Filed to story: Love Entangled with Her Unconscious Husband Novel >>
He had to stay alive.
His hands tightened around the armrests of his wheelchair as his entire body stiffened.
A tear escaped from the corner of his eye and rolled down his cheek.
Rosalie was sitting in the living room with the doctor standing by her side.
“I’m afraid the accident has caused a recurrence of Elliot’s depression,” reported the doctor.
Rosalie let out a heavy sigh and said, “I thought so. He refuses to talk, and now he’s locked himself up.”
“I prescribed some medication to help, but he won’t take them,” said the doctor with a frown. “He won’t get better if he continues to refuse help.”,
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow,” said Rosalie.
“I heard that he listens to Miss Avery. Maybe we should—”
“Absolutely not!” Rosalie snapped furiously. “She’s the reason my son is like this. That woman brings nothing but bad luck!”
The doctor did not argue.
His only responsibility was to Elliot’s health.
“I know you didn’t mean to take her side…” Rosalie said as she tried to quickly reach a compromise. “Let’s see if he listens to me tomorrow.”
She only hoped for her son’s speedy recovery.
Everything else could wait.
After Avery took a shower, she walked to the window and looked outside.
The snow on the ground looked like a layer of silver powder that illuminated the night.
She felt a strange compulsion rise within her.
She picked up her phone and wanted so badly to give Elliot a call.
She wanted to hear his voice.
After some thought, she was afraid that he would not answer her call, so she decided to send him a voice message instead.
Even if she could not hear his voice, she wanted him to hear hers and know that she was thinking of him.
Avery sent the message, then walked to the living room, took out the bag of yarn, and began to knit.
With the world around her stuck in silence, she became immersed in her task.
Elliot was startled awake from a nightmare in the middle of the night.
His forehead was covered in sweat and his eyes were filled with an unusual restlessness.
These days, he was having nightmares of himself dying every night.
The most terrifying part of the dreams was that he was always an incomplete corpse that was reduced to an unrecognizable mess of blood and flesh.
In those dreams, he was rotting away, surrounded by flies and maggots.
He hated himself more every time he woke up.
Elliot picked up his phone and looked at the time.
His fingers accidentally opened the text message notification on the home page, and his eyes met Avery’s profile picture.
He opened the message with trembling hands and played her voice message.
“It’s snowing outside, Elliot. Did you see? I heard you went home today. I hope you get well soon! I wanted to call, but I was afraid of bothering you. Which is why I’m sending this instead. Here’s a photo of the snow on our side!”
Elliot clicked on the photo she had sent and saw the beautiful, snowy scenery.
His throat tightened as the revulsion from the trauma subsided, temporarily.
He played Avery’s voice message over and over again and allowed the gentle ring of her voice to slowly chase away the demons in his heart.
A week later, Elliot showed up at the headquarters of Sterling Group.
He was in his wheelchair with a light blanket over his legs.
His face was as aloof and regal as ever, while he emanated an unapproachable aura.
Other than the fact that he was wheelchair-bound, there was almost no evidence that he had a near-death experience only a few weeks ago.
When Elliot entered his office, his assistant, Chad immediately briefed him on his work schedule.
Once he was briefed, Chad asked, “Do you want anything to drink, sir? Coffee? Some milk, maybe?” “Coffee,” Elliot said, then added, “Call Chelsea over.”
Soon after, a cup of coffee was placed in front of Elliot.
As Chad exited the room, he bumped into Chelsea who was on her way over.
She was not wearing any makeup, and her face looked unusually haggard.
Chat approached her, intending to speak to her, but in the end, he said nothing.
Chelsea entered Elliot’s office and shut the door behind her.
“I’m sorry, Elliot,” she said in a hoarse voice as she stood in front of Elliot. “This was all due to my brother’s scheme. He knew that you were still recovering, so he made you go up that hill. It’s an especially steep hill. We don’t usually go up there ourselves.
He wanted you dead.”
Elliot stared silently at her pale face, then said, “I know.”
“I’m sorry. He won’t apologize to you. He already left the country,” Chelsea said through the lump in her throat. “Please forgive my family, Elliot. My father’s getting old, and I’m afraid he won’t be able to handle the backlash. If you have to punish someone, then punish me. I’ll take it all without question.”
Elliot continued to stare at her in silence.
It was as if he was seeing her for the first time.
She always had on the most immaculate makeup and only presented her best self to him.
“I appreciate how you’ve stayed by my side all these years, Chelsea,” he finally said in a soft voice that was void of emotion.
“Leave the company and never appear in front of me again. If you can do that, then I’ll leave your family alone.”
Tears streamed down Chelsea’s face as she digested Elliot’s words.
It was over!
Things were completely over between them!
She took a deep breath and tried to hold back her tears, but they were uncontrollable, and they continued to escape her eyes.
She took one final, deep look at Elliot, then turned and ran out of the room.
Once Chelsea was out of the building, it was Ben’s turn to walk into Elliot’s office.
He knew that Elliot would not want to hear a word about Chelsea, so he did not mention her.
“Your birthday is coming up next week, Elliot. If you don’t want to have a party at a hotel, then let’s organize something small at home,” Ben suggested.