Page 162 of The Silent Note

Still ignoring him, I put the car in reverse and zoom out of Redwood.

“Are you trying to start and end the day on Jinx’s app?” Zane teases. I glare daggers at him and the smile slowly fades. He sighs heavily. “Where are we going?”

“The hospital,” I bite out.

I say nothing more to him for the entire drive and while I fill out the forms as the doctor looks him over.

When I rejoin them in the emergency room, Zane is sitting on a cot and the doctor who worked on his wrist is standing beside him.

“Doctor, how is he? His wrist isn’t broken again, is it?” I ask, scrambling forward.

Zane gives me a welcoming grin which I return with a scowl.

That only makes him grin harder.

Which makes me frown harder.

The doctor glances back and forth between us. “Thankfully, it’s only an external bruise. We’re almost ready to remove the cast, but if he doesn’t behave,” the doctor slants Zane a dark look, “he’ll have to keep the cast on for longer.”

“He’ll behave,” I say determinedly.

The doctor gives me a curious look. His eyes scrub over my face. “We met the last time, right? Who are you again?”

I could very well tell him I’m Zane’s teacher or his step-sister and they would both be true.

But I imagine mom in Zane’s face, fighting and screaming at him. And I know, with every bone in my body, every vein, everymolecule, that Zane allowed her to do so. Not because he can’t fight back. Not because he’s such a gentleman.

No, he let my mother pummel him because he loves me.

Something inside me breaks.

A slow, winding anger pushes itself forward. It takes over my body, rigid and rebellious.

I look the doctor right in the eyes, because damn him.

Damn this world.

Damn the rules.

They want to know who I am?

I set a hand on Zane’s shoulder. “I’m his wife.”

Chapter Forty-One

ZANE

“Wipe that stupid grin off your face,” Grey mumbles as she drives.

“Wife.”

“Ugh.”

“Wifey.”

“Zane, those pain pills haven’t kicked in yet and even if they have, they shouldn’t be making you this loopy. Quit it or you’re walking back to the hotel.”

“You’re the one who said it.”