My Celebrity Wife Thought I’d Never Leave

Chapter 4

Lauren's hand was still resting on top of his, warm and soft, her eyes full of that gentle look she always used when she wanted him to fold.

Jason pulled his hand away.

"I'm not apologizing." His voice was low but steady. "And I'm not going home with you."

Lauren's tender expression cracked just enough to show the frustration underneath.

"Jason, stop being stubborn. You got drunk, you said things you didn't mean, and now you're embarrassing both of us. Just come home and we'll talk about this properly."

"There's nothing to talk about." Jason looked her straight in the eyes without blinking. "I ran the test three times at three different labs. Every single result said the same thing. Nina is not my daughter."

"You ran those tests without telling me." Lauren's voice tightened, and the softness evaporated from her face like steam off hot pavement. "You went behind my back and tested our daughter's DNA like some paranoid detective, and you didn't think I deserved to know about it?"

Jason almost laughed at that.

Our daughter. She's still calling her our daughter. Even with the proof sitting right there in pieces on the table.

"You're trying to flip this around on me, Lauren. That's not going to work. Not this time."

"I'm not flipping anything." Lauren pressed both palms flat on the table and leaned forward, her jaw set hard. "You violated my trust. You violated Nina's privacy. You did all of this in secret, and now you're throwing around accusations based on some lab report that could easily be wrong."

"Three labs don't all make the same mistake." Jason's voice didn't waver. "If Nina is not my biological child, then you slept with another man. And if you slept with another man, then this marriage is already dead."

"Keep your voice down!" Lauren hissed through her teeth, her eyes darting toward the closed door of the private room. Her entire posture changed in an instant, spine rigid, shoulders pulled back, chin lifted. "Do you have any idea what happens if someone outside this room hears what you're saying? One leaked rumor and it's on every entertainment blog in the country by tomorrow morning."

There it is. That's what she really cares about. Not me. Not our marriage. Her reputation.

"I don't care who hears it." Jason's voice stayed exactly where it was.

"Well I do!" Lauren's nostrils flared and color rushed up her neck. "Stop this nonsense right now and come home with me. We'll discuss everything calmly once we're behind closed doors."

"That house is yours, Lauren. It was bought with your money, it's in your name, and every piece of furniture in it was picked by your decorator." Jason leaned back in his chair and looked at her with tired eyes. "It stopped feeling like my home a long time ago."

Something flickered across Lauren's face that might have been hurt if Jason didn't know better.

"Fine." Her voice went cold enough to frost the windows. "If you don't want to come home, then don't. Ever."

She picked up her purse, straightened her back, and walked out of the room without looking at him once.

The door clicked shut behind her.

Jason sat there until the silence became unbearable, then he paid the bill and left.

He found a small hotel two blocks from the restaurant. Nothing fancy. Just a clean bed and four walls that didn't belong to Lauren Chase. He checked in, closed the curtains, and was asleep before his head fully hit the pillow.

When he opened his eyes again, the room was dark and his phone said 7:43 PM.

He had slept for almost six hours straight, and his body still felt like it had been filled with wet sand.

Jason sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, turning his phone over and over in his hands. No messages from Lauren. No missed calls. Nothing.

She really meant it. Don't come back, ever.

He pushed the thought aside and stood up. There was something he needed to take care of first.

The bar from last night.

According to the hotel front desk that morning, a woman with short blonde hair had brought him in, booked the room under his name, and paid the bill plus deposit in cash. That meant some stranger had spent a good amount of money on a drunk man she didn't even know.

Jason needed to find out who she was and pay her back.

The bar looked completely different in the early evening light. Quieter, calmer, with soft music playing instead of the loud mess he vaguely remembered from the night before. He walked toward the entrance and was about to step inside when a familiar face stopped him cold.

Dr. Marcus Webb was walking out of the bar with a young woman glued to his side.

Marcus had been Jason's classmate in medical school and was now his colleague at Eastport General. He was forty two, married with two kids, and the girl hanging off his arm looked like she was barely twenty five. Her dress was tight enough to be a second skin, and her fingers were laced through Marcus's like they had been doing this for a while.

Marcus saw Jason at the exact same moment Jason saw him.

Their eyes met for half a second.

Jason opened his mouth to greet him, but Marcus’s eyes met his for a split second. Marcus’s smile instantly froze. A brief flash of panic crossed his face before he deliberately looked away, pulling the woman closer and striding past Jason as if he were invisible.

Only then did Jason realize why: someone in Marcus's position couldn't afford to be recognized outside a place like this with a woman who clearly wasn't his wife.

Jason watched them disappear inside, giving a faint, bitter smile.

Hypocrites everywhere.

He stood outside in the cool night air, letting the breeze touch his neck.

As he looked back toward the street, his mind returned to the chaos of the night before—the blackout, the hazy car ride, and the woman dragging him into a hotel.

A cold shiver suddenly coursed down his spine.

If the woman who had taken him away last night had intended to frame him or set a trap, she could have easily destroyed his reputation, his medical license, and his whole career with a single move.

Was that woman really Lauren?

Something deep in Jason's gut told him no.

And his instinct was right too.

At the same time, a pair of eyes watching him through the window of the bar.

A woman with short blonde hair sat alone with a glass of red wine, her legs crossed, her gaze resting on Jason with quiet interest. 

The faintest smile played across her lips as she brought the glass to her mouth and took a slow, unhurried sip.