Evelyn laid in the hospital bed, her pale face contrasting sharply with the white sheets, her mind still not aware of what was going on.
Outside the ward, The doctor stood with the man who had brought her over. "How did you become her partner?" He questioned. "She was pregnant and you couldn't take care of her at all. The child could not be saved, but we kept the mother alive" The surgeon glared at Joseph Sprite, who was masquerading as the concerned boyfriend.
Joseph didn't flinch. He pulled a heavy check from his pocket and slid it toward the doctor. "A misunderstanding, Doctor. Let's talk in your office."
Michael Thorn was ending a board meeting at Thorn International, When his private phone rang with an unknown number, his gut twisted.
"Hello? This is the All People's Hospital of Arise City. Are you the family of Miss Evelyn Meyers?"
"What's wrong with her?" Michael stood up, his chair screeching against the floor.
"The patient's abortion procedure is finished. Please come to handle the discharge."
Abortion? The word was a physical blow. Michael stood frozen, the blood draining from his face as the nurse's voice grew louder, accusing him of negligence.
Back in the Ward, Evelyn had fallen into a delirious sleep. She had a dream where her baby had been forcefully snatched away by Erica and an unknown man. She screamed and struggled with them, but was pushed to the floor by the man, while Erica held her baby away, looking down at her on the floor, a smirk on her lips. She screamed and woke up to find her self in a ward.
The room was real, but it seemed like the dream was just a nightmare.
Michael stood by the bed, wearing a mask of coldness. Beside him, Erica Jones looked on with eyes full of fake regret.
"What happened to me?" Evelyn whispered. Then, the memory hit her. Erica's hand on her wrist. The fall from the staircase, and her losing consciousness. She sprung up to a sitting position. "She pushed me! Michael, Erica pushed me down the stairs!" She wanted to jump on Erica and tear her pretentious face away but Michael's reaction stumped her.
"What's the matter with you?" Michael's voice was a low, dangerous growl. He didn't offer comfort; instead, his hand shot out, pinning her neck against the pillows.
"Michael, are you crazy!" Evelyn gasped for air.
"Am I?" Michael's eyes were bloodshot. "I thought you were pure, Evelyn. I thought you were just spirited. But you killed my dog, you sabotaged the research room, and now, you even killed your own child. Why, Evelyn? His voice was full of pain. "Did you really want to spite me that much?"
Under his massive hand, Evelyn's face turned a bruised red. She struggled on the bed, but she was no match for Michael's strength. She looked at Erica, who was watching with a hidden, triumphant smirk.
"Evelyn," Erica sighed, playing her part to perfection, "no matter how much you hate me, the baby was innocent. To have an abortion just to get back at Michael..."
"It's her! She pushed me!" Evelyn pointed a shaking finger, but Michael's fury was a wall she couldn't break.
"Enough!" Michael roared, letting her go so abruptly her head hit the headboard. "You'd blame a saint to cover your own cruelty. You've lost your heart, Evelyn. I can't I was deceived by a woman like you!!"
He turned and strode out, leaving her to gasp for air while clutching on her neck.
Evelyn stayed in the hospital for four days, but Michael didn't show up. Except for the house staff that showed up to deliver food. No one spoke another word to her. It looked like, she was abandoned. Finally, on the fifth day, she decided to leave. "Tell Michael, I want to leave this hospital today." She spoke to the staff who had come to deliver her daily necessities.
By evening, she was discharged, but no one showed up apart from the driver and a staff member to help pack her things and accompany her home. Arriving home, there was no warmth. Only the house keeper showed up and tried to cheer her up. She had waited up alone in the room for hours, till morning, but Michael didn't show up. She cried pitifully alone, till sleep finally took her.
For the next month, Evelyn was practically a ghost in the huge Villa. No one cared about her, if she ate, slept, or how she fared. Michael had stopped coming home for a while, and when he finally did, he slept in the guest suite. He refused to see or listen to his wife.
