Hello, Ex! I Finally Found My Worth! - Chapter 203

Chapter 203: Self-guilt
The nurses exchanged a sorrowful glance before gently trying to pry Margaret off, but she refused to let go. “Don’t take him from me! He needs his mother!” she sobbed, shaking her head wildly. “He’s cold… I need to keep him warm. He hates being cold…”

“He’s dead, Maggie!” Alex yelled, stopping Margaret.

“Dead—” Margaret’s voice cracked on the last word, and then, suddenly, her body swayed.

“Margaret!” Claire gasped as Margaret’s eyes rolled back, and she crumpled to the floor in a dead faint.

“Maggie!” Alex dropped to his knees beside her just as the doctors and nurses rushed forward.

“Get her on a stretcher!” one of the doctors ordered.

Emma stepped back, pressing a shaking hand against her chest as she watched them lift Margaret onto a hospital bed and wheel her away.

Claire wiped at her tears, her hands trembling. “She’s going to break if she doesn’t get through this,” she whispered.

Alex ran a hand down his face, swallowing the thick lump in his throat. “We need to be there for her,” he said, his voice barely steady.

Emma nodded, even as her own heart ached unbearably. “We all need to be there for each other.”

Because at that moment, in the cold, sterile hospital hallway, it felt as if they had all lost a piece of themselves.

Emma took a shaky breath, her hands trembling as she reached for her phone. She needed air, needed a moment to breathe, to think, to make sense of everything. The guilt inside her was suffocating, and she didn’t know what to do with it.

Seeing how devastating the Margaret was over the death of Jake only seemed to increase her guilt. Maybe if she hadn’t married Alex and had just left them alone then probably all this wouldn’t have happened.

“I’ll be right back,” she murmured, barely waiting for a response before stepping away from Alex and Claire.

She needed someone apart from anyone related to Jake to talk to her. She needed to be consoled. She needed someone that’d understand her guilt. Someone that wouldn’t tell her the same thing Alex and Claire would tell her.

Perhaps, Ivy would understand her. Maybe Ivy would tell her it wasn’t wrong of her to feel guilty for Jake’s death.

Why did he have to die that way? She shook her head, telling herself she wasn’t going to wallow in self guilt. She’d say it all out to Ivy.

Her fingers fumbled as she dialed Ivy’s number and waited a little for the call to connect.

“What’s up girl? How did it go?” Ivy asked the moment the call connected.

Immediately after Emma heard Ivy’s familiar voice, the dam inside her broke and all the tears she had been holding back started flowing down freely.

“Emma?” Ivy’s voice was sharp with concern. “What’s wrong? Are you all back from the hospital?”

Emma could hear the worry in her friend’s voice but she just couldn’t bring herself to answer as she tried to muffle her sobs.

“Em? Are you crying? What happened?” Ivy asked in alarm, wondering what was going on and why Emma was crying.

Hearing that, a sob tore from Emma’s throat, and before she knew it, she was crying—hard, and uncontrollably. Her shoulders shook, her breaths came out in ragged gasps, and no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t form a single word.

“Emma? Oh my God! Emma, talk to me!” Ivy’s voice became urgent, but Emma just kept crying.

For a few seconds, there was nothing but the sound of her own sobs, and then before Ivy knew it, the call had disconnected.

Ivy stared at the screen in confusion, blinking rapidly. Had Emma hung up?

Ivy pulled the phone away from her ear, frowning. Her heart pounded as she stared at the screen. Emma was crying—really crying. She hadn’t heard her sound like that in years.

Though she wasn’t there when Jake broke up with Emma and handed her divorce papers, she was sure Emma hadn’t cried that way that day.

Something was wrong.

Panic surged through her. What could have happened? Had something happened to Alex? Or Claire maybe?

No. If it was something normal, Emma would have told her. But she hadn’t been able to speak. The way she was crying…

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to think. Why was Emma crying like that? What exactly could’ve prompted such tears?

Had something happened to Alex? No, that didn’t make sense. If it was about Alex, Emma would’ve at least tried to say something.

Then what?

Ivy’s mind raced, running through possibilities. She had never heard Emma break down like this before—not even when she had been heartbroken all those years ago when they were still in school. This was something different.

Something worse.

Was it Jake? Had he tried to do something again?

Ivy inhaled sharply at the thought. No… it can’t be that. Right? Or could Alex had broken up with Emma? It definitely couldn’t be that.

