DEAR EX-WIFE: IT'S PAYBACK TIME

CHAPTER 2

"Where is Jasmine Zane?!!." Racheal screamed at the receptionist. "Where is my daughter?!!.”

"Jasmine..the post op patient?" She rambled. "Room 206, down the....." She spun out before the nurse could finish, rushing towards the room.

"Room 206."

She flung the door open, expecting to see a crowd of doctors running around, but she saw none. Jasmine was sleeping peacefully while a nurse checked her drip.

Wasn't she dying??. Did he lie??.

She scoffed.

Typical Ryan.

She made her way in, ignoring the nurse's gaze.

"Who are you??"

"Her mother," she answered as she saw something flicker in her eyes.

Hatred?. Disgust??.

She ignored. "I heard she was in danger."

"She has been stabilised."

So Ryan didn't lie to get her here?

She shoved the thought aside, gently sitting down beside the sleeping Jasmine, watching her chest rise and fall.

"My baby," Rachael whispered and tucked her little black hair to one side. She looked okay and peaceful, unlike how Ryan screamed it to be. It must have been a simple fever.

"Ma, your daughter was in serious danger today. She was on the verge, she needed you."

"She didn't die." She snapped at the nurse who was acting overly considerate.

"She almost."

"But she is alright."

"I...."

"Can you leave us alone and I will have a quiet time with my daughter." The nurse took a last glance at Jasmine and then left.

Rachael's gaze lingered on the nurse who had disappeared from her sight; she turned, patting Jasmine's hair.

"You are a strong girl. I know you will be fine."

With that, she placed a kiss on her forehead, tucked a necklace behind her pillow, then turned and left.

She had things to sort, plus, Jasmine was okay, staying here with her wouldn't change a thing, nor would she get better fast if she stayed beside Jasmine all day.

She narrowed down the hall, just then her gaze caught a certain black hair, blue eyes, 6'2 tall crybaby. She fastened her pace, anger flooding her veins.

"You...."

She stopped a foot away, swinging her hands against his cheeks, his head tilted at the force as the slap echoed through the hall.

RYAN

I ignored the sting on my cheeks, staring at her, both shocked and angry.

"How dare you?? Is this how you take care of our daughter?" She screamed. "I just left for a few days and you let her fall this sick, huh?"

I watched her, dumbfounded.

"She is just four years old, for Christ's sake, how can you be so reckless as not to take care of her well?"

"I am not looking after her??." I sneered.

"You were supposed to meet her today, you were supposed to be here with her. You promised her." I spoke, keeping my voice as low as I could.

"I...."

"She kept waiting for you. She kept hoping that you would come. She waited the whole day..."

"I was busy!!." She screamed louder. "I fucking told you I was busy, I told you I had something important to do."

"More important than our daughter."

"Important is important. It doesn't change a thing."

"For the whole day??"

"Yes."

"Doing what??."

"I don't need to answer you." She snapped angrily. "It's my life, I don't need to disclose my entire schedule to you. It's my privacy and no one, not even you, has the right to know."

A short mocking laughter bubbled through my throat at her words. "Your private life means spending the day with someone else’s child while leaving her own daughter aside?"

She stilled, her surprise look was quickly replaced by an angry one.

"Leaving your own child to go and celebrate another child is what you call privacy, important??."

"Are you spying on me?? " She scoffed.

"You leave our daughter and tail me around the city cuz you think what, huh?"

"I do no such thing"

"Oh please, cut the bullshit. You...." She paused as her phone rang, a little smile made its way to her lips before she shot a glance at me, answering the call.

"Hello, Marco."

"Marco??" I stiffened. I knew that name, I knew the devil behind it.

Marco was not just her friend; he was her long-lover. I knew their story well. They were very much in love or at least she was. They dated for seven years, planned to get married before he suddenly disappeared, just for the news of his marriage to a certain heiress to break the news.

Rachael cried, hell!! She was on the verge of giving up. It was one of the few times I heard her cry.

Now Marco was back.

It all made sense; that was why she could happily drop Jasmine just to rush to him.

"What? What happened to Leo?" She practically screamed in concern, something she never did for Jasmine. "Nightmare? He had nightmares. Oh my God!! I will be there now." She hung up, tucking her phone in her bag. "I need to go, it's urgent. Take care of our daughter."

"Need to go??. To a child who had nightmares ??" I asked as she stared at me like I had grown a horn.

"Are you for real??. That child needs me."

"And Jasmin needs you too!! She just came out of danger, she needs you, her mother."

"I have already seen her, she is okay. Not like staying here will solve anything. I need to go to him."

"Are you going because a child has nightmares or because Marco's child did?"

I spoke halting her steps.

"What do you mean?"

"You heard me? He is Marco's child. The same Marco who left you for his rich class wife."

"That's my life, Macro is just a friend, don't you dare bring him into this. He just needs my help." She scoffed. "What is your problem, Ryan?? Can't I help a child?? He had a serious nightmare."

"It's just a nightmare, our daughter...."

"Can you stop bringing her into this? She has a minor attack, nothing else. If you had spent more time taking care of her than snooping around me, then she would have been fine." She turned her gaze to her watch. "I am already late. Goodbye and take care of our daughter." She sounded and bolted out.

A bitter smile tugged at my lips, frustration curling in my guts.

Wow! Just wow.

She’s leaving our daughter, who just narrowly escaped danger, to tend to a child who had a nightmare?

"Just amazing." Disgust and disappointment settled in my gut while I watched her leave.

Five years of marriage and I thought I knew her, I believe that we- Jasmine and I were the most important people in her life, that she had moved on from Marco and would put our little family first. I thought she loved her own daughter, but now it seems even after five years that in her heart was Marco. She never stopped loving him and now she loved both him and his son, the three of them that make up her family.

My phone rang, pulling me out of my thoughts, I shifted my gaze to the caller.

"Sir, we followed the guidance and instructions"

"....and..??" I said impatiently.

"It worked." I froze. "It worked sir. We have made the cure. Your daughter will be saved." I leaned into the wall holding back the tears that burned my eyes. "You hear me, your daughter will be saved."

"Thank you," I said through my gasping breath, relief washed over me.

Finally! Finally!!!

"You don't need to thank us, we just followed your instructions and formula, the drugs have been tested on a subject, and it worked. It took all night but we are done. It will be shifted to you in less than five hours."

"Thank you."

"No need. This proves you still have your touch." He paused for a second then continued. "Come back, Ryan. You could help other people like you did today, you can create more drugs which could cure illnesses"

"It has been five years, I...."

"Don't use that excuse."

I sighed.

Did I want to return??.

No...Maybe.

I had left that life behind. Five years ago I worked as the chief scientist at a top-tier biopharmaceutical company. I would spend days and nights working on new formulae, new analyses. I wanted to do more than just make drugs; I wanted to heal all, to liberate pains. I wanted so many times but time.

Time was never on my side. Then Rachael came along with the news of her pregnancy. I needed to focus on her, on the baby, so I resigned, putting all my focus on them, devoting all my time to caring for Rachael and Jasmine, always being there for them. I couldn't do that with my job.

Now my daughter needed that part of me I buried, she needed the part that was determined to save people, she needed the chief scientist, one who made a cure for her. She needed me more than ever. Her life practically depended on it, on me, and I would do anything I could to save her.

I was the glimpse of hope she needed.

"When will you return?"

"Soon." Determination flashed in my eyes. "Very soon.”