His Mistress Had HIV,So He Locked His Ex-Wife in a Morgue

The day I went into labor, Rhys Abbott was cheating on me.

Throughout my entire postpartum confinement, he jetted around the globe with that woman, showering her with every luxury money could buy.

When he finally returned, he brought me a divorce agreement.

Sophie doesn't like being called a homewrecker all the time, so I need to end this marriage.

"Just sign it. I waited until your recovery period was over before giving this to youconsider that my courtesy."

"I don't want the child anyway. Keep her as a memento. Sophie will give me children later."

I didn't say a word. I picked up the pen and signed.

I couldn't afford to delay even a second longernot when the man I truly loved was waiting for me.

Three months later, I was pulled from my own wedding by an emergency call from the hospital.

A female patient had ruptured her corpus luteum during particularly vigorous intercourse. Worse, because she'd been sleeping with multiple partners simultaneously, she'd developed severe complications requiring immediate surgery.

I pushed open the door to the operating roomand what a coincidence.

Lying on that surgical table was none other than my ex-husband's fiance.

I glanced down at the patient chart to confirm the name.

Sophie Pruitt.

Before my divorce from Rhys, I'd heard that name countless times from his lips. He called her "Sophie," always with such tender devotion it dripped from every syllable.

I'd imagined he must have found some perfect, transcendent love.

This was what that looked like.

I thought back to the day I gave birth. The labor had turned dangeroushemorrhaging, doctors shouting for family members to be contacted.

But Rhys's phone went straight to voicemail. Every single time.

Meanwhile, photos of him and Sophie wrapped around each other outside luxury hotels flooded every tabloid.

With the Abbott family's resources, he could have buried those photos in an instant if he'd wanted to.

The fact that he didn't made the message clear: he was done hiding her.

He was ready to make her his wife.

When I finally regained consciousness after nearly dying, Rhys appeared at last.

Impatience flickered across his face. "Leonora Simmons, why do you insist on making yourself so pathetic?"

"You used to be a top student. You're a doctor, for God's sake. Did you really have to go through with having this baby?"

"I never wanted it. If you thought a child would secure your position, that's honestly laughable."

"I've been busy lately. I don't have time for your melodrama"

His phone rang before he could finish.

He answered without hesitation, not bothering to step away. "Sophie..."

A voice cut through from the other end. "Rhys, is my birthday surprise ready yet?"

"You said you were just checking on that frumpy wife at the hospital. It's been half an hourwhy aren't you back?"

"I heard she was bleeding everywhere? Gross. Hurry back before you get your shoes dirty."

Rhys chuckled softly. "My Sophie, always looking out for me. I'm on my way."

"Your gift is ready. I promise you'll be so surprised you won't be able to get out of bed..."

He walked out while still talking, never glancing back at me.

It didn't occur to him to look at our baby either.

But honestly? I wasn't heartbroken.

Once I confirmed my daughter was safe and healthy, I felt only relief.

Relief that I could finally hold the Abbott family patriarch to his promise.

I called Paul Abbott myself. "Grandpa Paul, the baby is healthy. May I leave now?"

Years ago, when the Abbott empire had teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, the old man had sought me out personally.

My birth chart, he claimed, was perfectly aligned to bring fortune to the Abbott bloodline. If I bore them an heir, their prosperity would be guaranteed for generations.

I was already a medical intern at the time. To anyone with a scientific education, it was superstitious nonsense.

But the wealthy believe what they want to believe.

When I refused, Old Mr. Delgado had my younger brother expelled from his university.

My parents called in tears, sobbing that they'd just been in a car accidentone step closer and they would have died.

I had no choice but to give in.

At the time, I already had a boyfriend. We'd been together for ten years.

He knew the truth. He was still waiting for me.

Old Mr. Delgado sighed. "I've seen the news these past few days. Since a forced marriage yields no sweetness, I'll let you go."

"But you're still weak. I've arranged a professional care team. Leave after your postpartum recovery."

Sophie Pruitt's screaming dragged me back to reality.

I scanned her condition.

Severe lacerations to her lower body, complicated by a raging infection. The tissue had already begun to necrotize. Worse than I'd anticipated.

She was convulsing from the pain, yet still hurling abuse.

"Useless! All of you, useless! You can't even handle a little wound? Keep this up and I'll have this hospital shut down by morning!"

"Men are all the samedisgusting pigs! They get what they want and disappear, leaving me here to suffer! When I get out, I'll skin every last one of them alive!"

I pulled on sterile gloves, my expression blank. "Miss Pruitt, the examination shows severe vaginal lacerations with multiple pathogenic infections. You need surgical debridement immediately."

The moment she heard surgery, she exploded again, ignoring the pain. "Surgery? Who gave you permission to cut me open? I'm warning youif you leave a single scar on my body, you'll regret it!"

"I'm supposed to wear a couture wedding gown! I'm marrying into one of the wealthiest families in the country! Can you afford to pay for ruining that?"

