No Road Home

Three years after my release from prison, I ran into my ex-wife in the presidential suite of the most exclusive hotel in Bayshore. It had been years since I last saw her. She was draped in a silk robe, radiating wealth. When she recognized me, something unreadable passed through Cecily Monroe's eyes. "On the day you got out, why didn't you wait for me to come pick you up?" I said nothing and handed over the takeout. Her gaze dropped to the scar on my wrist, and her breath caught. "I went too far with that. But you've always been tougher than Adrian. You can always get back on your feet." She was talking about what happened six years ago, when Adrian Burke was involved in a catastrophic medical malpractice incident. She fabricated evidence to pin the blame on me and sent me to prison. I stepped away from Cecily. Over 1,000 days and nights of hard labor behind bars had ground away every last trace of whatever I once felt for her. Chapter 1 Cecily Monroe awkwardly pulled her hand back. She clutched the takeout bag and muttered under her breath. "The day you were released, I went to the prison to pick you up. The guard said you'd already left. Did you really not want to see me that badly?" She was going to stand there and play the victim. It made me scoff. That day, I stood in the rain like a fool for eight hours. The officer handling my release had gotten bored waiting alongside me and started scrolling through short reels on his phone. He clicked his tongue and held the screen up to my face, his voice thick with envy. "Look at this. It's the CEO of Monroe Group with her whole family. Must be nice." In the video, Cecily was holding Adrian Burke's arm, her smile warm and content. An adorable little girl stood beside them, tilting her chin up at the camera with a playful pout. The backdrop was the largest airport in Stonebridge. The officer was still marveling. "Just got back from the Meridian Islands, too. You'd better get your act together, kid, and start working toward the good life. A wife, kids, the whole nine yards." Cold rain hit my eyes, mixing with something salty and bitter. If not for what happened, I might have had that kind of happiness too. Before I could respond, a little girl's whiny voice drifted out from inside the room. "Mommy, is the food here yet? Daddy and I are starving!" She threw her arms around Cecily's leg and tilted her head to peer at me. The last time I had seen her, she could not stand the sight of me. Now, at 10 years old, Ruby Nash actually smiled and said thank you. Adrian walked over and casually ruffled Ruby's hair. He was about to close the door when he recognized me. "Vincent? What are you..." He trailed off, his mocking gaze settling on my clothes, faded from too many washes. "Life in Bayshore must be rough. You should've said something sooner. I could've at least helped you out with some new clothes." Cecily took Ruby's hand and gently pushed her toward me. "Ruby, say hi to your dad." Ruby ducked behind Adrian and shouted back. "He's my real daddy! That man is bad!" Satisfaction flickered through Adrian's eyes. He put on a disapproving look and shook his head. "Vincent, this kid's been spoiled rotten by me. Don't take it personally. Besides, it's been years. Can you really blame her for not recognizing you?" I had heard worse. Adrian's little performance was not going to get to me. My silence made him switch tactics. He put on a wounded expression instead. "Vincent, are you mad that I took your place? Three years ago, you walked out on your wife and daughter without a word. I just stepped in to take care of them..." I cut him off, my voice flat, "Does that have anything to do with me? You could have another kid together for all I care." Adrian's expression froze. He looked to Cecily for help. Whatever guilt she had felt toward me curdled into anger the moment he looked wounded. "Vincent Nash, what happened back then was my doing. I'm the one who put you in prison. If you have a problem, take it up with me." In the first few months behind bars, I had wished her dead. I could not understand how a woman who swore she loved me could be the one to put me there. Later, I found myself pathetically hoping she would come see me, just once, even if it was only through the glass, just to hear her say she would wait. I marked the days on the wall in red tallies until every inch was covered, until my sentence was served. She never came, not once. A bitter smile pulled at my lips. "There's no point bringing up the past." Chapter 2 Before Cecily could respond, I turned and left, marking the order as delivered on my phone. When I looked up, the elevator had arrived. A woman in a black suit dress looked me up and down. Just as I thought she had recognized me, my sister Lydia Nash frowned and brushed past me without a word. As the elevator doors closed, I heard her voice, dripping with disdain. "The security at this hotel is terrible. They're letting delivery people just walk right in now? If one of them steals something, who's going to answer for it?" After all these years, Lydia still looked down on everyone she considered beneath her. Adrian, to be precise, was the only exception. Ten years ago, I had been the youngest director of cardiothoracic surgery at my hospital, with multiple patents to my name and a career full of promise. That same year, I proposed to Cecily, my girlfriend of three years. The following June, we had a beautiful daughter. If the story had ended there, I would have been the happiest man alive. In the fourth year of our marriage, Cecily's childhood sweetheart returned from studying abroad. He had also studied medicine overseas and was assigned to my department without issue. The moment Adrian was back in the country, Cecily invited him to stay in our guest room. At first, I did not think much of it. If Cecily had any feelings for Adrian, she would not have married me. During that time, I was consumed