The Substitute Bride Is Reborn and Loves Her Husband No more - Chapter 72

Chapter 72: When Will Mama Come?

Location: school parents waiting room

Tobi sat on the couch, his small legs swinging back and forth, but his heart wasn’t in it. He kept looking toward the door, waiting, listening. The clock on the wall ticked too loudly.

She wasn’t here yet.

Darius sat across from him, one leg crossed over the other, watching with that calm expression he always had. But Tobi could feel his impatience, too.

A/N: Like I said Tobi and Darius are special don’t be confused why he can be out or have his own body

“She’ll come,” Darius said after a while.

Tobi frowned. “She’s taking too long.”

Darius sighed, rubbing his temple. “She’s probably busy.”

Busy. That was always the reason. Mama had things to do, people to see, places to go. Tobi knew that. But today, he wanted her here. His stomach felt weird, his head heavy. The waiting made it worse.

“How long?” Tobi mumbled, his voice small.

Darius didn’t answer right away. Instead, he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You miss her?”

Tobi didn’t say yes. But he also didn’t say no.

Then, finally, the front door opened.

Tobi snapped his head up so fast he got dizzy. Rose stepped in, her expression tired, her bag slipping off her shoulder.

“Mama!” Tobi scrambled off the couch, nearly tripping. He ran to her, gripping her waist before she could even take another step.

Rose blinked in surprise, then softened, stroking his hair. “Tobi? What’s wrong?”

“You took too long,” he muttered into her shirt.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice gentle. She knelt down, cupping his cheek. “I didn’t mean to.”

Tobi didn’t know why, but the lump in his throat got bigger. His stomach hurt worse, and the room felt too hot.

Rose’s brows furrowed. “You’re warm.”

Darius stood up. “I told you he wasn’t feeling well.”

Rose touched his forehead again, her lips pressing together. “Let’s take him to the hospital.”

Tobi didn’t like hospitals. The bright lights, the weird smell, the people who poked and prodded. But he didn’t protest.

—

The hospital was colder than he remembered. The white walls, the beeping machines, the doctors who spoke in quiet voices. Tobi curled his fingers around the blanket as the doctor checked him over.

Rose sat beside him, her hand never leaving his. He liked that. It made him feel safer.

But then, the doctor straightened, adjusting his glasses. He looked at Rose, then at Darius, then at Tobi.

“This isn’t unusual,” the doctor said, voice calm. “It happens to kids his age.”

Rose looked relieved for a moment, but then the doctor added, “However… at this moment, what he really needs is the presence of his father.”

The words made the air heavy. Tobi’s fingers twitched against the blanket.

Rose went still. Darius didn’t say anything.

Tobi just stared at the doctor. His father? Why? He had Mama. Wasn’t that enough?

But the doctor wasn’t looking at him anymore. He was looking at Rose, waiting.

Tobi didn’t like hospitals. He didn’t like the bright lights or the strange smells. He didn’t like the way people whispered around him, like he couldn’t hear them. He didn’t like how tired he felt, how even blinking felt like too much work.

But most of all, he didn’t like the way his body felt wrong.

His skin was too hot, but the rest of him was freezing. His heartbeat felt strange, almost too loud in his ears, and every breath came with a weird ache in his chest. He could hear things—small things, far away things—that he didn’t usually hear. The shuffle of a nurse’s shoes down the hall. The soft whimper of a baby in another room.

It was too much.

He wanted Mama. And she was here. She sat beside him, holding his little hand in both of hers, her thumb rubbing slow circles over his skin. That should’ve made him feel better. But it didn’t.

Because something was missing.

He didn’t know what it was, but it felt like an empty space inside him. A gap. A piece of a puzzle that should’ve been there but wasn’t. It made his chest feel tight. It made him feel small.

And then, the doctor’s words came back to him.

“What he really needs is the presence of his father.”

He didn’t understand why. He had Mama. That should be enough.

Shouldn’t it?

—

Rose sat beside Tobi’s hospital bed, her eyes fixed on his sleeping face. He looked too small, too fragile like this. His little brows furrowed even in sleep, his lips slightly parted as he took slow, uneven breaths.

She swallowed, her hands holding on the edge of her seat.

Was this because he was a werewolf? Because of something inside him that she didn’t understand?

She hated not knowing.

And she hated even more that, no matter how much she wanted to protect him, she might not be enough.

The doctor’s words haunted her. Did a child really need both parents to be happy? To be whole?

Rose had never believed that. She had fought hard to stand on her own, to raise Tobi without relying on anyone. She had promised herself she wouldn’t need Rolan. That she wouldn’t call him.

But Tobi needed him.

Her fingers trembled as she reached for her phone. She hesitated, staring at the screen, at the name she had long since tried to forget.

Rolan.

She bit her lip, her heart pounding too fast. Then, finally, she pressed the call button.

The phone rang once.

Twice.

And then, he answered.

She gripped the phone tighter, inhaled sharply. And when she finally spoke, her voice only came as a whisper.

“Hello.”

The sound of the phone ringing barely registered in Tobi’s ears. His head felt heavy, his limbs like lead, but he still clung to the warmth of his mother’s hand. The room felt too big, too empty, even with her there.

His ears picked up her voice, soft and hesitant.

“Hello.”

There was a pause. Then, the voice on the other end responded—deep, familiar, too light for the tension in Rose’s shoulders.

“Rose Bunny, ya finally decided to call me?”

Tobi barely opened his eyes, but he could hear the teasing lilt in the man’s voice. The name felt distant in his mind, like something he should remember but couldn’t quite grasp.

Rose’s grip on his hand got hard a little.

She wasn’t laughing. She wasn’t teasing back. Instead, she pressed her lips together, her brows drawn low.

Tobi didn’t understand everything, but even in his hazy mind, he knew that she didn’t want to make this call. That she had fought against it, maybe even fought against him.

But she still called.

Because of him.

Because he needed something that she couldn’t give.

She bit her lip before speaking again, her voice quieter this time, strained. “I need you to come to the hospital.”

There was silence. A pause just long enough for Tobi to wonder if the man had hung up. But then his voice came again—sharper this time.

“The hospital? Rose, what happened?”

Rose closed her eyes, exhaling slowly. “Just come. I’ll send you the address.”

She didn’t wait for more questions. She ended the call and let the phone drop onto her lap.

For a long time, she just sat there, staring at nothing, her hand still wrapped around Tobi’s.

He wanted to ask who she had called.

He wanted to ask why it felt like something heavy had settled in his chest, something deep and aching.

Instead, he let his eyes close again, listening to the sound of his mother’s breathing.

And waiting.