The porridge was brought very quickly. Micah carried it to Elisa and said, “This is medicinal porridge, good for the stomach. Eat some if you can.”
Elisa mechanically opened her mouth and swallowed spoonfuls of the porridge Micah fed her. Although it was medicinal porridge, it had a slight sweetness to it, made from millet and cooked very soft and sticky.
Elisa didn’t know how long she had slept. She didn’t feel hungry before, but now that she was eating the porridge, she couldn’t seem to stop. The bowl of porridge was soon finished.
“Do you want more?” Micah asked.
Elisa shook her head, “I’m full now.”
Micah put down the bowl and tucked her in. “Sleep if you’re tired.”
“I can’t sleep,” Elisa looked out the window. “What time is it now?”
“One o’clock,” Micah replied.
Elisa’s expression changed slightly. She furrowed her brows and said hoarsely, “I think I’m fine now. I want to go back.”
“Go back where?” Micah’s expression immediately darkened. “You want to go back to North Bankshire?”
Elisa pressed her lips together and remained silent, her attitude clearly acquiescing to what Micah had said.
Micah was exasperated, feeling somewhat resentful of her stubbornness. “What are you thinking? After how Hamish treated you, you still want to go back! This time he tied you up on the balcony and made you kneel on glass. Next time he might hang you up with ropes! How many lives do you think you have for him to torment?!”
Micah was truly about to go crazy. He even wanted to pry open Elisa’s brain to see how she thought, how she could keep hitting this wall!
“Micah, I know you mean well.”
“You know nothing,” Micah interrupted her words.
Elisa broke in, “I was already half dead, at most I’ll just die a few days early. But I can’t abandon my brother.”
Micah was clever and instantly understood from these words that Hamish was using Ivan to threaten her.
“What does your brother have to do with you? You see him as your brother but who knows if he sees you as his sister. You can’t even take care of yourself, yet you want to care for others. Think about your illness, think about the burdens weighing on you. You have to know the camel wasn’t killed by a single straw!”
Elisa didn’t try to refute him. She looked seriously at Micah, her eyes gradually turning red. “But I don’t want to carry another life on my conscience.”
“My dad died because of me. I don’t want my brother to die too. Micah, I understand what you’re saying, but think about it – I only have a little over a year left, isn’t it worth trading that for their decades of life?”
Elisa lowered her head to look at her scarred hands, recalling the horrific way her father had jumped to his death. Her body shuddered involuntarily.
It was true the camel wasn’t killed by a single straw, but often the last straw played the biggest role.
“A life owed must be repaid. And she could never repay what she owed in this lifetime.”
At this moment Elisa was like a weary camel plodding through the desert. Micah looked at her with a complex expression, his throat tight, at a loss for words.
Elisa valued relationships most, and this was her weakness. Aside from worrying about Ivan, she also feared implicating Micah, like that time Hamish had ruthlessly twisted Micah’s arm in front of her.
That time it was just a twisted arm, but what about next time? Elisa didn’t dare gamble.
“I need to go back,” Elisa emphasized again. “Let me go back.”
“I can let you go back, but can your legs walk right now?”
Elisa tried to move her legs but couldn’t muster any strength at all. Legs like these would surely collapse as soon as they touched the ground.
“Then give me your phone and let me call Hamish.”
Micah took out his phone from his white coat and handed it to Elisa. Seeing her dial, he turned and walked to the window.
The call connected. Elisa swallowed and said hoarsely, “Hamish.”
“Elisa, you still remember to call me?”