He walked in, trying to soften his tone. “Your body still needs time to recover. Don’t move around until you’re healed. I’ll only worry about you if you do.” He stepped closer, reaching out as if to brush my hair back. “Luckily, Nivianne’s hand wasn’t badly hurt. No bones broken. Just a bandage and she’ll be fine. If it had been worse, Anika, you wouldn’t have been forgiven.”
My chest tightened, but not from pain. So that was it. For a scraped hand, he had forced me to the edge of death, left me bleeding and forgotten while the only doctor was chained to her bedside. And now he stood here pretending to worry about me? Pretending that this was love?
It was almost funny if it wasn’t so cruel.
I stepped back out of his reach, my eyes cold, my voice sharp. “Get out.”
He blinked like he hadn’t heard me right. “What did you say?”
I clenched my teeth, forcing the words out again, steady and clear. “I said get out. I don’t want to see you.”
Wilbert’s face twisted so fast I thought he was about to explode.
“You’re really gonna yell at me first? Anika, you should be on your knees thanking me that Nivianne is fine. If something happened to her, do you even realize how serious that would be? You almost killed someone! You think you’re the victim here? Reflect on yourself! I’m not coming back again.”
He slammed the door so hard the walls shook. I let out a bitter laugh and closed my eyes. I was too tired to waste more breath on him.
.....
The day I got discharged, I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t want him to know where I went. Instead of heading home, I walked down the quiet corridor to check on my brother and my father. My brother’s bones were shattered, and my father hadn’t opened his eyes in months. The brain aneurysm had left him trapped in silence, barely clinging to life. They shared a small ward, and every time I pushed that door open, I prayed for a miracle.
But this time something felt wrong. I froze at the doorway. A figure was standing at the bed, back to me, shoulders stiff. The more I stared, the more my stomach sank. I knew that body.
“Nivianne! What the hell are you doing!”
I ran to my father’s bedside and shoved her aside. A syringe hit the floor with a sharp clink, and when I looked up, I saw my father’s oxygen mask pulled halfway off his face. My whole body shook with rage.