Hillbilly Girlie Marries a Billionaire – Episode 35
The hospital settled into uneasy quiet after midnight. Mrs. Davis slept with oxygen beneath her nose, and Lucas rested in the next room under strict orders not to move his shoulder. Emily sat between them in the corridor, exhaustion finally reaching her.
Noah brought coffee and reminded her that security now covered both rooms. She thanked him for tackling Grant. He joked that competing with Lucas had finally produced one useful skill: reckless timing.
Emily said it had produced something else. Noah had chosen family over ambition when it mattered. His expression softened, but he warned her not to repeat the compliment where Lucas might hear it.
Victoria arrived without entourage or authority. She looked older than she had at the estate, stripped of the certainty that money could correct every consequence. Police had questioned her about the clinic credentials and Mia’s employment.
She asked to see Lucas. Emily said he was sleeping. Victoria accepted the boundary instead of entering anyway, a small change that did not escape Emily’s notice.
After a long silence, Victoria apologized for helping Sophie remain close to the family. She admitted that class prejudice made every accusation against Emily sound believable and every warning about Sophie seem inconvenient.
Emily did not reassure her. Victoria’s choices had endangered people long before Grant took a gun. An apology mattered only if it became different behavior when no one was watching.
Victoria agreed. She offered to fund Mrs. Davis’s continued treatment with her personal money. Emily declined payment as proof of remorse but accepted a direct apology to her mother once she recovered.
Lucas woke and found them speaking. His body tensed until Emily said the conversation was her choice. Victoria told her son she had mistaken control for protection and family reputation for family love.
Lucas did not forgive her immediately. He said she would remain outside the company and household decisions until trust returned, if it ever did. Victoria accepted the consequence.
At the detention ward, Sophie received confirmation that the fetus remained healthy. The biological father and his wife had requested legal representation concerning future custody. Sophie realized every remaining decision would involve people she had treated as invisible.
She gave prosecutors the technician’s financial ledgers and client list. The evidence exposed multiple falsified paternity cases. Her cooperation might reduce the sentence, but prison remained likely.
Emily visited once under guard. Sophie asked whether Lucas hated her. Emily said Lucas no longer shaped decisions around Sophie at all. Indifference wounded more deeply than hatred.
Sophie confessed that she had believed marrying Lucas would prove she was superior to every woman who ever competed with her. Emily said love was not a ranking system. Anyone treated as a prize eventually became a prisoner too.
Sophie asked whether Emily could forgive her. Emily answered honestly: not yet. Mercy had brought her medical care; forgiveness belonged to a longer road Sophie could not demand.
The next morning, police transferred Sophie to a secure medical facility pending trial. Cameras captured her departure, but the Anderson family released no statement beyond concern for the unborn child’s privacy.
Mrs. Davis woke stronger and asked for Lucas. He entered with his arm in a sling. She thanked him for reaching Emily but warned that heroism would not excuse making her daughter a young widow through foolishness.
Lucas promised to improve. Emily laughed because both knew he would still step between her and danger. The difference was that he now understood partnership also meant letting her protect him.
Before discharge, Mrs. Davis placed Emily’s hand in Lucas’s. She said a marriage begun for practical reasons could become real only through ordinary days after the crisis ended. They should learn whether they still chose one another when no villain forced the question.
Emily agreed. Then she stood too quickly, dizziness sweeping through her. Lucas caught her as her face drained of color, and the nurse who rushed over asked a question neither had considered: “Mrs. Anderson, when was your last period?”