The Call He Ignored

PART 2 — THE TRUTH HE COULDN’T FACE

“Mr. Romano, your wife suffered a serious cardiac event. We managed to stabilize her, but the next twenty-four hours will be critical.”

Victor stared at the doctor.

“Do whatever you need. Bring in the best specialists in the country. Money is not a problem.”

The doctor looked at him quietly.

“Mr. Romano, this isn’t about money. Your wife needs rest, careful monitoring, and someone who genuinely cares about her recovery.”

Victor swallowed.

“Can I see her?”

“Five minutes. She’s still unconscious.”

When Victor entered Room Eight, the sight nearly destroyed him.

Elena lay motionless beneath a white blanket. An oxygen tube rested beneath her nose, while monitors displayed the fragile rhythm of her heartbeat.

Her beautiful face looked pale.

Her wedding ring was still on her finger.

Victor approached the bed slowly.

“Elena…”

He reached for her hand.

It was cold.

“I’m here, sweetheart.”

But she didn’t respond.

He pulled a chair beside her and lowered his head.

For the first time in years, he noticed how thin her fingers had become.

Had she always been this fragile?

Had he simply been too busy looking elsewhere to notice?

A nurse entered carrying a medical folder.

“Mr. Romano, we need some information about your wife’s recent health.”

Victor immediately looked up.

“Of course.”

“Has she complained about chest pain, dizziness, unusual fatigue, or difficulty breathing?”

He hesitated.

“I… don’t know.”

The nurse frowned.

“Does she take any medication?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Has she been under significant stress recently?”

Victor looked at Elena.

He remembered her sitting alone at the dinner table.

Her unanswered messages.

The way she had stopped asking him to come home.

He closed his eyes.

“Yes,” he whispered. “I think she has.”

The nurse nodded and left.

A few minutes later, Victor’s phone started ringing.

Selena.

He rejected the call.

Then a message appeared.

Selena: Are you seriously staying at the hospital all night? Victor, she’s your wife, not a child. You can’t keep abandoning everything because she wants attention.

Victor stared at the message.

Something inside him changed.

He typed:

Victor: You answered her emergency call. What exactly did she tell you?

The reply came almost immediately.

Selena: She was being dramatic. I told her you were busy.

Victor: Did she say she was in pain?

There was a pause.

Selena: I don’t remember.

Victor’s fingers tightened around the phone.

He remembered the nurse saying Elena had repeatedly tried to reach her husband.

Four calls.

And Selena had answered.

He stood and walked into the hallway.

When he called her again, she answered immediately.

“Victor, finally! Are you coming back?”

“Tell me exactly what Elena said.”

Selena sighed.

“She wanted you. That’s all.”

“Did she say it was an emergency?”

“She said she needed to speak to you.”

“Did she say she couldn’t breathe?”

Silence.

“Selena.”

“She might have said something like that. I wasn’t paying attention.”

Victor felt his stomach turn.

“You knew she was in trouble?”

“Don’t make this my fault! I didn’t know she was going to end up in a hospital.”

“You should have given me the phone.”

Selena’s voice sharpened.

“Why? So you could rush home to your miserable marriage? Victor, you’ve spent months telling me you were finished with her.”

He went completely still.

Then he said something Selena had never expected.

“Don’t contact me again.”

He ended the call.

Back inside the room, Victor sat beside Elena.

“I should have answered,” he whispered.

His eyes became wet.

“I should have answered the first time.”

He gently kissed her hand.

“Please wake up. You can scream at me, hate me, divorce me. Just wake up.”

At that moment, the door opened.

An older woman entered, holding a handbag.

It was Margaret, Elena’s mother.

She looked at Victor, then at her unconscious daughter.

Her expression hardened.

“What are you doing here?”

Victor stood.

“Mrs. Bennett, I’m—”

“I know exactly who you are.”

She approached the bed and brushed Elena’s hair away from her forehead.

“My daughter called me every night for three weeks,” she said quietly. “She kept telling me you were busy.”

Victor lowered his eyes.

Margaret turned toward him.

“Do you know what she told me last Sunday?”

He said nothing.

“She said she was thinking about leaving you, but she was afraid you wouldn’t even notice.”

Victor felt as if someone had struck him.

Margaret took a breath.

“She wasn’t asking for diamonds, Victor. She wanted her husband to come home.”

Then she looked directly at him.

“And tonight, when she was dying, she called you.”

Victor couldn’t hold her gaze.

For the first time, he understood that he hadn’t simply neglected his wife.

He had made her feel completely alone inside a marriage.

And now he was terrified that he had waited too long.