Stay With Me

Chapter 2

Money. That was what made the world go round, not love. One step through the silent sliding doors of the lobby and one was inside the Hale Park Hospital - haven for those with the biggest bank accounts. It sported the Hale name by no coincidence. Anthony's grandfather had bought up property around Seattle, made a fortune in development, donated money, and left a king's ransom in the upper millions for his son and grandson.

Chloe turned toward the stairs, which were carpeted on the floors in soothing mauve tones. She trudged up six flights, needing the exercise and time before she faced the man she'd married eight years earlier. Eight years! For one startling moment, she remembered how good it had been in the beginning; then she shook her head, erasing those treacherous thoughts. It wasn't like that anymore.

The sixth floor sported gleaming floors and stretched with wide windows along the outside walls. The weather was as dismal and boring as her life had been since that terrible night when she and Anthony had fought so bitterly and she'd moved out of the house they shared. Turning the corner toward Anthony's private room, she stumbled slightly in her step, then inwardly berated herself for revealing her tumultuous feelings to the people whispering outside the door to his room: Annalise and Johnathan Hale. Anthony's parents.

They looked up and frowned in unison. Neither had approved of Anthony's choice of a wife. Not then, and certainly not now. Neither bothered to approach her now with any kind of encouragement whatsoever as she slowly made her way toward them. Politeness did not run in the Hale household.

"How is he?" Chloe asked quietly.

"The same." Annalise's lips pursed, heightening the lines around her mouth, lines etched by years of smoking. She looked desperate for a cigarette now, her toe tapping, tension emanating from her in palpable waves.

"What was he doing?" Johnathan asked a bit blankly. He leaned heavily on a cane now, a recent addition because his own health was steadily failing. Like Alex's father, Johnathan also seemed to have aged alarmingly since the accident. Chloe never fully understood the anxious, unhappy man, though she silently sympathized with anyone who had lived so long with his demanding wife.

"What was he doing? Where was he going?" he muttered fretfully, running his free hand over his jaw and shaking his head. Chloe shook her head. She knew Anthony's parents blamed her somehow, but she was at as much a loss as any of them. Anthony's motives were murky. What had he been doing with Alex? Neither Annalise nor Johnathan had expressed any sympathy or even interest in Alex's death. They were as self-absorbed as always, although their fear for their son was real. Chloe glanced past them to where Anthony lay. She could just see the end of the bed from her position. Dim gray afternoon light from the fading day filtered into the room. The weight of depression was so intense she had to take several deep breaths to clear her head.

"Excuse me," she murmured, intending to slip past Anthony's parents.

"I know you want a divorce," Annalise said tautly.

"Pardon?" Chloe turned back in dumb amazement. Annalise, for all her faults, was rarely so blunt.

"You've just been waiting. Letting Anthony hang on all these years in the faint hope that you'd come back. Meanwhile, everyone's just getting older and nothing happens, and now this!"

Chloe stood there in shocked silence, startled by Annalise's vehemence. She reminded herself that the woman as under tremendous strain.

"He's going to recover," Chloe added softly.

"Will he?" Annalise demanded through quivering lips. "You'd be happy if he didn't, wouldn't you? So much more convenient for you."

A gasp escaped Chloe as a sarcastic chuckle shook Annalise's frame.

"Don't pretend you care now!" She glanced towards Anthony's room, her two hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"He may never recover. And when I think about how you could have been there for him, all these years, it just breaks my heart. No children. No heirs. Just selfish Chloe and now my son.....is....lying in there..." One hand gestured futilely towards the room.

"Anna...." Johnathan whispered in agony. The cane he held, supporting all his weight now. Chloe briefly wondered if she should support him with her arm, but the fury emanating from Annalise kept her frozen where she stood.

"Just be quiet Johnathan, I can't....." Turning away, Annalise headed blindly down the hallway toward the elevators, her heels clicking angrily against the polished floors. A pregnant pause ensued.

Chloe gazed at Johnathan, who took a deep, shaky breath. "Where was he going?" he asked again. Chloe shook her head.

"I don't know..."

I'm sorry hung between them, but neither uttered a word. Johnathan turned in the direction of his wife and moved away slowly, his limping steps barely more than a shuffle. Entering Anthony's room, Chloe steeled herself for that first look at her husband. He lay asleep, the bruises on his face starting to turn yellow. But even the ugly bruises couldn't put a damper on Anthony's handsome features. His nose was straight, his lashes dense and unfairly long for a man. She'd teased him about them once, in the first blush of their relationship, and he'd regarded her with that faint smile of indulgence that she had mistaken for affection. One arm lay strapped to his chest, the other limp against the bed covers. She glanced at his fingers. They were long and sensual, and once upon a time, they had swept across her cheekbones, lingered near her lips, while his eyes, a strong steely blue, had stared into her own with a message of pure desire.