Alex loved Emma way too much to leave her. She needed to go to Emma now. To find out what was wrong with her.

Ivy made an attempt to step out but then stood frozen in place, gripping her phone tightly as she realized something—she didn’t know where Emma was.

“Dammit,” she muttered under her breath, quickly redialing Emma’s number.

It rang once, then twice and then thrice.

“Come on, pick up,” Ivy whispered impatiently, pacing the entire length of her office. But Emma didn’t answer.

Ivy ran a hand through her hair, trying to think. Should she call Alex? No—if Emma was this upset, Alex was probably dealing with something just as bad.

She clenched her jaw. “Think, Ivy. Where would she be? Perhaps they were still at the hospital.”

The hospital. That was the only place that made sense. But which one? She would’ve gone to every hospital in Zeden one after the other but then, that would take much longer to get to Emma.

What could be wrong? Could it be the DNA results? Had they come out already?

She shook her head. No, that wasn’t possible. The results couldn’t have been processed so quickly. It had to be something else.

Her chest tightened as unease settled deep inside her. Emma’s sobs had sounded raw—too painful, too broken. Something terrible had happened.

Without wasting another second, she scrolled through her contacts and quickly dialed Claire’s number. Since she couldn’t call Alex and Emma wouldn’t pick, hopefully, Claire would and tell her all she needed to know.

The phone rang twice before Claire answered.

“Ivy,” Claire’s voice came through, hoarse and weak.

Ivy frowned, immediately noticing that Claire sounded like she had been crying too. A fresh wave of anxiety surged through her.

“Claire? What’s going on? Emma called me, but she was just crying. She couldn’t say anything. And now you sound like you’ve been crying too. What happened?”

Claire exhaled shakily. “Ivy, it’s Jake,” Claire said and Ivy scowled.

“I just knew it. What had the scumbag done this time?” Ivy asked trying not to flare up as she thought about how hurt Emma must’ve been to be crying that way.

“It’s not that, Vee. Jake is dead.”

Ivy’s breath caught in her throat. “W-What?”

“He… he died,” Claire’s voice cracked. “He took a bullet for Emma.”

The words hit Ivy like a freight train. She staggered back, gripping the edge of her desk for support as shock pulsed through her veins.

Jake… dead?

Jake—the same man who had hurt Emma, the same man who had once tried to control her life. He was gone?

And he had died… saving Emma?

Suddenly, it all made sense. Emma’s breakdown. The pain in Claire’s voice. The suffocating grief that had reached her through the phone.

Ivy swallowed hard, her voice barely a whisper. “Which hospital?” She asked, realizing Emma must’ve been blaming herself; hence the reason she had called.

Claire sniffled. “I’ll text you the address right after this call.”

“Okay. I’m on my way,” Ivy said immediately, grabbing her blazer since she was already with her car keys.

She had to get to Emma. She had to be there for her. Because whatever had happened, Emma needed her. And Ivy wasn’t going to leave her alone in this.

Claire stared at her phone for a moment after ending the call with Ivy. The weight of everything was crushing her, and for the first time in a long while, she felt truly alone.

She needed someone—someone who could hold her, someone who could remind her that she wasn’t carrying this burden by herself.

She needed Chris. She thought as she quickly texted Ivy the address and tried to dial Chris’s line.

Just as she was about to dial his number, her phone buzzed in her hand. Chris’s name flashed on the screen.

For a split second, she hesitated. He didn’t know. He had no idea what had happened.

Taking a shaky breath, she answered.

“Hello, baby,” Chris’s voice came through, warm and full of excitement. “Where are you? I was missing you and decided to call.”

The sound of his voice, so full of life and happiness, made her heart clench painfully.

Claire swallowed hard, but her voice came out thick with emotion. “Chris…”

Immediately, his tone changed. “Claire? What’s wrong?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to steady herself, but there was no way to soften the blow. “Jake is dead, Chris.”

For a moment, she thought the call had disconnected because of the silence that followed, but then she heard his sharp intake of breath. “What?”

Claire felt her throat tighten. “He… he was shot. He took a bullet for Emma.”

Another pause, and then Chris’s voice came, rough with disbelief. “Oh my God! How is she? How are you? What of Margaret? Does she know? What happened? You know? Just send me the address of where you are. I’m coming right away!”

Claire sighed before ending the call as she also forwarded the address to him. At least, someone—not just any someone but her person would be there to console her, too.