Twenty-five-year-old Jake Turner had one of the strangest jobs in Los Angeles.
He was the private driver for Eleanor Kingsley, the elegant, impossibly wealthy wife of real estate mogul Richard Kingsley, a man who could buy skyscrapers the way others bought coffee.
Jake drove her everywhere: charity luncheons, yoga sessions, designer fittings.
At first, it was just a job.
Then it turned into something else.
Because Eleanor wasn’t like the other billionaire wives—
she was warm, thoughtful, lonely, and heartbreakingly beautiful despite being thirty years older than Jake.
One evening, after dropping her off at a gallery opening, she sat down in the back seat and whispered:
“Jake… can you drive for a while? I just need to get away.”
They ended up on the coast highway, staring out at the dark ocean.
Talking.
Laughing.
Breathing.
That night began something neither of them spoke about—but both felt.
And then came the routine.
Every night at exactly 9:00 PM, Eleanor would say:
“Take me to our place.”
Jake never questioned it.
He simply drove.
Three hours away.
Through winding roads.
Up cold hills.
Into thick forests.
They would stay there for twenty minutes.
No more.
Then return home by midnight.
Jake didn’t know what the place meant.
He didn’t care.
All he knew was that every night, as soon as they stepped out of the car, Eleanor’s hand would always find his.
And he was falling in love.
THE HUSBAND NOTICED
Richard Kingsley was not a man who overlooked things.
He built an empire on noticing details.
And he noticed when:
• Eleanor began wearing soft perfume again
• She smiled more than usual
• She asked for Jake specifically
• She left every night at the exact same time
Richard was sixty-three, but he wasn’t stupid.
He felt it—something slipping from his control.
So one night, he did something he had never done before.
He followed them.
From a distance.
With his tinted SUV.
Headlights off.
Moving silently down every dark road they took.
Richard expected to catch them kissing.
Or worse.
But what he found was much, much stranger.
THE PLACE
Jake pulled into the same spot Eleanor always requested—
the entrance to an old, abandoned hospital deep in Redwood County.
Richard parked far behind, keeping his lights off.
He watched them step out.
Jake helped Eleanor carefully down the hill.
They walked together across the gravel path toward the rusted gates.
Richard clenched the steering wheel.
He was ready to storm down, ready to destroy Jake with one punch, ready to confront Eleanor—
Until he saw her do something unexpected.
She knelt down in front of the abandoned building.
Jake stepped back quietly, giving her space.
Eleanor placed flowers—fresh white lilies—on the broken stone steps.
Richard’s anger froze.
Lillies.
Her mother’s favorite flowers.
Richard leaned forward, confused, watching as Eleanor whispered something into the night air.
Jake didn’t touch her.
He didn’t kiss her.
He didn’t even speak.
He simply stood respectfully beside her.
Something Richard hadn’t seen in himself for years.
Then Eleanor collapsed into tears.
Jake immediately rushed to her side, holding her gently, letting her cry into his jacket.
Richard’s heart twisted painfully.
He had forgotten—
Eleanor’s mother died in this hospital twenty-three years earlier.
He had known that.
But he had never visited with her.
Never asked.
Never listened.
Jake had.
THE CONFRONTATION
Richard stepped out of his SUV and walked toward them.
His footsteps crunched loudly in the gravel.
Jake and Eleanor stiffened.
Eleanor turned, horrified.
“Richard? What—what are you doing here?”
Richard’s voice was low and shaking.
“I should ask you the same.”
Jake instinctively positioned himself between them.
Richard scoffed.
“A boy bodyguarding my own wife. How heroic.”
Eleanor grabbed Jake’s arm.
“Jake didn’t do anything wrong.”
Richard looked straight at Jake.
“Did you know she came here every week?”
Jake swallowed.
“Yes, sir. She asked me to bring her.”
“Did you ever ask why?”
“No, sir.”
Richard’s eyes softened—just a little.
“You’re not sleeping with her?”
Jake flushed red.
“No. Never.”
Eleanor whispered, “Richard… please don’t make this ugly.”
Richard stared at his wife.
And something broke inside him.
He saw the truth.
Not love affair.
Not betrayal.
But sorrow.
Loneliness.
Grief he had ignored.
He stepped closer, voice cracking.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were hurting?”
Eleanor wiped her tears.
“I did. Years ago. But you were always busy. Always closing deals. Always traveling.”
Her voice broke.
“So I stopped asking.”
Silence sank into the cold night.
Then Richard said the words that stunned both of them:
“Eleanor… I thought you were in love with him.”
She shook her head.
“No, Richard. Jake is kind. Jake listens. Jake sees me. But I don’t love him.”
Jake stepped back, letting her speak.
“I only ever loved you.”
Richard’s face crumpled.
The billionaire who conquered cities—
now defeated by his own wife’s pain.
THE TWIST
Richard turned to Jake.
“I owe you an apology. For misjudging you.”
Jake nodded respectfully.
“Yes, sir.”
“But I have to ask you one thing.”
Richard’s voice dropped.
“Why did you keep bringing her here? You could have told me.”
Jake looked him straight in the eyes.
“Because she told me not to.”
“Why?”
Jake hesitated.
Eleanor answered softly:
“Because I didn’t want you to know.”
“Know what?”
She held up her trembling hands.
“That I’m dying, Richard.”
The world dropped out from under him.
Jake closed his eyes.
Richard whispered, voice breaking:
“W–what?”
Eleanor took his hand and placed it on her chest.
“The same condition my mother had. The same hospital she died in. I have the same diagnosis.”
Richard’s breath shattered.
“How long…?”
“A year.”
She looked at the old hospital.
“I didn’t want you to love me because you felt guilty. I didn’t want you to pity me. I came here every night to face it alone.”
Jake stepped back, heart heavy.
Richard sank to his knees in front of his wife.
“You’re not alone,” he whispered.
“You’re not going through this alone ever again.”
Eleanor collapsed into his arms, sobbing.
Jake turned away and silently walked back to the car, leaving them together in the snow-glowing night.
Because Jake wasn’t the man Eleanor needed—
He was simply the man who brought her
to the place where she needed
her real love to finally find her again.
