I was stuck in the hospital for a whole day. Lyle actually treated me like his wife for once, which I was completely unused to. Even though I tried to be petty and pick here and there, he treated my complaining as flirting and let me be.
I lost count of the number of times I had sworn at him in my heart. Even my appetite was affected and all I wanted was for Crystal to swoop in and take Lyle away.
My prayers didn’t go to waste. At Lyle’s second visit, Crystal walked in all decked out. Her elaborate outfit almost lit up the room as if she were a disco ball.
“Crystal! What are you doing here?” Lyle stood up nervously and put down the apple he was peeling for me.
“I just wanted to visit Yvonne,” Crystal said and she stared at me like she was trying to bore a hole through me. I lay there, letting her stare me down. I even returned her stare with a goofy smile.
If this had happened before, this smile would have seemed like confirmation that I was small fry to her. However, in this context, I knew this smile came across as mocking.
As expected, Crystal’s expression darkened and she walked toward me.
Her stifling perfume threatened to choke me and I sneezed. Impatiently, I said, “Ugh, I don’t like that smell. Please don’t come closer.”
She was practically hissing at me now. “Rest well, Yvonne. I’ll be going now.”
After that, she stalked out of the hospital ward. I even heard her sobbing faintly, and Lyle did too as he shot up and started running toward her. Before he stepped outside, he turned back to glance at me as if asking for permission.
I shrugged with a grin. “Go ahead. If you don’t go now, you might really lose her. You can get tickets to Anglandur any other time.”
“How did you know?” Lyle asked in shock.
Innocently, I said, “Next time, don’t bang in the middle of a public park. It pains me to have to bump into that. Cleansing that scene from my brain took a long time, you know.”
Lyle couldn’t handle my eerie calmness and finally left, but not before he said, “Yvonne, give me three days to settle everything, okay? I won’t forget your feelings for me.”
Can someone please come and take this absolute fool away?
The hospital ward fell into silence once again after he left. I sighed softly, completely at a loss for what to do.
How long was Lyle going to drown himself in this puddle of infidelity? He was acting as if it were a heroic decision to only remain loyal to one of us.
He would just lose the housekeeper he had for years, but he could very well just hire another one.
I took out my phone and checked my caller history. Christopher hadn’t called or texted.
I almost called him, but I didn’t even know what to say if he picked up. I ended up sending a text after what seemed like hours of typing and erasing, only to settle on a lame ‘Have you eaten yet?’.
I was seriously cringing at my own awkwardness.
Someone knocked on the door and I called out, “Come in!”, expecting the doctor to enter. I didn’t expect Sabrina to suddenly show up with a package that the hospital guard passed to her when she came back from my place to help me pick up some things.
I was kind of surprised. I hadn’t bought anything and I wasn’t a regular at this hospital, so how did the sender know to deliver it here?
I glanced at the address and my heart skipped a beat when I noticed that it was from Coldbridge. Excited yet nervous, I tore open the package and saw a simple ribbon-entwined box inside.
There was another box within the first one that was also quite pretty. What is this? I opened the second box again only to see another box nestled inside.
I was more confused than ever. Did Christopher just send me a bunch of boxes?
I patiently opened all the boxes up and the true present finally showed itself: a set of paintbrushes and a box of regular paints.
At the sight of the art supplies, my eyes started to tear up.
I carefully positioned my fingers around one of the brushes as tears dripped silently down my face. Once upon a time, paintbrushes never left my hands and I painted artwork after artwork, never thinking of the day I would finally stop.
Even during my hard times in the Tanner family, I still saved up and bought some paints and brushes whenever I could. I would lock myself in my room and painted all my dreams and hopes for the future.
Painting remained my one true love until I got replaced by Crystal and got chased out of the Tanner residence. Then, I lost all faith in my skills and truly gave up on my future.
