Chapter 49: Chapter 49

Gerhard had to go to Germany to have a series of meeting with the German bank. That was one reason he had wanted to get Sharon's answer before he left.

The two days before he left, though he did not ask Sharon for the answer to his proposal, he kept looking at her hopefully but she would look away, and he would swallow the pain her continued rejection caused him.

'Ensure that you do not leave until I get back', was his last plea to her before embarking on his trip.

The day he took the flight to Germany, the weather was not too good and the plan had wanted to land somewhere till it was clearer to go on but in trying to avoid a disaster, the plane crashed.

Gerhard was seriously injured and unconscious for more than twenty four hours. Marie, his mother flew put immediately to be at his bedside. She had been alerted that the son she had been expecting back in Germany had been involved in a crash. It was she who contacted Sharon.

'He's regained consciousness, thank God', she said on the phone, her voice filled with choking tears. 'And he is asking of you over and over again, please come'.

The pleading quality in her voice had Sharon on the next available flight to Germany.

She couldn't stop wondering if the accident was her fault, a terrible guilt seeping through her mind, though she found out later it was a mechanical fault coupled with the bad weather.

Both Marie and Gerhard had been pathetically glad to see her when she arrived at the hospital. She soon realised that his mother was still under the impression that they were engaged. Gerhard had not disabused his mother of that notion though she had asked him to and had thought that he had done it.

She tried to explain that it wasn't true, that she had in fact turned down Gerhard's proposal but Marie burst into tears, terribly upset.

She learnt later from the doctors that Gerhard was suffering from slight amnesia. He couldn't remember the crash or the proceeding forty eight hours. It was quite usual, the doctor assured her when she spoke with him.

'However, his improvement has been marked since your arrival, Miss Smith'.

She had remembered those words ever since. The doctor was tall and fair, his face permanently creased with worry. His manner was calm and soothing. 'But he is still hovering between life and death. Frankly, I believe you are the only reason he is still hanging on'.

Sharon had stayed with Marie, comforting her as well as she could. Gerhard's recovery was very slow and very painful, often there was no progress at all. His amnesia remained as well.

Marie exerted pressure and tried to make Sharon to marry Gerhard. Sharon recognized it. She couldn't blame her though, Gerhard was her only son and they were very close.

She resisted for a while but Marie's anxiety worried her. The older woman had she pounds and pounds since the Accident. She looked older, her nerves shattered, her face tense as she moved round the hospital chain - smoking despite the No Smoking signs in the hospital.

Those weeks at the hospital in Germany seemed to drag on forever. She still had to tend to her child as well as comfort Gerhard's anxious mother. It was not easy for her but she felt that it was the little she could do to help out and assuage her guilt as well.

Oliver, her new boss was kind enough to give her as much time as she needed. Bryan's betrayal still hurt but there were many things to occupy her mind at the hospital. Gabriel called almost everyday to know how Gerhard was doing and how she was coping and she tried to reassure him but later she started telling him the real situation of things.

All of a sudden, Gerhard's recovery halted and the days were filled with a new anxiety as Sharon finally reached her decision.

Despite his weak protests,Sharon married Gerhard in his bedside two weeks later. His mother's joyful face almost made her cry. And when she looked at Gerhard, she knew that she was doing the right thing. The doctor now gave him only a few months. His injuries were to severe and he was still very weak. It was heartbreaking news bit Gerhard was happy and in a strange way, Sharon could share that.

She would sit on his bed all day, her eyes full of affection and they would talk for hours, holding hands. She felt glad that she had married him because it obviously meant so much to him.

Three months later, he died peacefully in his sleep. Sharon felt numb. It felt as though everyone she had ever cared for had been taken from her. Back in London, a month or two after the funeral, she was buying some fruits and absent mindedly walked out of the shop without her balance.

The assistant whom knew her very well called after her, 'Mrs Alexandria, your balance.

Sharon, turning round, smiled and found herself face to face with Bryan.

She hadn't seen him for months and now he had come out of no where. He was staring at her with a bleak bitter anger burning in his black eyes.

Her smile died on her lips and she stared back, unable to break eye contact.

He did not say a word. His silence trapping her. She gazed up into his familiar hard boned face and felt herself shaking inside. She couldn't stop looking at him.

Bryan finally broke the silence, his gaze dropping to her left hand, where a thin gold band circled her wedding finger. She had not bothered to remove it since Gerhard died. She had forgotten that she was still wearing it.

'Mrs. Alexandria', he repeated and the words sounded curious on his lips, harsh and contemptuous. Sharon realized with a tiny flash of shock that he had not known about her marriage.

'Yes', she replied shakily, his obvious derision cutting her to ribbons and forcing her to pull herself together, to lie for self protection. 'You didn't know?'

Bryan's mouth hardened into a cruel line. He looked at her as though he wanted to kill her. 'That poor fool, you were seeing, I suppose', he drawled with a smile that did not come close to the ice in his eyes.

It was too close to the truth and Sharon flinched.

'Drop dead', she muttered, turning away, unable to bear it any more. She almost ran from him, tears suddenly scalding her eyes. But she couldn't miss his cynical 'Good luck', as she rushed blindly into the street... Forgetting to take the balance for which she had turned back in the first instance.