One evening, as she sat on the balcony overlooking the villa gates staring at the City horizon as the weather turned cold. She saw one of Michael's car pull closer to the house. A little excitement bubbled in her stomach. She still had a little hope. But when the car pulled up in front of the Villa, Michael stepped out of it and helped Erica out of it. The two held hands as the walked in to house while being welcomed by the staff and house keeper. Silent tears dripped her cheeks. And she wiped them off with the back of her hands.
'So, that was how it was? Erica had successfully replaced her.' She laughed bitterly as more tears dripped down her face. 'No wonder the house staff had started ignoring her. Even the house keeper had stopped coming to check on her. They had all changed sides.' 'She had expected that, but for it to actually happen so soon broke her deeply.'
'She hadn't tasted food for three days now, it's like they wanted her to starve to death.' 'Is this how Michael intended to take care of her?'
She hated him so much. She hated his heartless and cruel mother who looked down on others.' 'She hated Erica, but more so, she hated Michael the most.' 'He was the one who couldn't put a stop to his past, and was hurting her with it.' Throughout that night, Evelyn twisted and turned on the bed. Her heart was full of bitterness, joined with the hunger pangs that dealt with her.
The next morning, When Evelyn stepped out of the bathroom, she found Michael standing in the room. He glanced at the bathroom door, his eyes dark and unreadable, before immediately looking away. The rejection was sharp. He didn't even see her as a woman anymore. Evelyn sat at the dressing table, mindlessly drying her hair, oblivious to the moment Michael slipped back out of the room.
By the time she had finished dressing up and had managed to go down for breakfast. The Table was empty with no food on it; Michael and Erica had already left the house. Mrs. May the house keeper stood far away tending from the table tending to the flower in a vase by the side, ignoring Evelyn. When Evelyn turned to ask her what was going on? She avoided eye contact and quickly left the room.
Evelyn looked around the room, hot tears dripping from her eyes. She turned and went back upstairs.
She searched through all her things with the little strength she had but couldn't find the card Michael had given to her. As she collapsed on the floor. A thought hit her. 'Could Michael had taken his card back? Was that why he came to the room earlier today?' she began to cry again. 'She had thought that maybe he had a change of heart, but no, he had only come to retrieve his card back.'
After a while, Evelyn managed to pull herself together and took out her phone. She had no other choice but to call Jade.
She began the long walk out of the Springfield Villa estate. She had no permission to take one of Michael's cars, and her scooter had been left to Jade. Ten minutes into her walk, a familiar horn sounded behind her. Michael's car cruised past, and through the window, she saw Michael at the wheel and Erica in the passenger seat, the two of them talking and laughing as if Evelyn were just a stranger on the sidewalk. When Evelyn finally crawled out of the estate after an hour, she flagged a cab and took it with her.
Before reaching the restaurant she had planned to with Jade, she stopped at the cemetery and visited her mother and grandmother. She laid flowers on their grave and spoke to them.
"Mom... I almost became a mother too," she sobbed while wiping the tears from her face. "But she took it. Please, give me strength." She sobbed more.
Not long after the girl left the Cemetery, a man in suit walked in, flanked security guards. He walked straight to the tombstone the girl had been standing before earlier holding a flower.
He stared at the flesh flowers on the tombstone for a while, before muttering something to the man behind him.
When Evelyn finally arrived at the restaurant, Jade was already waiting. She gasped at how thin and fragile Evelyn had become and rushed up to embrace her while Evelyn wept on her shoulders.
"Jade... my child is gone," Evelyn said, her voice finally breaking.
Then she began to pour out everything that had happened in her life from Michael's mother's arrival, her departure, Erica's arrival, the stairs, Michael's coldness, and the house staff mistreatment.
Jade's fury grew as she listened, she felt like going over to beat Michael up. "He's a fool! She started for the fifth time. He destroyed Tanya Banks and Tail Watson the moment you got back from Germany. He thinks he's already punished the people responsible for hurting you! He's a genius in business and an idiot in his own home!"
Evelyn stirred her tea. It tasted bitter in her mouth. Maybe, her life was just meant to be bitter.
As Evelyn shoved food down her throat, Jade called to her. "Evelyn, look!" Jade pointed out the window toward the giant LED screen on the mall across the street.