with one difficult surgery after another, spending days and nights at the hospital. I took it for granted that his company would fill the gap left by my absence. To show my gratitude, I mentored him personally, teaching him every surgical technique I knew. I even brought him onto my research projects, giving him the credentials he needed to establish himself at the hospital. Adrian was endlessly grateful, treating me with a deference that seemed beyond reproach. Lydia used to joke about it, saying I had stumbled on a real bargain, since he was a reliable assistant who doubled as a free babysitter. I had laughed it off at the time. Looking back, I had not found a bargain. I had let the fox into the henhouse. On the night of Cecily's birthday, I finished surgery early and came home to find the two of them tangled together, half undressed. I hurled the designer handbag I had reserved three months in advance onto the floor and demanded to know how long they had been sneaking around behind my back. Cecily scrambled to get dressed. She sobbed and swore it was an accident, that Adrian had been drugged while they were out and she had only been trying to help him through it. Adrian sank to the floor, smacking himself across the cheek. "This is my fault, Vincent. I wasn't careful enough. I'll move out right now. I'd never come between you two." I was still deeply in love with Cecily then. Between that and Lydia's urging, I wavered back and forth before ultimately choosing to forgive them. I never imagined that one moment of mercy would cost me everything that came after. By the time my thoughts settled, I was already home. I tried to take off my shirt, but my hands would not stop shaking. These were the same hands that once operated precision instruments with ease. Now I could not manage a single button without fumbling. A knock came at the door. It was Lydia, the very sister I had just crossed paths with. She started in on me the second I opened it. "You saw me just now and didn't even say hello? If Adrian hadn't told me you were here, were you really going to keep pretending you don't know me?" I kept my grip on the door handle, blocking her at the threshold. "What do you want?" Chapter 3 Lydia glared at me with the frustration of someone who had long since given up expecting better. "You'd rather be out there delivering food and working as someone's hired help than swallow your pride and come to me?" I had swallowed my pride for her before. Six years ago, Adrian had been on his phone during surgery and carelessly sutured a piece of gauze inside the patient. The patient's body rejected it post-op, triggering a massive hemorrhage that killed him. The family could not accept it. They stormed into the clinic and beat me senseless. "You quack! Murderer! Why don't you just drop dead!" I curled up on the floor, instinctively shielding my hands. They were all I had. They were the hands that held the scalpel. "It wasn't me. I would never make that kind of mistake." The more I denied it, the harder the blows came. The real killer stood off to the side, putting on a show of outrage as he berated me. "Dr. Nash, just because you're skilled in cardiac surgery doesn't mean you get to be careless with someone's life! You killed a patient!" I looked up at him in disbelief. "You were the one leading that surgery last night. You're framing me!" Lydia arrived as soon as she heard the news. I thought she had come to defend me. Instead, she condemned me on the spot. "Vincent, you've disgraced the entire Nash family." I screamed at her, begging her to pull the surveillance footage from that night. What Lydia produced instead was a falsified duty roster. Even my own daughter took Adrian's side. "Daddy, you said last night you couldn't find the gauze. Why are you lying?" After the incident, I went to Lydia over and over, pleading with her to clear my name. There was sympathy behind her eyes every time, but she refused me all the same. "Vincent, when you get out, I'll teach you how to run the company. You have plenty of options in life, but medicine is all Adrian has. I can't destroy him over this." It was not until that moment that I understood. The sister I had depended on my whole life had been in love with Adrian all along. My wife, meanwhile, had paid a fortune to fabricate surveillance footage of me entering and leaving the clinic. She had even baited me into conversations and spliced my words together into a false confession. The day I went to prison, my reputation was in ruins. I was the quack everyone wanted to see punished. Even then, Adrian would not let it rest. He said it casually, as though the thought had just occurred to him. "What if he keeps practicing after he gets out? He could kill another patient." The victim's family took those words to heart. They broke through the barricade, shattered the bones in my hands with iron rods, and severed my tendons with a blade. The career I had built my entire life around was destroyed in minutes. Now my own sister stood at my door, demanding to know why I would not humble myself before her. I laughed. I could not help it. "Six years ago, you forced me to sign a confession so I wouldn't drag the Nash name through the mud. I've been buried in it ever since. How much lower do you want me to go? Should I snap my own neck and beg for your forgiveness on my knees?" Lydia frowned. "There you go again, letting your emotions get the better of you. The fact that we've run into each other means we're meant to stay connected. Tomorrow, I'll host a dinner. We can all get together." What was there to get together for? To watch my ex-wife with her new man while my daughter called someone else dad? I was about to refuse when she pulled a black card from her purse. "There's 500,000 on this. Take it for now." One dinner was all it would take to buy a house in a small town. The refusal sat on the tip of my tongue, circled once, and died. In the end, I