Chapter 200 Death Was Her Only Relief
When Courtney woke up the next morning, the sky was already bright. A ray of sunlight poured in from the window and shone on her face. She instinctively raised her hands to cover herself for a while before sitting up.
There was a slight scraping sound coming from outside the car.
“What are you doing?” Courtney got down from the car and was astonished to see Alexander standing in front of the car’s fuel tank, fiddling with a plastic tube.
Alexander spared her a glance. “Refueling.”
A white tube connected his fuel tank to that of the car behind them, and it gurgled as the fuel was transferred.
Courtney’s car couldn’t start, and Alexander’s was out of gas, so they could only use whatever resources they had.
“Huh? I guess that works.” After understanding the mechanics of the situation, her eyes darted back and forth. “That’s not right. Last night, these two cars were far apart. Why are they so close now?”
Alexander looked at her once more. “A shepherd passed by this morning and helped me push it over.”
“Really? The locals here are so nice.”
“He charged me a thousand.”
Hearing this shut Courtney up, but she couldn’t help but frown.
Why does Alexander seem angry so early in the morning? He was so ill-tempered when he spoke to her. Did I offend him somehow?
Alexander lowered his head to adjust the tube, then wiped his hands and straightened his back. “Eldham Town is a thirty-kilometer drive from here. It’s not far, so you can have something to eat first. There are still some mooncakes and water in the car.”
“I’m not hungry.” Courtney gave a shake of her head. “Plus, it’s only another thirty kilometers. We can drive there later and I’ll treat you to breakfast. Apparently, the fish fillet porridge there is particularly delicious.”
Only then did a small smile find its way onto Alexander’s face. “All right.”
Somehow, the events of the previous night felt hazy to Courtney. She didn’t even consume any alcohol; perhaps the cold wind had made her mind sluggish. But, she did recall carelessly reconciling with Alexander.
The one thing she was certain of was that Alexander had apologized to her.
However, since the dignified president could humble himself and apologize, she wasn’t going to make a fuss.
After the car was filled with fuel, the two of them got back on the road and headed toward Eldham Town.
After driving for about ten kilometers, they were nearing the foot of the mountain, and their phones finally got reception.
“D*mn! So many missed calls!”
Looking at all the missed calls from Cameron, Courtney felt her scalp go numb. I’m screwed. There’s an eighty percent chance that she’ll scold my ears off.
Seeing that Gale had contacted her as well, she hesitated for a moment before calling him back.
Before she could think of what to say, he had already picked up. “Hello? Courtney?”
“It’s me…” Courtney almost couldn’t make out that the voice on the other end belonged to Gale. His voice was as hoarse as a duck whose neck had been trampled on. “Gale? We’re fine. Alexander’s here with me. Sorry to trouble you—”
“Does Cam have a history of depression?” Gale’s words cut her off mid-sentence.
Both ends of the phone remained deathly silent for a moment.
“What happened? Why do you ask?” Courtney looked serious, but she tried to keep her voice calm.
There was a few seconds of silence, then Gale’s sobs sounded. “She passed out in front of me last night. When she woke up, it was like she was a different person. She said that she was a knight, then she took the doctor’s stethoscope and said it was her sword…”
As she listened to Gale’s sporadic descriptions, Courtney felt as if she had just suffered a heavy blow. Her mind went blank for a while before she came back to her senses. “She’s relapsing again.”
That one single, concise sentence was enough to answer Gale’s initial question.
Cameron had depression, and it was severe.
This was the reason why she fooled around all the time, and it was the same reason why she offered her love genuinely, but never committed herself. This was also why she dated so wildly, but never once dared to go one step further. This was the side of her that no one understood or would’ve thought she had.
After hanging up, Courtney let out a long sigh.
She had been holding this breath for a long time, but now that it was finally released, it didn’t make her feel any more comfortable.
During the call, she had briefly explained some of the symptoms of her illness. The last thing she told Gale was, “Please take care of her for two days. I’ll go back immediately after I finish handling things here.”
Alexander didn’t ask her anything but simply picked up the pace. Thirty kilometers wasn’t a long distance, but it wasn’t short either. Whatever the case, they would not arrive there in an instant.
Leaning back in her chair, Courtney stayed silent for a long while. “I thought that I could keep this secret to myself for a long time. Now, it seems that I’ll have to tell you, and you can pass it on to Gale.”
“Okay.” Alexander held the steering wheel; his slender fingers were distinctly attractive. His attitude was indifferent—like an outsider who wasn’t nosy or curious.
That was why Courtney felt at ease telling him about this.
“Cameron has previously suffered from two episodes of depression. The first was when she was fifteen; she was in her sophomore year then. Her parents had gotten divorced, and she had followed her mother, who remarried a well-groomed university professor…”
Cameron didn’t have a happy childhood. Her parents were always arguing, and she had spent more than a decade living such a life. So, she was supportive of her parents’ divorce, but she didn’t expect that the divorce would only toss her from a fire pit into an abyss.
Her stepfather, the university professor, was young and clever. He obtained the professional title of ‘The Grand Slam’ at the age of forty. Despite all that, this man would sneak into his stepdaughter’s bedroom when his wife wasn’t home.
“I’ve never seen Cameron during an episode before, but she told me about her condition when it happens. When it got serious, she would imagine herself as a brave knight that had come to save the princess from an evil dragon, and she would imagine having a mighty sword. She would feel frightened of everything that felt strange to her, and she would lose night after night of sleep.”
While she told the story, Courtney deliberately omitted one part. Nevertheless, judging from Alexander’s intelligence, he must have been able to guess the root of Cameron’s illness, which was the vile experience she had to endure.
“During the later stages, the symptom that every person with depression suffered from would show itself—she was suicidal. She couldn’t bear to continue living because she didn’t think that there was anything left in this world worth living for. She thought that death was her only relief. At this point, she wouldn’t listen to anything anyone had to say, and someone would have to watch her around the clock.”
Even a tube of toothpaste could be used as a weapon to cut her wrists.
“There are quite a few tattoos on Cameron’s body, but before they became tattoos, they were all wounds.” Courtney’s voice had turned into sobs now. “How could a girl like her—a girl who had fought so bravely when I was drugged in the bar overseas—have such a disease?”
“Is this why she rejected Gale?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
Courtney closed her eyes, then lowered her head and wiped away the tears. “No one can bear the weight of her life.”
Alexander breathed out a pained sigh, then pulled two tissues from the side and handed them to her.
“It’s too late to say anything now.”
At this moment, he figured that it was impossible to ask Gale to stand aside and let go of this situation.
