The Secret I Heard in the Operating Room Changed Everything

on Rhett Beaumont since

older, suave, the kind of Souther

up these elaborate

orical Society Gala, he

e, made my heart do t

ivate chat later, and my hea

ed into a hor

ing where he played the hero, we

is childhood sweetheart, C

years of painful, invasive IVF treatments,

e doctors, "Just let her go if it comes to

ed me. Not f

convenient distractio

line's accident, rese

eriment, my spirit crushed

on, wasted on a man who sa

of it all was

n so stupidly blind

ocent crush to u

pedestal despised me

ast thought: what a c

tant, I gasped, my

ies and champagn

floral arrangement at the

towards me, that familiar,

ad. I kn

here

his time, things w

upid little flip wheneve

I was a teenager, all flushe

n Savannah real estate, older, smoother, with that k

ciety Gala, he was a gravitational f

met mine across the

s his face, just for me.

the ridiculously tal

is voice like warm hon

to. "Thank you, Rhett. You cl

have to confess, Scarlett, I've been

it. The moment I'd replayed

omething I need to discuss with y

as spinni

called me, his voice

ink I'm in trouble. Some guys,

ere are you?" My

roperties. "I managed to duck into an alley, but I think th

coming!" I didn't think.

suit jacket torn, a cut bleeding above his eye. Two rough-looking

rce in my voice. I fumbled for my phone, makin

k, then bolted, disappe

Rhett. "Ar

I couldn't quite name – relief, maybe s

d his mouth was on mi

eaming caution, went blank.

d him back, all that pent

ilding he'd ducked into, an o

gentle, or romantic like my dreams. It was urgent,

ght streamed through

tarpaulin, Rhett already dressed, s

sp from th

there, her face a ma

perfect Southern belle lawyer, h

could you?" Her voice

s expression unreadable

ears and something much harder,

n her heel

hen the sickening screech of tire

ove. He just c

ody aching, my mind

ace pale. "She'll be fine." Bu

in the hospital, critical but al

the right thing to do, Scarlett. After everyth

tion. Not lov

a fool, tangled in a w

was a cold, s

t house on the Isle of Hope, a place t

. He controlled my lif

my outspoken bartender best f

ily impressed by Rhett's money and infl

he pressure

carlett," Rhett would say,

nother. Each one a pai

periment, my spirit shrinki

ose clinical procedures. There

faulty one at that. My

nd of IVF, something

hrough me during the egg retriev

the doctors, the beeping machines

pull me under, I heard Rhett's voice, co

es to that. It's not worth

g Caroline? Caroline was recovering, slo

dar

He never loved me.

body to fill a space Caroline had te

ccident, for the disruption.

what he did to me, but guilt over wh

constant, unwe

, tearing through me

per ache, a so

Beaumont, the man I

into his trap with my eyes wide

a bitter pois

y body, my very life, on a man

iscarded if comp

machines faded. The

ss was coo

whisper of despair:

, no

lash. A sick

t for air, b

snappe

e scent of lilie

usly tall floral arrangement a

bs, not from infatuation, but f

towards me, that same slow,

" he was a

ppening. This coul

. I knew I

Reliving the ni

ond c