Chapter 29: Chapter 29

Three Hours Later

The sound of squeaking metal woke Myra, giving her some time to view the unfamiliar surroundings around her. White walls, a patient bed.

She was in the hospital. What had just happened?

An elderly uniformed nurse with her long hair in a bun wheeled a trolley with covered plates of food into the room, greeting her with a polite smile. Her name tag glinted as she spoke, taking Myra away from her thoughts.

“Miss, we are serving lunch now. Do you prefer chicken or fish?

She observed the nurse briefly while on the verge of pouting. She didn’t fancy either, being the picky person she was. But while being a patient, she had little choice.

“Fish,” she answered reluctantly, trying to recall the events that occurred before she lost consciousness. If she remembered correctly, it wasn’t the first time this had happened. Three times she woke up in bed, but only she couldn’t remember what happened the first time. She definitely remembered what happened at Lionel’s party.

The nurse helped her move into a sitting position before pulling her table in front of her. “Thank you,” she uttered faintly, feeling the tiredness still in her.

“The doctor will see you in an hour,” the nurse placed the meal on her little table. She nodded, unmotivated to speak for the time being. With a bow, the lady left, closing her door as she disappeared from view.

As she munched on her meal, Myra could not help thinking about the past events. She didn’t want to reconsider what had happened at Lionel’s party, but everything sounded fishy. When she rejected any potential males that approached her, Lionel came instead.

(Flashback)

“Myra,” he gazed upon her hungrily, like a lion marking its prey. “I’ve seen you turn down almost everyone’s offer for a drink.

“Are you concerned?”

She didn’t want to sound rude, so she pleased him with a smile. After all, he was the host and had invited her. She would need a lot of his help in the future, as she couldn’t afford to fail any subject right now.

“Yeah, I am.” Without asking, he put his hand firmly on her arm.

“Lionel, this isn’t very appropriate…” she started, but he stopped her by lifting his glass.

“Let’s drink and be merry. If you want to be part of us, you have got to mingle with the crowd.”

Her instincts told her this would not go very well. She looked around her for an escape, but with nobody familiar in the party, she couldn’t find an excuse.

Lionel removed his hand, much to her relief. But seconds just passed when he returned with another glass. And she drank to get rid of him.

This wasn’t like her at all. She knew her capability. But the mere taste of alcohol in her mouth was provoking her to throw up. She resisted and sipped the glass slowly. Finally, with the third glass, it was more than she could handle.

Then her vision went fuzzy. Lionel’s lips continued to move, but she couldn’t hear a word that he was saying before everything went black. She didn’t know what happened after that, because she woke up the next morning in her room with Hart in the apartment.

(End of Flashback)

And again, hours after waking up, her dizzy spells had caused her to faint. She knew she had gone without breakfast for a long time, but she never had such a problem in the past.

A mystery remained in her: why her ‘best friend’ hadn’t come for a long time, and who was ‘W’.

After eating, she felt a lot better. Pressing the button to adjust the incline of her bed, she reclined and watched a few episodes of the new drama that had aired.

“No matter what, I’ll love you. Our meeting was fated,” the actor whispered to the actress. She found it hilarious. Was that her and Hart? Would they have a proper ending? Still, she continued watching. Maybe it was easier for her to believe something fictitious than actuality.

One hour passed. The gradual knocks on the door reminded her that the doctor was here to see her. Whatever the reason for her fainting was, she needed to get herself discharged soon. She crossed her fingers together and furrowed her brow.

“Come in,” she said.

To her relief, the doctor was a trendy-looking young lady with large curls ending on her shoulders and a different nurse accompanied her. She seemed the type that Myra could tell her anything, had Myra been in the mood.

“How are you doing this afternoon, Miss Yang? I’m Dr Divine Lee here, and this is my nurse, Madelina.”

She forced herself to smile, despite how she still didn’t quite feel like talking. In her heart, she wished nothing was wrong with her. She hated injections and the taste of bitter medicines. Please, don’t let me be sick, she prayed silently. Don’t let me have cancer, or any terminal sickness.

Perhaps Dr Divine could read her mind, or possibly the emotions written all over her nervous face, because she seemed amused.

“I have to tell you that you’re not going to die, but I have a piece of wonderful news to tell you.”

Wonderful? How wonderful could being hospitalised be? With the doctor’s pleasant mood, she was unsure what to believe at this point. Surely the doctor wouldn’t announce bad news with a smiling face.

Myra, you always have the tendency to take everything negatively, her inner voice told her. She prevented herself from pouting her lips and braced herself for the wonderful piece of news.

And sure, it was wonderful news indeed. Maybe for someone who was expecting such news, but for her, it simply put her in a dilemma. She read the report the doctor handed her with shaking hands. Apparently, she was right about her suspicions.

Earlier on, she had thought about the possibility of it happening to her, but in a different way. Now, she wasn’t sure if she could handle this when the doctor had proclaimed it to be true. It was just too much for her to swallow, especially after her father’s demise and how she was torn between two men and her ensuing guilt.

She was just too young to absorb all this. The female doctor immediately caught wind of this, cutting short on her speech.

“I have to see another patient now, Miss. Madelina will take care of your discharge.”

She would get discharged so soon? After the heavy announcement from Dr Divine, she was glad she could finally leave this place. Nothing pleased her more than the relief of her own bed, away from these scary white walls. Since she was a child, there was nothing she dreaded more than the hospital.

No sooner had the doctor left than she asked the nurse that question that suddenly popped up in her mind.

“Miss Madelina, did a man drop me off here earlier?”

“I am not completely sure about that. My colleague on the other shift might know.”

She knew it was Hart since he was the last she had seen before she fainted, but she had to make sure. If he had sent her to the hospital, then why had he not waited for her? And where was he right now, after she had woken up?

She remembered the call he was on and how he seemed to rush somewhere else that had interrupted their intercourse.

Again, it had to be the woman whose name starts with W; she thought. If his feelings for Miss W were genuine, did she have a valid reason to hold him back? She didn’t want to appear to be another Yuna Kim.

Speaking of Yuna, she heard Yuna was now involved in a new television programme that took her places. She was the fresh face of XTV, which mainly hosted travel shows across the globe and some cooking shows. A beautiful face definitely did matter.

It was odd why Jake hadn’t bothered about her flying or fussed about her at all. Even though they had broken up, many would have killed for her looks.

For a man like Hart, there was a girl like W. For Jake, there was a girl like Yuna.

And for whom did she exist?

She just put her hand on her cheek as she tried her best to listen to the nurse’s instructions. It was just a few pills. Why were the instructions so complicated?

The nurse eventually gave her a booklet along with the package that contained her medication and left. Again, she was alone.

Taking one pill, she swallowed it with a nearby glass of water.

Myra, you’ll get through this. You know you will; she promised herself. She would find an answer to her problems, resolve her falling grades and save her father’s businesses, even if it sounded impossible. With or without Jake’s help, she had to. It was her responsibility.

Just then, her phone rang.