Her eyes burned with venom as she glared at me. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? Trying to destroy me? My fianc is the richest man in the city! One word from him and every single one of you will be out on the street!"

I cut her off. "It's too early to worry about any of that. If we don't operate now, the infection will spread. Forget marriageyou could suffer permanent damage to your reproductive system. Or worse, it could kill you."

I was simply stating facts.

For patients like her, sympathy was worthless.

The nurse beside me handed over the surgical consent form. Sophie snatched it and tore it to shreds.

"Sign? I'm not signing anything!" she shrieked. "You quacks are trying to hurt me! I'll report every one of you! I'll destroy your careers!"

Then something seemed to occur to her. Her gaze turned venomous, locking onto me. "Who do you think you are? You think you're qualified to operate on me? Get your chief of surgery in here. Now. Or I'll have my fianc tear this dump to the ground!"

If her condition weren't so critical, I wouldn't bother.

But duty is duty. I couldn't bring myself to walk away.

I had no patience for her theatrics. "I'm the only surgeon in this hospital who can perform this procedure. Where's your family? We need a signature."

At the mention of family, Sophie faltered. "Family? I don't need family. I make my own decisions."

"Just do the surgery! If you delay and something goes wrong, can you handle the consequences?"

I reminded her again. "Hospital policy requires a family member's signature. Or what about your fianc?"

My tone stayed flat. Routine. Clinical.

Sophie's face contorted. "You'd better keep your mouths shut. If a single word of this leaks, I'll make sure none of you ever see another sunrise."

I raised an eyebrow but didn't press further.

I'd seen this kind of thing plenty of times in this hospital.

I simply placed the consent form in front of her. "Think it over and decide quickly. Time waits for no oneonce your surgery is done, I still need to get back to my wedding..."

My words were cut off by a man's voice from behind.

"Wedding? Who are you marrying?"

"We've been divorced three months and you're already getting married?!"

Rhys stood at the operating room entrance, four bodyguards in black flanking him like a wall.

His tailored suit accentuated his tall frame, his presence radiating an almost suffocating pressure.

"Leonora, do you hear me talking to you?"

"What's this? Three months divorced and you've already forgotten your ex-husband?"

His gaze swept past me. Before I could respond, his expression shifted the moment he spotted Sophie on the operating table.

She lay there with an oxygen tube, her face deathly pale.

Pain flickered through Rhys's eyes instantly, and his voice turned glacial. "Leonora, what did you do to her?"

"She was perfectly fine when she left this morning! What have you two been doing behind my back?!"

Sophie raised a trembling hand toward him. "Rhys! She's trying to kill me!"

Her voice came out hoarse and broken. "She took a scalpel and twisted it inside me! She said, 'After this cut, you'll never have children again!' I begged her to stop, but she kept going until I nearly died from the pain..."

Before she could finish, violent coughs wracked her body. Her chest heaved, and the cardiac monitor shrieked its alarm.

Gasping for breath, she screamed with every ounce of strength she had left: "So you're Rhys's ex-wife!"

"Rhys, she's jealous! Jealous that I can give you children! Jealous that I'm going to be Mrs. Abbott!"

I dropped the blood-soaked gauze into the medical waste bin, then picked up the surgical record and waved it slowly in front of Rhys. "Mr. Abbott, a ruptured abscess in her lower body triggered sepsis. If your fiance had arrived forty minutes later, she'd be in the morgue right now."

Before Rhys could take it, Sophie snatched the document away. "Rhys, she's lying! She's framing me on purpose!"

"She knows you divorced her for me, so she's using her position to get revenge!"

Sophie ripped the IV needle from the back of her hand. "Rhys, lookshe deliberately missed the vein. She left bruises all over me, even on my neck!"

"She threatened me too! Said she'd leak my medical records to every media outlet so the whole world would know you married someone beneath her!"

I turned my head to look at Sophie.

Her body was indeed covered in purple marks.

But those had been there when she was admitted.

Obviously, they were love bites.

Rhys pulled her into his arms, then ground his heel into the surgical record on the floor. "Leonora, back then you tried to force me into marriage by holding my grandfather's life-saving medication hostage. When that failed, you decided to destroy Sophie instead?"

He let out a cold laugh. "Mercy Heart Hospital? You think you deserve to work here?"

"Clearly I was far too merciful during our divorce. I've spoiled you enough that you now dare to touch my woman."

"Leonora, I don't think you've ever experienced what happens when you cross Rhys Abbott."

The moment he finished speaking, two bodyguards stepped forward and wrenched my arms behind my back.

I was forced to my knees before Rhys and Sophie.

I lifted my gaze to meet his, my voice laced with mockery. "Rhys, aren't you the least bit curious why she'd rather die than have this surgery?"

The guards bound my wrists with restraints, the straps cutting into flesh, pain radiating through my entire body.

I'd hemorrhaged during a difficult delivery. I was still nursing. My body hadn't recovered. The forced position sent agony tearing through my abdomen.

