EPISODE 7
Alex came back six hours later probably after the surgery that nurse had announced. She was still shocked that he was even a doctor. He didn’t even look like one and she was still ashamed of the lame lie she told him few hours ago. She knew now that if he hadn’t believed her, then he had seen the marks both old and new while she was unconscious. But he didn’t come in alone, he came in with Lisa. They were in a conversation and he looked like the girl was boring her. He was in his white coat and had a fancy looking sphygmomanometer hanging around his neck. A nurse came in with him and this one was completely different from the last one.
“Lisa, I’m busy and you’re disturbing me.” Lisa made a pouty face and looked at him. “Please, Alex. You know you can do it.”
He looked at her and she blinked like a doll and grinned. Kendra found herself smiling at them.
“Let’s talk about this later. Okay?”
“No. Right now. You will leave here late and drive all the way to your house and avoid me. Don’t think I don’t know you,Alex.” “Alright, then. I’ll do it.”
Lisa smiled, planted a kiss on his lips and left with a goodbye at Kendra. He sighed and turned to her and stared at her.
“What?”
She asked him. He stepped forward.
“I don’t know. You seem to be smiling better than before.” Kendra didn’t pull back her smile. She nodded towards the door.
“She’s a cute lady.” More interesting stories available at Topster Stories
“Who? My sister? More like a bed bug.” He said and took the folder from the nurse, studying it.
“She’s your age,Kendra. I’m sure you both can get alone well. She’s not hard to love. And she makes friends easily.” His eyes were still on the chart board. “How old do you think i am?”
He looked up at her and grinned. His smile was affecting her in ways she couldn’t explain. Maybe because she was beginning to feel comfortable around him, or that she wanted him to forget about the shameless way she lied…she didn’t know which one.
“I know you’re twenty one,Kendra.”
She looked at him in surprise and he laughed.
“Relax, I haven’t been stalking you. Aliyah told me last night.”
“Oh.” She said and he went back to the chart board. He looked at the nurse. “She’s awake and stable. I don’t think there’s any need for the drip. Cut her off from it and let her start taking tablets.”
The nurse nodded.
“Yes sir.”
Kendra looked at them as the nurse took the folder a and left the ward. He looked down at her and then settled at the chair beside her bed. “You know you can sit on the bed. I won’t bite.”
She said and he grinned.
“I’m sure you won’t. You don’t look like one who would. But I’m in my coat which can be harmful to you considering the fact that I have been walking mg around the hospital in it.”
She nodded. “Do you work as a staff here?” He smiled. “You want to pay me?”
He teased.
“I didn’t mean it like that I just….I’m sorry about the way I lied earlier. I know I
should have told you the truth but then I was just ashamed.”
He stared at her for a while.
“Ashamed of what?”
“Of…my bravado towards you. My meanness and my cold attitude.” ************
Alex watched her lower her gaze while she spoke and saw that this lady was ashamed of being weak in front of people. She was ashamed of being the one to attract pity to herself. The mask was gone. He could see the true Kendra. The one who built a hard wall around herself so people won’t see how shaken she is inside. So people won’t pity her…or laugh at her. “Look at me when you talk to me,Kendra.”
He said and she shook her head without looking at him. “Kendra.” He said in a whisper. But she heard it. “Come on. Look at me. Do it.”
She slowly raised her gaze at him and he saw tears. Real tears! He had never imagined that she was the crying one. Good God! What had her husband done to her? Their gazes locked and she couldn’t control her tears. His hand lifted and he gently gripped one of her hand resting on the bed.
“I’m sorry for breaking down like this,Alex.”
She said in a broken voice. “Thank you for saving my life.” “Aliyah doesn’t know about it, right?”
She shook her head.
“No one knows about it. Just you.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I couldn’t. I just couldn’t do it.”
“I thought at first that it was one of those marriage issues but then it got worse. I didn’t want to tell anyone because it was my fault. I rushed into it so fast. We got married in just three months. Everyone told me to wait and I was so in love that I couldn’t wait. What do I tell them? That I finally realised that I should have waited? It sounds funny and they will all laugh their butts to the ground.” “Kendra, this is your life. You can’t keep hiding and dying slowly. You don’t even understand what happened to you last night. You were already gone. We had an xray on you and one of your ribs is fractured.”
She looked at him.
“Why did you have to carry this alone? He doesn’t deserve to have you. If he keeps hitting you like this, he’s a fool. You have to do something about it.”
“I can’t. He’s my husband. For better for worse. That’s what we said at the altar.”
“So…for better for worse, huh? And he hits the worst into you and when you die, he’ll take on the next lady and keep hitting her.”
She sniffed. He saw her close her eyes as if trying to calm down. He moved forward.
“Kendra.”
He said and she looked up at him. D–n! She looked so vulnerable, he wanted to kiss her there. He wanted to reassure her that she had a friend and ally in him. A confidant. But he noticed that she was still holding back. That’s why she acted tough to everyone. Because she was scared of showing them what she was going through.
“Kendra.”
He said again. But the words couldn’t come out. He was looking at those eyes.
Those soulful brown eyes that showed him her heart. Her bleeding heart.
“You can’t let him end your life like this,Kendra. You have to do something before
he does it for you.”
“I can’t kill him.”
Good God! He wasn’t talking about that.
“That’s not what I meant. I won’t advice you to kill any one much less him.” She stared at him again and lowered her gaze and he knew she was crying again. How could she have suffered this for three years?! Endured his molestations and beatings for three whole years and still be alive. The more he thought of it, the more fell in love with this strong and extraordinary woman.
She kept crying and he gave her hand a light squeeze, leaning forward, he placed a light kiss on the top of her head. If she felt it, she gave no sign….