Marrying The Cold Billionaire After That Night

The phone blasted off, startling the doctor, who was focused on her computer. Seeing it was from a nurse, she immediately answered the call.

"Dr. Martinez, we have an emergency patient." The nurse's voice indicated urgency and panic. "She's bleeding a lot. I think it's a miscarriage."

Gabriella didn't need further elaboration to get up and snatch her white coat from the rack. She put it on, and it flapped as she headed for the door in a hurry.

"I wasn't sure if it was the right call, but I only thought of you when I found out who the patient is. "

The hesitation in the nurse's voice made Gabriella slow down.

"Why? Who's the patient?" she inquired with a little nervousness.

"Do you remember that lawyer who ended up in the news with Mr. Mar--"

"Focus on the patient, Nurse May," she cut the nurse off before hearing the entirety. She already knew who the nurse was referring to.

She dropped the call and came running to the emergency ward.

A woman lay on a hospital bed, and she was crying miserably because of the pain. The sound of her cries pierced everyone's heart in that ward, including Gabriella's.

She had always dealt with every patient as professionally as she could. Inside the hospital, a patient was just a patient to her. And she was proud of her rigid clinging to that type of professional behavior.

Gabriella looked at the patient, and her chest contracted from the pain. She wasn't just any patient.

She was that patient. The type of patient who could compromise her work ethic and professionalism.

She lifted the quilt covering the lower body of the woman. The sheets that were once white were now painted bloody red. The patient's lower body was covered with blood, and it was a ghastly sight.

It indicated a sorrowful truth. Her baby was gone.

When the patient recognized her doctor, she cried out through the pain. "I want another doctor!"

The nurses in the room shared meaningful glances. Gabriella remained unfazed by the patient's attitude.

'She's just a patient, just a patient,' she repeated in her mind like a chant.

"I'm sorry we can no longer save your baby," she said with enough amount of stiffness, at the same time, empathy.

The patient continued sobbing, and she held her tummy.

"You have to undergo an operation for us to clear your uterus and minimize the damage."

Gabriella hid her hands inside the pockets of her coat. She had a peculiar feeling she would see someone she didn't want to see in that ward. Though her rational mind screamed at her that it was impossible.

She looked at the nurse who called her to the emergency ward. "Nurse May, get an OR and prepare for surgery. Where is her guardian? We need the consent form signed."

As she waited for the nurse to answer or the guardian to suddenly appear, Gabriella prayed in her heart that the patient's guardian wasn't the one she had in mind.

Anyone. It could be anyone. She didn't care.

Just not her husband.

"I'm her guardian."

Her focus shifted to the one who had just entered the ward. The man glided into the room with confidence.

His thin lips were pressed into a single treacherous line. His smoldering eyes met hers, slowly consuming her like a candle. Then the corner of his mouth curved up, but his smile never reached his eyes.

His hand-made suit was wrinkled. Stains of blood were visible, and he didn't bother hiding them. The contours of his side face were as defined and sharp as a knife. He approached the bed calmly, his hands under his pockets and his eyes dull and indifferent.

Gabriella's heart sank to the floor as she stared directly into the man's deep eyes. She should've known praying had long lost its ability to grant her wishes.

Nurse May frantically handed the consent form to him. He grabbed a pen from his coat's interior pocket, and Gabriella watched as he signed his name.

Izaak Martinez.

It sounded cold and harsh. It was the perfect name for its apathetic owner.

She maintained composure amid the scrutiny of his taunting eyes and said to the nurses, "Call me when we're ready for operation."

Gabriella spent the next two hours inside the operating room. It was sad that they lost the baby, but there was nothing she could do other than make sure the mother was no longer in danger.

She sighed in relief and moved her head and shoulders to relieve her muscle pain.

"Finish this up for me," she told the doctor assisting her.

"Yes, doc," the other doctor answered.

She got out of the operating room, took off her mask, and threw it in the bin along with her surgical gown. As she washed her hands, she couldn't help but dwell on her complicated feelings. As a doctor, she wasn't quite sure if her patient's miscarriage was something she should be relieved about.

"I won't ask about the surgery. I'm sure you did well."

She flinched when she recognized the low, cold but pleasant magnetic male voice from behind her. She didn't have to turn around.

For three long years, her entire being had been trained to recognize the voice's owner.

After drying her hands, she slowly turned around and saw him leaning against the wall. His presence was domineering even though they were a few feet apart.

With a cigarette butt between two slender fingers, he brought it to his mouth and blew the smoke out.

"Again, I'm saying this as a doctor. Take smoking out of your life before it takes the life out of you."

"Nice quote," he mocked and immediately blew her concern away as he blew another smoke that gave haziness to his handsome face. "Is there nothing about the fucked-up situation I brought here that you want to ask?"

Gabriella stripped her face from emotions, just like she did every time he was in front of her.

"What about you? Nothing to explain?" she retorted with nonchalance.

She waited for him to give an explanation. Foolishly, she would've believed whatever excuse he gave. Even if it was a lie.

