“You were holding my mouth shut, how could I speak? Elisa looked at the painkillers in the vomit on the floor. I don’t even know if they still have any effect after throwing them up.”
Elisa looked half dead, swaying unsteadily. She leaned completely on Hamish, speaking softly, “If you really care about me, stop asking so many questions and let me lie down to sleep.”
Hamish looked at Elisa with her head lowered, her dark eyelashes resting against her cheeks, curled up in his arms like a cat trying to curry favor.
Elisa had just vomited violently, not only making a mess of him but the bed too. As for Elisa herself, the smell still lingered.
Who would put up with being treated like this?
Hamish was disgusted. After all, they would be sleeping together later. “First wash yourself clean. I’ll have Mrs. Gordon come in and clean up the floor.”
When Elisa was placed in the hot water, she felt like all her pores were opening up. She couldn’t help but shiver a little bit, and the clear eyes filled with even more misty water vapor.
“You reek. Wash yourself clean,” Hamish said after putting her down. He then turned and went back to the bedroom, looking at the vomit on the floor. How annoying. He really couldn’t stop worrying about Elisa. After all, he had never heard of a menstrual period becoming like this.
He called the family doctor and described the situation in detail, telling her to come quickly.
After hanging up, Hamish went out to tell Mrs. Gordon to come upstairs and clean.
Elisa soaked in the hot water, her forehead beaded with sweat. She lay in the bathtub for nearly 20 minutes before the stabbing pain finally eased a bit.
“Done?” Came Hamish’s voice from outside.
Elisa didn’t answer him. She shakily propped herself up and put on a bathrobe.
Hamish didn’t hear a response and wondered if she had fainted from soaking in the hot water for so long.
He pulled open the frosted door in one motion. Elisa stood at the entrance like a freshly unwrapped crystal, her face flushed red from the steam, but still listless overall.
He bent down and picked her up again. “Other than your stomach problems, do you have any other illnesses?”
The doctor had asked this on the phone earlier. Hamish didn’t pay attention to Elisa, so of course he didn’t know the details of her health.
Elisa let him hold her, answering coolly, “Seeing fatty foods recently makes me want to vomit. I have no energy and am always sleepy. With all these symptoms combined, I feel like I probably have hepatitis B. So you’d better stay away from me, don’t let me infect you.”
Hamish dismissed it as her just saying nonsense because she was sick. Hepatitis B, he didn’t take it seriously at all.
Seeing her hold her stomach, he assumed it was just stomach pain. “I told you to stay home and not go out, but you had to go out. Now you know your stomach hurts, right?”
“I’ve known what stomach pain feels like for a long time, no need for you to tell me.”
“Elisa, I’m just concerned about you.”
Concern? She couldn’t hear any concern in his tone at all. Elisa didn’t make a sound, pursing her lips stubbornly like an ox.
Sometimes Hamish wondered if Elisa was sent by God specifically to deal with him. Fortunately he was self-controlled, otherwise with her temper, he would have been angered enough to kill her.
The bed sheets had been changed and it felt very comfortable to lie down. The air conditioner was set to a moderate temperature and it felt cozily warm wrapped in the blanket, making one a bit sleepy.
Just then, Mrs. Gordon brought the family doctor upstairs.
Hearing the noise, Elisa’s pupils contracted as she turned to look over.
“Mr. Burns,” the family doctor was a woman in her forties, wearing glasses and looking rather stern.
Hamish nodded, “Take a look at her and see if you can relieve her pain a bit.”
“I can only get a general idea here and prescribe some medicine. She would need to go to a hospital for a full examination and diagnosis.”
Hamish nodded, “I know. She’s gone to the hospital for examinations before and they didn’t find anything major, just some stomach problems, plus today is the first day of her period.”
The family doctor explained before approaching Elisa.
Elisa was dizzy. From the conversation between the two, she roughly understood this was a doctor Hamish had just called over. She looked at the doctor warily, then glared at Hamish.
Hadn’t she said she didn’t want a doctor? Why did he call one over?
Hamish was just so domineering. When she had liked him before, she thought everything he did was perfect. But now she was sick of him making decisions for her.
But the doctor was already here so she couldn’t just rudely chase the person out. She had basic manners.
Elisa closed her eyes, organized her thoughts, then opened them again to greet the other party.
The family doctor smiled back and took out a business card from her clothes. “Mrs. Burns, I’m the family doctor newly hired by Mr. Burns. Here is my card. Contact me anytime you feel unwell in the future and I’ll be available.”
Elisa reached out to take it and glanced at the surname: “Dr. West, nice to meet you.”
Dr. West began asking Elisa about her symptoms and did a simple check up. Because she didn’t have full medical equipment, she didn’t detect Elisa’s stomach cancer or other issues.
Elisa also tried to be as vague as possible about her condition and symptoms. She felt nauseous because she had been traveling and working hard recently, getting a bit heat stroke.
This kind of explanation was reasonable. Other issues were attributed to having a weak constitution.
Dr. West prescribed several medications, including specialized recuperative formulas and ointments that felt soothingly warm when applied.
Dr. West asked, “Do you normally take any other medications?”
Elisa’s heart jumped. “Yes.”
“May I see them?”
“What’s there to see?” Elisa pressed her lips tight, the corners of her mouth twitching stiffly.
“If she asks you to take them out, then take them out. Don’t drag your feet.” Hamish opened the drawer and took out all the bottles and jars inside. “These are the medications she normally takes.”
Dr. West explained, “I just want to check and see if the new prescriptions will interact with anything.”
Dr. West looked at the bottles, all ordinary health supplements, stomach medicine, painkillers. Nothing that would conflict.
But when she opened one bottle, the pills looked vaguely familiar to her. They didn’t seem like health supplements.
Since it wasn’t her specialty, it was normal not to remember all the details of medications she had seen but not prescribed before, especially with so many bottles.
Besides, the label said it was a health supplement, so there probably wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary. Dr. West didn’t think more of it.
“Medicine is one part poison. Take what I prescribed first, then you can take those supplements.”
Elisa was relieved that the doctor didn’t get suspicious. “Thank you, Dr. West, I understand.”
Dr. West gave a couple reminders, then handed a prescription for Chinese medicine to Hamish and briefly explained the usage.
“Mr. Burns, your wife has a frail constitution that clearly didn’t happen overnight. Make sure she gets plenty of rest, and pay attention to her diet too.”
“How should I pay attention to her diet?” Hamish asked patiently.