Love at the Next Stop

Chapter 20 Get a Divorce, Stella Johansson

The doctor’s brows furrowed. “She wasn’t pregnant. The blood was from a blood bag she punctured. God knows what she was trying to do.”

Stella, who was sobbing, was shocked upon hearing this. She wasn’t pregnant? Ximena Yard used the excuse of a child to pressure us to get a divorce?

Later on, Zane rushed over as well. Miles stood there without shying away, but Zane merely glanced at him before sprinting to Ximena’s ward.

“There’s nothing for us here, so let’s go,” Miles said to Stella.

Inwardly, Stella thought, Since Zane Levitt ran into Ximena Yard’s ward as soon as he arrived, that means he doesn’t respect me, so I don’t need to give him any quarter either. Either way, we’ve long since shed all pretense of civility. Hence, she left with Miles.

Opposite the hospital was a park that was very tranquil with a stunning autumn scenery as well. At that moment, Stella stood beside a stall that sold cotton candy. She loved eating cotton candy when she was younger, and she wanted to relieve some stress after the scare earlier, so she bought one at five.

As Miles looked at her eating cotton candy, he ducked his head and barked a cough that was colored with amusement. Knowing that he was poking fun at her childishness, Stella indignantly proclaimed, “It’s just cotton candy. What’s the big deal?”

Then, the two of them sat down on a bench. “Is cotton candy that delicious?” Miles questioned as he kept his gaze fixed on her, drumming a hand on the back of her seat.

Stella thought that he’d talk about Zane and Ximena, but she’d been proven wrong. Since she was sticking out her tongue to lick the cotton candy, she merely nodded as she couldn’t speak.

At the sight of that, Miles went silent. Thereafter, he blurted, “Get a divorce, Stella Johansson.”

It was as though a sledgehammer had hit her in the head, messing up her mind. This is the first time he has ever called me by my full name, and it feels different from when others do so. It’s as though he’d repeated my name thousands of times inwardly, and I’m someone exceedingly familiar to him… The notion of ‘divorce’ had played in her mind thousands of times, so she didn’t find it surprising when someone else mentioned it. Rather, it was him calling her by name that had her feeling as though claws were raking across her heart. At that, she stopped licking the cotton candy and lowered her head.

“You haven’t made up your mind yet? I’ll give you time,” Miles declared, making it sound as though Stella was going to get divorced for his sake.

Later, Stella thought that Zane would settle the score with her, but surprisingly, he was very quiet that night. He merely returned to his bedroom and went to bed, appearing extremely weary, and this had her baffled. But on second thought, this makes sense. Ximena Yard was faking a pregnancy and even duped him, so he’s naturally thankful to me for having exposed her now.

The incident this time didn’t affect Stella, and she went to work as usual. When she was about to get off work the next day, something utterly mortifying happened—her period came. She didn’t have any sanitary napkins with her, so this was truly an awkward situation.

She’d been sitting on her chair throughout the entire afternoon as she worked, so it was only when she stood up did she realize that the chair was stained with blood. Worse still, the chair was made of soft fabric. If it were leather or wood, she could still wipe it off, but it wasn’t. Then, she hurriedly went to the washroom, only to see that even her pants were bloody. As she had worn a long coat on this day, she thought, I’ll just drape the long coat over myself when I get off work later, and the others won’t notice it.

When she saw that everyone was gone, she carefully picked up her coat and got ready to slip away. However, just when she’d stood up, she spotted Miles walking in through the doorway in a hurry as though there was something urgent. She didn’t even have the time to put on her coat before she was frozen to the spot. He wasn’t here the entire day, yet he came just when I’m about to leave.

Upon catching sight of Stella standing there without having put her coat on, Miles casually asked, “Why aren’t you leaving yet?”

“I… I…” Stella stammered in her panic since she wasn’t all that good at lying in the first place.

Initially, Miles had forgotten something in his office, so he had come to retrieve it, but when he noticed her flustered state, he walked over to her.

At this, Stella hastily leaned back against the chair and used her coat to conceal the rather huge blood stain on the chair. “I still have some unfinished work, so…”