Please Don’t Say You Love Me

After barely sleeping all night, with the balcony door left slightly open, Remi woke up feeling dazed. Her whole body was burning. Her eyelids felt so heavy that she could barely open them.

She fumbled for her phone on the nightstand and dialed James’s number. She left him more than a dozen calls, yet he did not pick up. Just when she was about to give up, the line finally connected.

“James–”

“Who are you?” A sweet, unfamiliar female voice came from the other end.

Her mind went blank. With a loud thud, her phone slipped from her hand and hit the floor. The line turned chaotic for a moment. After a while, she finally heard his voice.

“Sweetheart?”

He called her several times before she slowly bent down to pick up the phone.

She asked in disbelief, “Who was that just now?”

James quickly explained, “No one. I was discussing a project. A partner grabbed the wrong phone by mistake. Don’t misunderstand.”

Before she could press further, he changed the subject.

“What’s wrong? Why are you calling me?”

She opened her mouth, wanting to tell him she had a fever and ask if he could come home and take her to the hospital, when a sharp scream came from his side. “It’s so hot!”

His tone turned slightly anxious. “I’m still occupied here. I’ll hang up for now.”

The call ended abruptly. Maybe it was the fever, but her chest felt heavy with indignation. He had never hung up on her before. Even during urgent meetings, he would comfort her first before ending the call. Yet now…

She lay in bed for a long while, feeling miserable, before finally forcing herself up. Stumbling toward the medicine cabinet, she took some cold medicine to ease the symptoms. Soon after, she drifted back into a hazy sleep.

When Remi opened her eyes again, she found herself lying in a hospital bed, with James sitting beside her. The moment he saw her awake, relief flashed across his eyes. He pulled her into his arms.

“Sweetheart, you scared me.”

It turned out that he had tried calling her back later, but she never answered. Feeling uneasy, he rushed home and found her flushed and unconscious on the bed. Panicked, he immediately drove her to the hospital. For the rest of the day, he stayed by her side without leaving once, afraid something might happen again.

Watching him busy himself around her, taking care of everything, her heart warmed. For a moment, she felt like the old him was back. However, just then, his phone rang again. His hand paused slightly as he looked at the screen. He glanced at her before turning away and stepping into the hallway to take the call.

The hospital corridor was not well soundproofed. From the other end, a coquettish female voice drifted faintly into the room.

“I don’t care. I want you to be with me right now! Otherwise, I’ll take your son and leave! Do you believe me?”

There was no trace of impatience on James’s face. Instead, he said affectionately, “I have something to deal with here. Once I’m done, I’ll come over and be with you…”

Perhaps he was too focused on the person on the other end of the call to notice the shock on Remi’s face. Remi could not believe her ears. Her heart sank, and her body began trembling uncontrollably.

What had she just heard? Was she hallucinating? What did the person mean by “take your son and leave”?

Her mind flashed back to the pregnancy report she had once glimpsed, the pregnant woman he had helped up the stairs, and the conversation she had overheard at the obstetrics and gynecology department that day… Her grip on the blanket tightened.

At that moment, the hospital room door pushed open again. She quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. Seeing her like that, James relaxed. He leaned down and kissed her forehead before quietly leaving the room.

The second he was gone, she opened her eyes, yanked out the IV needle, and hurried after him. She followed him down the corridor, turning left and right, until he stopped in front of the obstetrics and gynecology department.

Just as she was about to step closer, James was holding a young woman who had just come out of the exam room, cradling her gently.

“Was the baby good today?” he murmured. “Did he give his mommy any trouble?”

Remi’s eyes widened in disbelief. The girl in his arms lifted her head as well, still clinging to him. As if sensing something, she looked in Remi’s direction, and in that moment, Remi finally got a good look at her face, which looked almost exactly like hers when she was younger.