Goodbye Toxic Ex

Chapter 1

"I'm truly sorry, Mr. Ryan. There are no other options available to us apart from those we've explained to you already. 

Since this is an experimental procedure, we would need the signature of a spouse or at least two consenting relatives!" The female doctor repeated the same words as she had done a while ago, her eyes looking downward and avoiding Ryan's gaze.

He had been diagnosed with a tumor on his brainstem that connected directly to his spine.

They had told him that it was from stress, staying up late at night, and unhealthy eating habits.

"Maybe you should try reaching out to your spouse again. I am sure that she would be here soon!"

"You're right, I will try that again!" Ryan nodded, only because he wanted the doctor to leave.

There was no point trying to call her again. He had tried multiple times until she blocked him with a text.

Then he decided to try once more, and it went through. 

"What do you think you are doing, Ryan, calling me multiple times? Isn't it obvious that I am busy?" Her voice rang from the phone in full-blown rage.

She had been in this meeting throughout the week. Even when he had collapsed while working on her company's new experimental drugs that had finally become a success, Sophia still didn't come over.

Her excuse was that she couldn't leave her work for something so trivial.  

Ryan breathed out.

His head was pounding hard, pulsing against his forehead, and he gnashed his teeth and groaned just to move from one place to another.

"I have been trying to reach out to you for a week now, Sophia. I am in need of surgery and your signature is needed!" he explained.

Ryan didn't bother to argue anymore, not that he even had the strength to at the moment. 

His face was pale and he was barely holding on to his phone, as his grip around it was weak.

He heard the sound of Sophia's tongue clicking with irritation and the rising tone of impatience in her voice.

"Are you serious right now, Ryan? You want me to leave my work and come over to babysit you? For something so trivial?"

'Trivial?' Ryan's thoughts were soaked in the well of his pain.

He was dying and she called it trivial.

His heart throbbed. There was no need to linger on the brewing pain as he quickly brushed past it and tried to explain further.

"It's really important, Sophie. I wouldn't be trying to call if it wasn't, and you know it.

It's a brain tumor and this is the only procedure that can save my life!"

After this, there was silence. Ryan waited hopefully for a positive response. 

Then it came. A cold, dry laugh that rivaled that of villains in Gothic movies, and his heart dropped into his stomach.

After the laugh, her voice instantly turned cold and raspy.

"You really have a way of making a molehill sound like a mountain, don't you? If only you had the same talent for corporate administration. 

Calling a headache a brain tumor just because you want my attention and want to soothe your male ego, that's a new low, Ryan." She paused, each of the words that she spoke driving a stab right into Ryan's chest.

"If you don't have anything important to discuss apart from trying to pull pranks, then don't call me. In fact, I am blocking your number and I will only call when I need you!"

"Soph!" He tried to speak, but the call had already gone dead in his ears.

He stared at the phone for a while, doing nothing, almost like he was contemplating in disbelief. 

The weight of what she had said settled in his heart like a stone and his chest instantly tightened.

Ryan got up from the bed and signed out to leave the hospital. On his phone, he had her location and was already riding in a taxi.

Maybe if she actually saw him, then she would realize how serious this was and begin to take him seriously. 

It was the least that she could do.

After all, he worked his ass off in her company; the fame that she enjoyed was all because of his research in the biochemistry department. 

Ryan, despite his groundbreaking discoveries, had decided to offer up everything to be registered in his wife's name while he took care of the home.

She was a feminist and didn't believe in women staying in the home. To her, it was a ridiculous ideology that she needed to break by being successful and showing other women that they could too and not be controlled by others.

Ryan loved her and respected her position, and he was ready to support her by all means possible, working on drugs and medicines and barely getting enough sleep.

He ate junk just because he needed to save time to return to his work, and cheap energy drinks were his daily routine.

Yet, Sophia had never once batted an eye in his direction. Even after three solid years of marriage, they still felt like strangers because she was always too busy.

She claimed she would make it up and do better. She missed his birthdays and forgot their anniversary. 

In fact, Ryan had gotten tired of her apologies and her excuses and hopes of making it up to him later in the future, because things only got worse.

He got to Twinland Intercontinental Hotel, the place where she was having her meetings with her investors. 

Ryan no longer cared whether she was with powerful men or even whether she was in the midst of a board meeting.

He was her husband and she owed him some respect at least.

When he opened the door to her private suite, however, Sophia was in an apron with a frying pan in her hands, all smiles, while Bright, her VP, sat on the bed with a smile on his lips.

She was dipping a dumpling into his mouth from the pan and she didn't even notice that he had walked in until the door slammed behind him.

Sophia jerked and something flickered in her eyes. 

Just as it came, it was gone in a few moments and what was left was a death stare that bore straight into Ryan's chest and caused his head to ring even further, his vision blurring gradually while he held onto the chair beside him to support his weight.

"What are you doing here?" she sneered, and Ryan scoffed sorrowfully.

"Seriously?”