He said nothing. His response was an icy silence, which was more brutal to Gabriella's heart. He brought a woman into her workplace without feeling any shame or guilt. He gave the gossipers an issue to feast on. Her.

And nope, he didn't even feel the need to explain.

It was a huge slap to Gabriella's face. Now everyone in the hospital would talk about her and her pathetic marriage with the great Martinez.

Izaak narrowed his eyes at Gabriella, scrutinizing her entire soul. That nonchalant face she always had, he wanted to tear it off so badly.

She was a punch to his phenomenal ego for being the only woman he couldn't seduce into fancying him.

"You're not even jealous?" he scoffed in disappointment.

Instead of answering him, Gabriella switched the conversation to something else. "I'm serious about smoking."

Izaak didn't like how she didn't care a bit. Even when he had hundreds of dating scandals, she stayed unfazed, unbothered, and unhurt.

He smirked. "Then again, we're not exactly a couple, are we?"

He turned around. As Gabriella looked at his cold back from a distance, tears formed in her eyes.

"No, no," she muttered to herself. "We are not crying today, Gabby."

She looked up to prevent her tears from ultimately falling. She drew a long and deep breath, exhaled, and smiled to lift her cheeks and shoo her tears away.

She headed for the door to go back to their office. High heels on the marble floor, the crisp and cluck of her shoes reverberated around the hospital's empty corridor.

It was pouring hard outside again. The recent days of June were cold and dark. Days felt like nights. It was as if the weather adjusted itself to lament her gradual despair.

The sudden appearance of her husband with a woman who had a miscarriage emotionally exhausted her.

Was he the father? Was he planning to marry that girl and live as a family? What about their marriage? What about her?

Questions kept pouring into her mind, and she couldn't help it.

She dropped her body on her reclining chair as soon as she reached their office and massaged her temple. The door suddenly opened.

Levi, who was in his nurse uniform, stormed inside and went directly to her computer. He showed her a piece of news.

"You need to fucking watch this," he said with urgency, as well as anger.

After learning what the headline was about, she exited the web page.

"It's not news at all," Gabriella could only say.

A two-month-old dating scandal resurfaced. Izaak Martinez, the president of the Martinez Group, was reported again to have an affair with Audrey Hill, a star lawyer at a famous law firm.

Levi stared in disbelief at the doctor. "Gabby, it's fucking scary that you don't get shocked anymore."

Gabriella avoided his gaze. It was true she wasn't shocked, but it didn't mean she wasn't hurt.

"What's new? His habit is to make me the butt of the joke for the entire world."

"That girl you just operated on. That was Audrey Hill, right?" he asked, trying to make sense of what was happening.

Although she tried to have a poker face, she winced when her chest tightened.

"God, words travel so fast in this building." She sighed in disappointment.

She knew people would talk behind her back. Despite being the talk of the town as the 'pitiful unwanted wife' of her husband, it wasn't easy getting used to such insults.

"I heard he moved her to the VIP ward. I don't care how influential or how rich he is. He literally came here with his mistress? The audacity of that asshole!"

Levi was spitting his anger at her husband, and Gabriella could do nothing but smile bitterly.

"I will tell Doc Carry to take over your patient–"

"Levi, she's just another patient to me." She immediately intercepted. "Whoever she is, whatever she did, she's still my patient. I'll take care of her until she's discharged."

Levi stood straight, his eyes in disbelief and pain. He was hurting in her stead.

Gabriella immediately changed the conversation. "Aside from the news you wanted to show me, which wasn't actually news to me, what else are you here for?"

The nurse pulled out a test tube from his pocket.

Gabriella's forehead furrowed."What is that?"

"A specimen," curtly, he answered.

"Of what?" she clarified.

"Audrey's embryo."

Gabrielle's heart dropped to the floor without warning.

"Don't you want to know if the child was his or not? Let's run a DNA test."

"Levi, stop," Gabriella exclaimed in frustration. "Why are you doing this?"

"Gabby, no, you listen to me," he shot back. "Do you still believe your marriage is worth saving? Is he worth all the fucking pain you are enduring?"

Gabriella closed her eyes as she couldn't give him a confident answer. When she opened her eyes, irritation boiled in her blood. She felt like Levi was being unnecessarily nosy.

"Whether my marriage is worth saving or not, what is it to you? It's my life. It's my marriage. You don't get to say what is right and what is wrong for me. I appreciate you looking out for me, but please, don't cross the line."

Her words struck and punctured Levi straight to where it hurt the most. His heart.

He placed the tube on her table. "I don't care if you think I am crossing the line. You know better than me that your marriage is already fucked-up, and there's nothing you can do about it except run before you get killed."

He bolted out of the office, and Gabriella was too stunned to move for a second. As she said, it was her marriage, and it was her life. Yet nothing about her marriage was her choice.

She stared at the test tube on her table. The truth was, she was scared. If a DNA test was done, she was afraid of the result.

What if it was really his child?

She wouldn't be able to take it.

She thought she could hold her tears until the day was over. But her eyes gave in, and tears escaped. She wiped the tears on her cheeks with the back of her pale hands.

She had to–no–she needed to cry.

