Page 111 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

“No. But... It is not unheard of. The concern would be that there’s a possibility for a bleed, or a stroke.”

“Oh.”

“He is very alert. But... His vision.”

“And what if it doesn’t return?”

“That I would assume that the damage done through the compression of the optic nerve isn’t readily repairable. But we would do surgery to see.”

“I see.”

“If he makes it through the night, then he is undoubtedly stable.”

“If he makes it through the night?”

“Without coding. I will not let him die. Don’t worry. We’ll just see if he needs assistance to continue to live.”

“It’s not fair,” she said. “He hasn’t done anything. He didn’t...he didn’t cause this—the paparazzi were after him. It isn’t fair.”

“Unfortunately, in my line of work, what I have learned is that often the good die and the bad live. Pickled by bitterness and deceit. I do my best to try and even the playing field.”

She didn’t know quite what to do, she wanted to go to him, but there was a team up there. She was his fiancée, publicly, and yet she wasn’t. But she was his lover. She was his lover and... That night didn’t even feel real. Because the fantasy had been shattered in such a cruel way.

Finally, when she was entirely alone downstairs, she called the work wives.

They were still in the office, and each picked up at their desks. “Auggie?” Lynna asked. “Where have you been?”

“In an accident.”

Everyone made loud exclamations, and began asking questions all at once.

“I’m with Matias. He’s been injured.”

“You see the headlines. It’s awful. Stories about his sister’s overdose, and apparently there’s a recording of his final conversation with her. And he told her that if she continued on being an addict that everyone would be better off without her.”

Auggie’s heart clenched. “He feels... He feels responsible,” she said. “And now I know why. But I know that there were other circumstances leading up to her death.”

“His father is playing the victim, painting him as a Machiavellian madman who always planned to put a rift in the family, who was part of his own sister’s destruction, and who then actively worked against his father. Basically, they’re saying that everything he has pretended to be all this time is a lie.”

“Well, it is,” Auggie said. “He’s hurt.”

“Oh, no,” Maude said.

She noticed the other two didn’t react. “He isn’t everything they’re saying,” Auggie said. “I know he’s not. You just have to trust me. His father is a terrible man. And no, Matias isn’t everything that he appears to be. And he does feel like he has some responsibility to take for his sister’s death. But it isn’t like that. His father is the one who manipulated his children. He treated his daughter like trash. And he treated Matias... He made him feel like he didn’t have another choice but to do all of his bidding all the time.”

“Everybody has a choice,” Irinka said.

“But some choices are harder to make depending on where you’re from.”

Irinka looked at her sharply, but didn’t say anything.

“I’ll keep you all posted,” she said.

They all got off the phone, and she breathed out heavily. Then her phone rang again. Just Irinka.

Not on a video call. Auggie picked it up. “Yes?”

“You slept with him, didn’t you?”