Lady Veronica Colbert-Jiangyin hurried her steps to her husband's chamber. The message she received in her office scared her. She knew Adam was ill, but she'd had no idea it was this bad. He'd distance himself when he'd fallen ill.

And when she'd had to take over his position on the Board of Directors for the company, she'd hardly seen him. Berating herself for being so inattentive, she hurried even more.

Finally she reached his bedchamber. She collected herself before entering. Doctor Hiram Lee was leaning over her husband of nearly forty years. Her husband, Lord Adam Colbert-Jiangyin lay in his bed looking almost small. Which was saying something, since the man had towered at six foot four for most of his life.

She vaguely remembered him the first time she met him. She'd been no more than seventeen and had topped her height at five feet five. Not too short, but a not tall enough to be thought of as graceful.

Having been informed by her father that she was to be married to this gentleman as soon as she turned eighteen, her first thought that

entered her mind was: I'm not even tall enough to rest my head on his shoulder, how am I to kiss this man?

“Bao bai, you needn't have come so urgently. I am fine. Hiram is only exaggerating. It was just a mild arrhythmia. Nothing a good heart transplant could cure or at least a tissue sample from a relative,” her husband smiled brightly or as brightly as a man could when he was dying.

“Hiram, how is he?” she turned to their long time family doctor and friend.

“It's true it was only arrhythmia, my lady, but in his condition, it could have killed him. I tried to convince him to let me transfer him to the best hospital in Capital City, but he refuses,” he shrugged.

“Adam, perhaps Hiram is—”

“I'd rather die in my home than in some wretched hospital,” he snapped sounding almost like his usual self.

“My lord, I only worry about—”

“How many times have I told you to stop calling me that! You've known us for nearly forty years,” he snapped at h