"Chloe?"

She gasped and jumped, whirling around at the sound, her heart slamming. Rising from a chair tucked in the corner was Anthony's half brother, Luke Hale. Luke took Johnathan's name after his mother abandoned him on the Hale's doorstep when he was a young boy.

"Luke, you startled me!" she half whispered, half laughed.

"I'm sorry," he whispered back.

Luke wasn't as tall as Anthony, nor as naturally goodlooking, but he possessed the qualities Anthony would never have: compassion and interest in others. But today his gaze pierced right through her, causing her to take a small step back away from him as he rose from the chair he sat in.

"How's Amy?" Chloe asked automatically.

"Okay", Luke shrugged. He was always noncommittal about his wife. The state of their marriage was as bad as Chloe and Anthony's, although they still resided under the same roof.

"You talked to him?" Luke asked, inclining his head in Anthony's direction.

"Well...we spoke a few words."

"Dr Allistair said he'd come to a couple times." Luke regarded his brother for a few seconds, an arm reaching behind his neck to rub back and forth before tucking it back into his trouser pocket.

"It wasn't exactly enlightening. Anthony doesn't seem to remember much."

"He doesn't remember anything," Luke corrected her. "Not even his own name."

Chloe absorbed that for a few seconds, her gaze fluttering towards Anthony's sleeping form before turning to Luke once more.

"It's too early to tell, Luke."

"Is it? He didn't say so, but I could tell Dr Allistair was concerned. Something's not right. Annalise and my father suspect it to. Even Sarah."

Chloe's nerves jumped at the mention of Anthony's right- hand woman at work, Sarah Aldman. Sarah was also rumored to be Anthony's partner in the bedroom as well. Chloe had once firmly believed the rumor, though with time she'd grown to wonder where exactly the rumor started and the truth ended. Nothing was ever as it seemed.

"Sarah came to see him?" Chloe ventured, though the words tasted foul on her tongue.

"Everyone is worried about him Chloe, Anthony is Hale Industries. He's the only one who knows what's really going on." He waved away her look.

"Sure I'm with him on most deals, but Anthony's Anthony, you know? It's not like he would relate every single thing to me. He's not built that way."

"No, he's not," she agreed.

"I've been waiting for him to wake up. I really need to talk to him. And not just about work." Luke added swiftly.

"Did I say anything?"

"You didn't have to. I know what that sounded like. But he's my brother."

Silence followed, echoing a hidden emotion that wasn't so carefully hidden after all. Luke loved Anthony. That was clear. Chloe, who generally didn't know what she felt for Luke, was swamped by a flood of affection for him. At least his motivation was pure. His familial motivation , that is. As far as the business part of it went, she wouldn't trust anyone inside Hale Industries. They were all too focused on making money, money, money.

Glancing at his watch, Luke muttered impatiently. "I have to head back to the office tonight. I really wanted to talk to him." Turning to walk over to his brother's bed, Luke stared down at Anthony, and Chloe stood beside him. An arm began to reach out and then fell back to his side before he turned to Chloe with a forlorn expression on his face.

"Keep in touch."

"I will. Good-bye"

Luke nodded and then left. Chloe sat in the chair next to Anthony's bed, feeling the effects of the day. She should make an appearance at work as well, but she was just too tired. Tucker , though sympathetic to Anthony's situation, didn't spend a lot of time dwelling on things. They were working on a project that required her attention, and she could already picture Tucker pacing the floor while struggling to hide his impatience at her lengthy absence.

But too bad for him. She was not ready to face her other obligations just yet. She was, whether she liked it or not, Anthony's wife, and she needed to be by his side during this terrible time. Not exactly knowing why, Chloe moved her chair closer, gazing at the contours of Anthony's face and the dark wave of his hair, staring at him as though she'd never seen him before. So much of their life together, she'd been uncomfortable in his presence. If he were awake right now, his eyes would stare right back at her, daring her to explain what she was doing, silently mocking her unrequited love for him. After looking at him for a few more seconds, her brow furrowed in puzzlement and loss. Why? Why had he married her? Why had things come to pass as they had?

Glancing down at his hands, she felt a lump grow in her throat at the sight of the thin gold band she'd purchased for him. It wasn't horribly expensive, but it had been for her in those days. He'd never taken it off, even when he'd been unfaithful to her after that night of their worst fight. She'd accused him of that unfaithfulness - with Sarah, no less! - and he'd furiously snarled that he should be sleeping with other women since Chloe had set the rules.

With a careful finger, she touched the gold band, lightly tracing her fingers over his. When she glanced up again at his face, she got a cold jolt. Anthony's blue eyes were open and staring at her. In that smooth drawl that so unnerved her, he said,

"Hello, Chloe."