Page 113 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

“How long will you give it?”

“A couple of weeks at least. At that point, we will take you in for further testing.”

“And in the meantime?”

“You are a billionaire. I assume you have the resources.”

He knew the doctor was being practical, and not dismissive, but Matias still found himself in rage.

“I am in the middle of a crisis of image.”

“You have bigger issues. You will have to physically recover.”

There were flashes of light in his vision at times, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he was hallucinating them or not. There was the occasional blurred edge. And again, he wasn’t certain if that was real or not. “Stay here,” the doctor said. “Your fiancée will take care of you.”

His fiancée...

“Auggie is here?”

“Yes. She has been pacing the halls and barely sleeping. She clearly cares about you a great deal.”

Well. Auggie had managed to convince the doctor that her feelings for him were real. If only he knew the truth. Auggie was here because it benefited her. Because the truth was, she couldn’t abandon him now. It was too late. Her reputation was already twined together with his. It was a self-sustaining problem at this point.

“You know I can be here in under twenty minutes if you have need.”

And with that, he was left to his own devices. Without the constant beeping of monitors. And without his vision.

He heard footsteps, though he could not figure out where they were coming from. He didn’t know this place well enough. That was the problem. If they were in his apartment in London, he would have a better sense of the direction of everything. Of course, if he was in London he would have to listen for the sounds of the city, and out here it was distressingly quiet.

“I overheard.”

Auggie. He thought of her sitting in the passenger seat, that bruise on her cheek. But then again, in his arms, naked. Beautiful. He held onto that image. He held onto it tightly.

“Then you know he thinks that I’ll be fine.”

“That isn’t quite what he said. But, yes.”

“You will have to take care of me,” he said. What a lowering realization.

“I will,” she said.

“I need you to tell me what the press is writing about me.”

“I don’t see how that’s going to help you.”

“Because I want to know.”

He was suddenly consumed with helplessness. He knew that there were many ways that people without sight navigated the world, but he didn’t know any of them. He knew that there were ways to use technology when you are visually impaired, but he had not learned how to do that. He had no skills for navigating this, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

He suddenly felt replete with rage and helplessness. If she chose not to show him, he wouldn’t be able to find it for himself.

“I need to be able to trust you,” he said.

“Can you trust me to tell you that you maybe don’t want to know?”

“No,” he said.

“Okay,” she said, cautious. “Well, you’re just going to have to deal with it.”