the questions Anna wanted answered. He asked about side effects, infection risks, and how he could help at home. When the doctor mentioned that Anna might need additional monitoring, Gabriel asked whether there was a way to arrange it without disrupting her privacy.
Dr. Reed answered each question.
Then Anna asked the one Gabriel had been afraid to voice.
“What happens if the next treatment doesn't work?”
The doctor paused.
“We have other options to discuss. We won't make a decision based on fear or one set of results. We'll review the evidence together.”
Anna nodded, but her fingers had tightened around the edge of her chair.
Gabriel reached for her hand.
She let him hold it.
After the appointment, they sat in the car while the driver waited outside. Gabriel turned off his phone and placed it in the glove compartment.
Anna noticed.
“You don't have to do that.”
“I want to.”
“What if someone needs you?”
“Then they can wait until I finish listening to my wife.”
She looked out the window.
“Don't say things because you're frightened.”
“I'm saying it because I should have done it before.”
For a few minutes, neither spoke.
Then Anna told him about the first morning after her diagnosis. She had sat alone at the kitchen table, staring at the hospital paperwork while the household staff moved around her. She had wanted to call Gabriel, but she could already imagine his reaction: the immediate orders, the doctors summoned, the guards stationed outside every door.
She had needed comfort, not a command center.
“I was afraid that if I told you, my illness would become another part of your empire,” she said.
Gabriel absorbed the words.
“I can't promise I won't be frightened.”
“I don't need you to be fearless.”
“What do you need?”
“Let me be your wife. Not your responsibility. Not your weakness. Not the one thing you have to defeat to prove you're powerful.”
He turned toward her.
“You're none of those things.”
“Then show me.”
He kissed her hand.
“I will.”
When they arrived home, Gabriel helped her upstairs and brought her water. He asked before touching her hair, then sat beside her while she rested.
It was the first peaceful afternoon they had shared in months.
At six, his security chief called.
Gabriel stepped into the hallway to answer.
“Boss, we have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“Someone accessed the medical center's patient records. The login was traced to an account associated with your mother's private office.”
Gabriel went still.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. Someone searched Anna's name and downloaded the treatment schedule.”
He looked through the open bedroom door.
Anna was asleep, one hand resting against the pillow.
“Find out who accessed the account,” he said.
May you like
Then he added, in a voice so controlled that it frightened even him:
“And don't let my mother know we're investigating until we understand why someone is looking for my wife's medical records.”
