Chapter 42
“Nooo, God noooo” Anita’s richly jeweled hands trembled slightly as she held the letter. The crispy paper felt delicate in her hands like she should just rip it up, but yet it felt heavy. The ink was bright and sharp, unable to lose focus to her blurry eyes, she had barely skimmed through the contents but she had gotten the gist already and she couldn’t believe her eyes.
She skimmed through the letter again, hoping she had read wrongly but the words remained the same, the consequences of her snooping playing in her face. She should’ve minded her business, gone shopping or whatever it was that kept her busy when her anxiety skyrocketed.
It was all Emily’s fault, always happening to be a damsel in distress causing the brothers to rally around her and be at her every beck and call while she got nothing, but a stupid letter slapping reality onto her face. Snooping through her father’s study was something she always did as a teenager, it was mostly out of boredom which later morphed into curiousity and till now it was a habit she was hesitant to let go off.
Mostly she found files she had no business with, since her father’s company was mostly about managing TV stars, they were a lot of audition tapes, one time she found the sex tape of a popular actress and she had gotten so excited to discovering something juicy that she always came back in hopes to find more sex tapes, and that was what she came looking for that sunny afternoon to ease the slow panic that rose in her chest from Emily’s situation, rifling through her father’s desk with an impatient hand, the shuffle of papers echoing like whispers.
Immediately she folded the letter into the pockets of her denim shorts, her normally confident steps faltered as she sprinted out of the room, grabbing whatever car keys her manicured fingers could find and driving straight to the hospital. Her chest heaving up and down, the letter burning through her thighs. She had no idea what her intentions were, she wasn’t sure her normally daring heart had the guts to confront this situation.
What was she going to say?
Did she know? If she did, why hadn’t she said anything? If she didn’t, would she be the one to break it to her? She wasn’t sure she wanted to.
Anita sat in her car, different scenarios crawling through her manipulative brain. Why was she nervous? She had the upper hand here, she was in charge, she was always in charge. She quickly hopped down from the car, about to walk into the hospital when her eyes caught someone in the corner.
It was Jackson
Her stood by himself, quiet and brooding like he was lost in thought but his hands running through his hair several times she felt there might be something in it. She studied him, his stance was sad, a certain sadness to his eyes she couldn’t read.
“Did something happen to Emily?” She thought to herself
Anita watches, her curiosity blooming into something that resembled concern as she observes the sorrow that cloaked his features, a silent storm brewing in the depths of his gaze.
She wanted to approach him, but with a sudden motion Jackson’s anguish surges to the surface, a bracelet suddenly slipping out of his grasp like a cascade of metal and emotion tumbling out his hands onto the unyielding floor of the hospital’s parking lot, a tiny clang echoing.
Anita watched him walk away, without even a backward glance and leaving behind that red crimson bracelet as she quickly walked towards it and shoved into her pocket, she would deal with that later.
Anita continued her path into the hospital, straight to the private room she knew to be Emily’s room. She resolved to turn back a million times in her head, mostly because the smell of hospital made her sick, it brought memories, memories she’d rather forget but her feet carried her still, one leg in front of the other, even though she’d rather turn back.
Amelia
“Amelia, just hold on with me”
Memories
The guilt
It plagued her.
She hadn’t been in the hospital since then, what was she doing here now.
“Just turn back” she told herself but her feet felt even more heavy than her heart and she hadn’t realized it yet, when she was standing in front of Emily’s room.
“Anita?” Ethan’s voice zapped her back to reality and everything came to focus.
They were both staring at her, Ethan standing supportively beside Emily, and Emily still tied and tubed with the weird hospital equipment and dressed in that hideous hospital gown. Although she had a weird glint in her eyes she couldn’t place, something she translated to recognition that went beyond their common knowledge of each other.
“What are you doing here?” Ethan asked “How did you know that she was awake”
“I…I didn’t” Anita stuttered, why was she stuttering for the love of God “I came to see…. Emily” she focused her gaze on Emily, who smiled at her but the next words she spoke sent Anita spiraling on a fast moving wheel
“Hello sister”
*****
*30 minutes ago*
“She’s awake” the nurse had said and the brothers brushed past her immediately heading straight for Emily’s room.
Emily’s awakening was a slow dance, her eyelids fluttering open to the bleached reality of white walls and the antiseptic tang that hovered in the air. Confusion knotted her brow, delicate lines etched above wide, searching eyes, two sapphires dulled by the fog of uncertainty. There was a doctor by her side, his voice a blending murmur with the hushed tones of the room, sometimes directing a small light in her eyes and telling her to follow it.
“What’s your name?” He asked simply, his round glasses hanging limply on his face.All rights © NôvelDrama.Org.
“Emily” she replied back, confused. She was trying to focus. What had happened? Why was she here?
“Emily who?” The doctor asked again, interrupting her thoughts and she felt the touch of annoyance embrace her.
“Emily Walker…. I mean Hatton” she corrected herself suddenly remembering Ethan. Where was he?
She stared confused at the doctor
“What happened?” She asked quietly
“You don’t remember?” He asked back
“Not so much no” she replied back and the doctor studied her closely. He was about to say something when suddenly two men rushed in, panting with heavy breaths.
“Emily!” They said at the same time and Emily’s gaze swept over both men, her expression a canvas of fractured recollections.
Ethan she knew quite alright, her husband married by contract but the other man, his eyes held no recognition in her soul.
Who was he?