The surgical team was prepped and ready to go. Then Alice called, and Victor pulled every last one of them away.
By the time I saw the message and rushed to the hospital room, he had an entire team of specialists huddled around Alice, treating a scratch from a stray cat.
If that had happened any earlier in my life, I probably would have stormed in and torn the place apart.
But now, I just sighed.
I called his mother.
After a pause, Christine dismissed me with a single curt remark about being useless, then came anyway, bringing the Pemberton girl with her.
She called Victor right in front of me. Over and over. More than ten times.
He finally picked up the last one. His voice came through sharp, hostile, dripping with impatience.
"Stop hounding me! What's the rush? One more day, one more hour, what difference does it make? I already said I'd do it. You think I'm going to run?"
"If you're that desperate to get married, grab some random guy off the street."
He hung up.
The pain hit before I could stop it. A sharp, involuntary sting behind my sternum.
When I was twenty, he'd announced to the whole world that I was his future wife. And back then, what he'd said was—
"None of you are allowed to go after her or give her a hard time."
And yet, the person who hurt me over and over again was him.
Twenty minutes later, his assistant arrived with his ID.
The man greeted us with polite detachment.
"Mr. Swanson is unavailable. It's no longer required for both parties to be present in person to register the marriage, so he asks that Mrs. Swanson and Miss Farley find a way to handle it on their own."
No longer required to be present in person, perhaps, but the photo for the certificate still needed to be taken with the actual registrant there.
I knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted me to be humiliated in front of everyone.
Too bad he'd miscalculated.
The person marrying him wasn't me.
Christine had been worried he might refuse and had prepared all sorts of schemes to force his hand. She never expected it would be this easy.
The registration went smoothly. His mother kept her promise and gave me the remaining payment.
My job was done. I let out a breath of relief and took a cab to the airport.
On the way, a message from him popped up on my phone.
Now that you have the marriage certificate, stop pulling stunts. And you'd better remember your promise—stay away from Alice!