Cold sweat seeped from every pore. I forced each word through gritted teeth. "She has seventeen different men saved in her phoneguys she's been flirting with. Last week alone, she checked into hotels with three of them. Call Dr. Grant Abbott Abbott right now. Ask him just how dangerous that kind of lifestyle really is."

"Lies!" Sophie shrieked. "You're framing me!"

The tears came instantly, streaming down her cheeks as she crumpled into Rhys's arms.

"Rhys," she sobbed, "she's gone too far. She's using her position at this hospital to forge documents and slander me."

"You know I've always been with you. How could I possibly be with other men? How could I have contracted anything?"

"Rhys, are you really going to let her bully me like this? You have to make her pay..."

With every word of her accusation, Rhys's expression darkened further. "Drag her to the underground freezer. No one releases her without my explicit order."

The bodyguards seized my arms and hauled me toward the fire escape.

I struggled, but their grip only tightened. Pain shot through my body until even the stairs seemed to pitch and sway before my eyes.

"Rhys Abbott! Ignore what I've told you and you'll regret it."

Behind me, Sophie's wailing grew louder.

"Rhys, make her disappear. I can't stand looking at her anymore. If she finds out we're getting married soon, she'll try to ruin our wedding."

Rhys's voice softened as he soothed her. "Shh, trust me, baby. I won't let anything go wrong on our wedding day."

"You're going to be the most beautiful bride in the world."

"..."

The freezer door groaned shut.

Minus fifteen degrees. The cold hit like a thousand ice needles, piercing straight through to my bones.

I curled up against one of the storage units, pounding on the door. "Rhys Abbott, let me out!"

"This is false imprisonment! It's illegal! Let me out!"

My thin surgical scrubs were useless against the biting cold. My thoughts began to blur, freezing over like frost on glass.

I don't know how long I'd been there when Rhys's voice cut through the haze. "Learned your lesson yet? Going to try this again?"

"Leonora, don't think that giving me a child entitles you to touch what's mine."

"I'm making sure you understand exactly what happens to anyone who does."

Rhys stood just outside the freezer, carrying Sophie in his arms like a princess.

She was wrapped in his suit jacket, her face still palebut beneath that fragile exterior, her eyes glinted with calculation.

Sophie nestled deeper into his embrace. "Rhys, it's so cold here. Do you think she'll freeze?"

I'd seen her medical report. I knew how serious her condition was.

Instead of worrying about me, she should be counting how many days she had left.

"But she's so wicked," Sophie continued. "After everything she's put me through, a little freezing is the least she deserves."

She gazed up at Rhys, her voice trembling with practiced fear. "I'm terrified she'll come after me once she gets out. Back in the operating room, the way she looked at me... like she wanted to tear me apart."

Rhys held her close, sparing me a single glacial glance. "As long as I'm here, she can't touch you."

Sophie's eyes welled with fresh tears. "But what if she holds a grudge? What if she spreads rumors about my... my personal life?"

"Everything she said was made up. She's jealous of me. She's trying to destroy my reputation..."

"If it damages you or the Delgado Group, I'll never forgive myself."

"Rhys, please don't believe her lies. You're the only one in my heart. She's just trying to drive us apart so she can worm her way back to you."

My teeth chattered violently, my whole body screaming in agony. Thoughts were becoming impossible to form. "Sophie... do you dare unlock your phone for Rhys to see? Do you dare let him check your hotel records from last week?"

"Shut up!" Sophie's voice shot up an octave.

"Rhys, look! She's still spouting nonsense! I didn't do anything! She's framing me!"

She deliberately leaned into Rhys's embrace, but the movement pulled at the bruises on her wrist. A pained whimper escaped her lips. "Ah... it hurts... Rhys, I can't stand hearing her voice anymore!"

The cold in Rhys's eyes deepened into something glacial. "Turn the temperature to the lowest setting. Let's see if she still dares to spew lies."

The guard by the door obeyed instantly.

The cold air intensified with brutal force. White frost crystallized across the metal walls.

A metallic sweetness surged up my throat. My fingernails scraped against the freezer's interior, producing a sound that made my own skin crawl.

My vision began to darken at the edges.

Rhys's voice reached me like a final verdict. "Leonora, when you learn to behave, I'll let you out."

"Otherwise, you'll stay in there forever."

My consciousness started to scatter. The cold had frozen me into complete stillness.

I forced out my last shred of awareness. "Rhys... let me out..."

But he simply turned away, Sophie still cradled in his arms.

Just before they could leave, the corridor door slammed open with a deafening crash.

Head Nurse Elaine Porter burst in clutching a stack of lab reports, her voice sharp with urgency. "Sophie Pruitt's HIV test came back positive! Every instrument from the operating room must be destroyed immediately!"

She slapped the reports down on the nearest surface, her voice cutting through the air like a blade. "You've all been exposed to her blood! Get to post-exposure treatment NOWwait any longer and it'll be too late!"

Rhys's hand froze mid-air. The color drained from his face in an instant. "What did you say?! That's impossible!"