The Doctor's Lost-and-Found Bride Read Free Page A

Max think about Marina. There were several victims of road-traffic accidents who needed checking over—including one with broken ribs and a pneumothorax that needed very careful attention. Even so, he was aware that Marina left the department a good half-hour before he did.
    Then, as he walked out through the double doors, he heard a voice he recognised, saying cheerfully, ‘Right, Miss Beautiful. Let’s go and meet Daddy.’
    Daddy?
    Max couldn’t help looking, and immediately wished he hadn’t. Because at the far end of the corridor Marina was carrying a toddler: a little girl who had the same dark hair, dark eyes and sweet smile as Marina herself.
    Marina had a daughter.
    For a moment, Max couldn’t breathe; it felt as if someone had just sucker-punched him in the stomach and all the air had been driven out of his lungs. The little girl looked as if she was around two years old—which meant that Marina hadn’t even waited for their divorce to be finalised before she’d moved on to another relationship and had a baby with her new partner.
    Yet she still used her maiden name in the department.Maybe she hadn’t yet remarried. Or maybe she’d decided to keep her maiden name for work.
    Whatever.
    It was none of his business any more.
    All the same, it shook him. Especially when a man came walking down the corridor towards them, kissed Marina lightly on the mouth and scooped the child from her arms.
    ‘Daddy!’ the little girl said, beaming as the man kissed her and lifted her onto his shoulders.
    Marina tucked her arm through his and they walked off together, chatting easily. Looking exactly like the close, loving family they obviously were.
    Exactly like the close, loving family he and Marina had planned to have.
    Max swallowed the bile that had risen in his throat. Now he understood why Marina had left her shift dead on time. She’d had to pick up her daughter from the hospital nursery before meeting her partner.
    What made the whole thing so much worse was that, if circumstances had been very slightly different, Max would’ve been the one meeting Marina with a bright, lively pre-school child, and maybe a baby with chubby hands and a wide, wide smile. He would’ve been the one they smiled at, the one they greeted with a kiss.
    He swore under his breath. He’d promised himself that he was over it, that he could cope with working in England again. But seeing that little tableau made it feel as if someone had cracked his heart wide open and stomped on it.
    Marina had a child. With someone else.
    He’d thought that he’d reached the depths of pain. Now he knew there was more—and it felt as if he were drowning. Someone else had the life he’d planned, the life he’d wanted: Marina, their baby, a fulfilling job.
    Why the hell hadn’t he tried harder to make it work?
    Because he’d been an idiot.
    Because he’d been hurting too much at the time to work out what he’d needed to do—what they had needed to do—as a couple.
    And now it was too late. Way, way too late.
    There was only one way of getting this out of his system. So, instead of making himself a sandwich when he got home, Max grabbed his gym gear and headed out again. What he needed was a workout that would leave him too damn tired to think. He’d sleep on it, let his subconscious come up with a way of dealing with the fact that Marina Petrelli was back in his life—and she was very firmly off-limits.

CHAPTER TWO
    T HE roster fairy definitely wasn’t on his side, Max thought the next morning as he walked into Resus and saw his team.
    To think he’d been so cool and calm yesterday, asking Marina if it would be a problem for her, working in the same department. He’d been so sure that he could handle the situation.
    Though, that had been before he’d seen her with her daughter.
    And he was shocked by how much that thought still hurt, like a bruise that went right through his soul.
    ‘Good morning, Dr Fenton,’ Marina said.
    She sounded