Toria was standing like a gladiator close to Reyona's bed.
The glare she gave Thomas was enough to flay the skin off the back of a man who knew what shame was.
Thomas merely looked away from her and focused on the woman on the bed.
His recently divorced wife.
At that moment, she was asleep.
He looked at the splints on her legs and looked away immediately, without so much as a feeling of compassion for her pain.
"Why the hell does she have to be asleep right now?" Thomas thought.
He had a feeling that these two might just change their minds and toss him out of his ears before she deemed it fit to wake the hell up.
Toria walked towards him and Thomas braced himself for whatever she might be bringing.
He had a role to play, after all, and the bastard breathing down his neck would be watching him like a hawk.
Toria stopped a few paces from him and with vehemence in her eyes, she hissed as she walked closer to him. "I know you must be crowing inside right now, you motherfucker. You would not even be anywhere around her if Rey had believed what I said about you. She didn't. Now, you will get her to believe that you two have nothing to do with each other."
Yeah. Yeah," Thomas thought as he nodded.
"She is asleep?" Maxwell asked Toria quietly.
The hatred in Toria's eyes reduced as she turned to Maxwell and said,. "Yeah, she just dozed off now. I am sure the bastard can wait. He should just do his waiting far from here."
With that, she turned to go back to Reyona's side.
Her elbow barely brushed Thomas's side but he held on to his side suddenly and shouted in agony as if his heart were ripped out.
"What the…"
A sound came from the bed as Reyona woke up groggily and blinked her eyes to get a better look at those standing.
"What is going on?"
"Reyona? Baby? You are awake? Oh, I was so worried about you," Thomas said suddenly with a heartfelt tone as he rushed towards Reyona on the bed.
"Thomas? Oh Thomas, you are finally here," Reyona said as she reached up to hug Thomas.
"I am so sorry, baby. I was trying to see what I could do about our poor home. Oh, my God. it was so horrible the way our home burned down, you know."
"Burned down?" Shock registered on Reyona's face at Thomas's blurted words. "What do you mean, burned down?"
Oh, they didn't tell her. Thomas realized this, and he quickly acted accordingly.
He turned towards Maxwell, whose anger only made his face colder, and Toria, who seemed like she was about to start some beheading.
The wave of animosity towards him made Thomas automatically back away. He sat close to where Reyona was trying to sit up, helped her sit right and automatically threw his arm around her.
It wasn't until he was sure that they weren't about to take him away and shred him from limb to limb before he started talking. "You kept the information from her? How could you? You know how important our home is to both of us. I have been running around trying to see how we can make it better and you can't even tell my wife the truth about what happened. Even you, Victoria?"
"Don't you dare call my name, you..."
"And now she is angry at me. Babe, do you remember how much your sister has come to hate me recently?" Thomas said in a pained tone as he held Reyona closer to his body.
"I…I can't…" Reyoa turned to Toria. "Toria, you told me the house was under renovation. How could you lie to me about something like that?"
"I…sis…this is…"
"Because she knows how much of a pain it would be to you to know that your home burned down. Something that anyone with a lick of sense would know." He said emphatically as he turned to look at Thomas and added, "The police have not found the perpetrator yet but they are on it.". He turned back to Reyona as he continued, "Your sister didn't lie to you. The house is really undergoing renovation. I…"
"I have been working so hard to put things back together so that you can have something to come back home to once you are better," Thomas quickly said.
Reyona looked from Maxwell to Thomas as the confusion in her eyes increased. Then she said tiredly, "He said that he was a friend."
"Uhm, yeah," Thomas quickly thought of how to explain why she was in the man's house. To stall, he turned to Reyona and held her face gently in his hands as he smoothed her hair back.
"Get your filthy hands off her," Toria said through gritted teeth.
Reyona looked at her sister in surprise. "What is wrong with you, Toria? This is my husband you are talking to, you know."
"Rey, this…"
With a resigned sigh, Thomas attracted Reyona's attention back to himself. "It is fine, babe. I am used to it now. She has been like this for a while now. I…" He shook his head slowly, as if what he wanted to say was weighing on his mind. Then he looked back at Reyona and continued, "I don't want to tell you the main reason why she started hating on me, you know. It is just…"
"What are you talking about, you rat?!" Toria would have stalked over to him and knocked him out right there, but Maxwell laid his hand on her arm.
"What was it?" Reyona asked curiously.
"No, honey. Forget that I mentioned that. It is too shameful to talk about. We need to focus on getting you well first. Are you sure you can't remember anything?"
"I remember old things. I just can't seem to remember the last couple of years. Are you sure you will tell me what caused this fight between you and Toria later? I don't like seeing you two like this."
"Yes, yes, babe. I will tell you." Thomas answered with a smile. Having confirmed what he wanted to know, he responded to her earlier question, "Yes, this man here is our family friend. We met him a couple of years ago. I met him first, actually, then I introduced the both of you."
"Oh," Reyona said.
Thomas decidedly looked away from the two seething furnace in the room as he nailed home his game "Yes, I had to ask him for a favor: that you be allowed to stay here since I know how much you hate hospitals."
"Oh, that is so sweet of you. Thank you," Reyona said as she kissed him on the cheek.
Maxwell cleared his throat until Reyona looked at him with a scowl.
"I think Mr. Lanoth here has something to say, right, Thomas?" Maxwell asked him meaningfully with a death glare.
Tomas looked lost for a moment, then, as if he just remembered, he removed his arm from around Reyona and sighed before saying. "Babe, I am so sorry that I have to break this to you like this."
"What is it?" Reyona asked anxiously.
Thomas took a dramatic pause that had Toria snapping. "Get it over and done with, will you?"
Thomas looked at Toria pitifully, then he turned a pain-filled gaze at Reyona "You see, one more reason why these two hated me was because Mr. Rohan here has an interest in you."
"What?!" Reyona and her sister chorused.
"He knows you are my wife, of course, but then, just because he is rich, he thought he could take you away from me. He believed you were just like every other woman who would run after him because of his money. Your sister supports him, you see. Because of her own selfish reason!"
"That is it!" Toria advanced on Thomas with a war-like cry.
"Toria, don't you dare!" Reyona shouted, then she held her hand to her head with a groan.
Everyone rushed towards her.
"Stay away from me," she said to Maxwell, even as her head lolled against the headboard.
"Reyona, babe? Are you okay?"
Even though Maxwell stayed back, he was already calling Andrea.
Andrea, who had agreed to stay in the mansion till Reyona got better, rushed in almost immediately with her nurses.
"Please give her some space," she said as she started checking on Reyona.
"Do you hear the doctor? Get out," Toria snapped at Thomas.
"No, let him stay," Reyona croaked out. "Every other person can leave."
"Rey," Toria called in a hurt tone.
Reyona simply closed her eyes without saying anything else.
Andrea looked at Maxwell.
Maxwell gently led Toria out.