said yes. Chapter 4 The dinner was set at Bayshore Grand. I did not treat it as anything special, so I showed up in the same stain-resistant work clothes I always wore. Adrian, on the other hand, was dressed to impress. It was hard to believe that the man whose family had gone bankrupt overseas, who had been forced to come back with nothing, had clawed his way to the top by stepping on me. He had latched onto both the Monroe and Nash families and never looked back. My gaze landed on the designer watch on his wrist, easily worth over a million. I had seen the same one in Cecily's online shopping cart once. She had never mentioned it, and at the time, I had been foolish enough to think it was an anniversary gift meant for me. Looking back, they had probably been carrying on behind my back even then. Adrian lifted his wrist with a deliberate flourish, pretending to check the time. The overpowering stench of hair gel coming off him nearly made me gag. He mistook my reaction for jealousy and leaned in close while keeping his voice low. "Even if you tried to come back, no one would welcome you. For all you know, Cecily might already be carrying my child." He was buzzing around me like a fly. I raised my hand and waved him off near my face, nothing more. Adrian immediately clutched his face and staggered to the floor, as though I had hit him. "Vincent, if you're angry, take it out on me. Just please, don't lay a hand on Cecily or the kid." Cecily saw the scene and rushed over. She shoved me aside, dropped to one knee, and helped Adrian up, her face full of concern. "What the hell is wrong with you, Vincent?" Adrian tugged at Cecily's sleeve, putting on a wounded look. "It's okay. It's all my fault. Vincent already went to prison for me. The least I deserve is a beating." Lydia shot to her feet. After checking on Adrian, she turned to me with open disappointment. "Vincent, didn't you understand a word I said last night?" I scoffed. "Here we go again. You really can't see through something this obvious?" After our parents died in an accident, Lydia had taken over the family business at 18. Distant relatives with hidden agendas kept sending men her way, trying to drive a wedge between us. Whether it was false accusations or drugged drinks, Lydia always saw through it and dealt with them without blinking. She had held me when I was a boy, looked me in the eye, and told me plainly, "Vincent, you are the one person in this world I trust the most." Now, her heart had long since shifted to Adrian. She could see through his pathetic acting, but she played along willingly all the same. Ruby was too small to keep up. By the time she reached us, panting for breath, she hurled her cup of tea at me. "Who said you could bully my daddy? You're a bad person!" She did not have much strength behind it, and I stepped back in time, but the hot water still splashed across the back of my hand. My skin, already covered in old scars, broke out in angry red welts on contact. Cecily frowned and snapped at me. "Apologize to Adrian. Now." I let out a dry laugh. "Last time, you all sent me to prison because I trusted the wrong people. I've already cut ties with every one of you. What's the plan this time? Run the same play and send me back in?" Cecily looked away, unable to hold my gaze. My phone buzzed. I glanced at the message on the screen, and the weight that had been pressing down on me lifted in an instant. I had no interest in arguing with them any longer and turned to leave. Cecily caught my wrist. "What happened back then was my fault. But you just got to take your anger out, so consider us even. Adrian and I are legally married now. If you want back in, the most I can offer is keeping you on the side, and seeing you every now and then. Don't expect anything more." I ripped my arm free and let out a sharp laugh. "That's a nice little fantasy you've got, Cecily. Two husbands for one wife. Too bad for you, I've already remarried. My wife just landed at the airport, and she's waiting for me." I walked out of the restaurant without looking back, only to come face to face with the victim's family. They were just as furious as the last time. "You murderer! No wonder we couldn't find you after you got out. You've been hiding in Bayshore this whole time!" "You killed my wife! Today, you're going to pay for it!" The man threw a punch. They had numbers on their side. Even though I had spent the last few years getting my body back into shape, they overwhelmed me and put me on the ground. Bystanders moved to step in, but the group stopped them cold. "He's a quack who killed a patient because he didn't know what he was doing. Are you sure you want to help someone like him?" The stares that settled on me were full of contempt. It felt exactly like the most desperate night of my life, playing out all over again. I looked instinctively toward Adrian. His eyes were bright with smug certainty, just as I had suspected. He had brought them here. Lydia and Cecily froze at the sight. They shouted for it to stop and started toward me. For a moment, I let myself believe that this time would be different. Then Adrian clutched his throat and coughed, and that alone was enough to stop them both in their tracks. "Adrian, I'm taking you to the hospital right now!" "Daddy, are you okay?" They fussed over him and hurried away without a backward glance. I watched them go. I had known how it would end, but the ache found me all the same. They talked about making things right with me, but the moment Adrian was involved, they would abandon me without a second thought. This time, though, I was not going to accept it. Someone who loved me was waiting for me to come home. I curled into myself, bracing for the next blow. It never came. Someone had wrapped themselves around me, shielding me completely. A voice rang out from behind me, ice-cold and trembling with fury. "Who gave you the nerve to lay a hand on my husband?"