Levi didn't understand that if she divorced her husband, she would become more of a laughingstock. She would live in self-inflicted humiliation her entire life. That was the life that awaited a divorcee.

Instead of understanding where she was coming from, Levi had rubbed salt deep in her wounds.

With her current mental state, Gabriella knew she wouldn't be able to stay at the hospital for the rest of the day and focus, so she filed a sick leave and went home early.

As soon as her garden house appeared in sight, she felt a hand squeeze her heart.

What did it take for a house to feel like home?

Gabriella had no idea. Yet she was certain her house wasn't home. It was nothing more than an empty house Izaak bought her. Never once did it feel like home to her.

Gabriella stood by the window and quietly savored the peaceful picturesque landscape of her garden. She leaned her slender figure against the window frame. The garden was bare of flowers and plants but full of large patches of white Jasmine trees.

She didn't understand why she was so excited to plant those trees, which symbolized romantic love, in her once-empty garden. Maybe because she thought it would influence her marriage with Izaak.

When she told Izaak about it, and he gave the dullest, most uninterested response, she lost the excitement, but she never stopped hoping.

The trees were planted to give her hope, and they were deemed ineffective as days passed. Her hope was slowly fading away into despair.

Droplets of rain were trickling on the glass window, and as she stared at them as they trickled, her memory sent her back to three years ago.

**FLASHBACK**

[Three years ago]

Cake on one hand, a gift bag on the other, Gabriella rang the doorbell. Her heart swelled from excitement. She couldn't wait to surprise her boyfriend.

She looked down at the cake with fancy chocolate writing on top, which said, "Happy 4th Anniversary".

No one came to the door, so she entered the passcode herself and got in.

"Babe?" she called. "Are you still sleeping?"

She heard no response. She took off her shoes and put them in the shoe rack, but she halted when she recognized a woman's pair of shoes.

'Maybe his sister is here?' she thought to herself.

"Adrian! I'm here! Did your sister visit?"

When she got to the living room, clothes were scattered on the floor. Seeing a woman's undergarments hinted at something she refused to believe.

Dread enveloped her as she followed the trail of clothes. They led her to the bedroom.

She should've turned around. She should've stopped and left to protect her heart. But she opened the door only to see two people tangled up in bed, naked, and moaning each other's names.

"What–" she stammered, unable to gather the right words. "What is t-the meaning o-of this?"

The traitors immediately halted their crime. They frantically covered their nakedness with the blanket.

"Gabby." Adrian was flustered. His hair was disheveled, and his cheeks still flushed with lust. "I can explain. Rafaella and I–"

Tears streamed down Gabriella's face. She couldn't grasp the betrayal she felt from two people who were the closest to her.

"You, of all people?" she told Rafaella. "You're my sister!"

Rafaella stood up and rushed to take her hands. She was trying hard to cover her body with the blanket.

"Gabby, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Her tears of regret didn't convince Gabriella.

Her whole body was trembling, and she was still holding the cake and the gift bag. She regathered her composure and asked, "How long has this been going on?"

"I know it's wrong. I know we shouldn't have done this. But we truly love each other so much."

Rafaella was also crying, but Gabriella could only accommodate her pain and her lover and sister's betrayal at that moment.

"I said, how long has this been going on," she demanded.

Rafaella dropped her head and answered, "Over a year now."

Gabriella dropped the cake, threw the gift, and ran away.

She drowned herself in a bar with alcohol that night. So drowned that she lost touch with reality and ended up in Izaak's bed.

It was a one-night encounter with a stranger, yet the next day, her face was splashed on the news front page.

The scandal tarnished their families' reputations, and their families' businesses took the hit harder than what was expected. It was also the perfect opportunity for the parents to force their children into marriage, as they had been asking for grandchildren from them for years non-stop.

Before they realized what was happening, they were already stuck in their marriage with no chance of escape. It was a miracle they survived in a love-less union for three years.

**END OF FLASHBACK**

The memories gave her a headache. She headed to the bedroom to rest. The room was dark, so she looked for the switch on the wall.

A slender finger was an inch faster than her. Click.

The bedside lamp turned on, nearly startling Gabriella.

Under the dimmed light, Izaak looked divine as he sat on the bed, leaning on the headboard, looking at her in a way she couldn't decipher.

"What were you doing in the dark? When did you get home?" she asked.

He stood up, and as he strode closer to her, the faint scent of wine mixed with tobacco traveled to Gabriella's nostrils. She hated the combination, but strangely, they always smelled good coming from Izaak.

"It's the eighth," he casually answered.

He took off his shirt in front of her. Then he handed it to her.

Gabriella couldn't stop her eyes from marveling at his ripped upper body. Amid the cold weather, he was smoking hot.

"I'm taking a shower." He leaned into her ears and whispered to tease her. "I don't mind if you join."

Gabriella showed no reaction, so Izaak, with a smug smile on his face, walked towards the bathroom and left her.

Gabriella held his shirt tightly.

The 8th day was the only day of the month he was home. Like it was an obligation. A business meeting he had to attend every month.

"Yeah, it's the 8th day of the month," she whispered to herself. "I should be happy, right?"