Elisa was in a daze, listening to the words spoken by Hamish. “In the future, you can have as many children as you want,” he had said. She remembered the disgusting things Hamish had said earlier in the day when he brought Lila to her hospital room.
Shaking her head, Elisa stared out the window with reddened eyes. She mumbled, her throat choked with sobs. Suddenly, Elisa let out a hoarse scream and burst into tears.
In an instant, everything fell apart. Elisa forcefully pushed herself backward, catching Hamish off guard, narrowly avoiding biting his own tongue. Hamish quickly wrapped one arm tightly around Elisa’s upper body and reached for the emergency bell on the wall behind him.
Worried that Elisa might harm herself, he grabbed her wrists and held them tightly, restraining her in his embrace. He had never comforted anyone before, not even showing much tenderness to Lila. Now, faced with Elisa’s sudden madness, he felt helpless and anxious.
Fortunately, a nurse arrived after hearing the bell and brought a sedative, recognizing that there was a situation in the room. After administering the sedative, Elisa’s entire body went limp. She held her stomach, murmuring in pain, curling up like a shrimp. Tears streamed down her face, wetting Hamish’s shirt on his chest in no time.
“Why is she screaming in pain?” the nurse’s expression turned somewhat grim. “She underwent an abortion earlier today, so it’s normal for her to feel pain during recovery. But why did she suddenly wake up and scream like this?”
Involuntarily, the nurse and the doctor in the room turned their gaze to Hamish. Their meaningful looks were full of implications, as if he had just committed some unforgivable act.
Even images of a man forcing himself upon a patient in bed flashed through Hamish’s mind. His heart was solely focused on Elisa, paying no attention to the naked scrutiny of others. He watched Elisa’s damp hair, soaked with cold sweat, and his heart ached as if pricked by needles.
“Can we give her painkillers? She’s in pain,” Hamish asked. The doctor nodded, as painkillers were readily available and they all carried them. Upon hearing Hamish’s request, the doctor directly prescribed a pill for Elisa to take.
The nurse couldn’t contain her curiosity and asked Hamish, “What happened? Everything was fine before, right? What did you do to her again?”
The use of “again” in her question was quite cunning, and Hamish couldn’t ignore it. Faced with their questioning gazes, he explained the events: “She suddenly sat up and said she heard a child crying outside the window. She wanted to go out.”
The doctor’s face stiffened upon hearing this, a hint of gravity in her expression. “What’s wrong?” Hamish asked in a rare nervous tone.
The doctor shook her head without saying a word. Some things couldn’t be discussed in front of the patient. She looked at Elisa with a touch of pity.
The more the doctor acted this way, the more unsettled Hamish felt. He was filled with an indescribable discomfort, scratching at his heart and liver. However, from the way the doctor looked at Elisa, he could roughly understand what was going on.
Once the sedative and painkiller took effect, and Elisa closed her eyes and fell asleep, Hamish went to the nurse’s station to continue questioning the doctor about Elisa’s current condition.
“She’s experiencing hallucinations. The impact of the abortion on her is significant, and it’s highly likely to be a manifestation of split personality. We haven’t conducted a formal examination to confirm it yet, but I can only say it’s a possibility,” the doctor spoke, but from her tone, Hamish could sense that this possibility had already become a certainty.
He staggered back, retreating a step. His eyes were vacant, clearly unable to believe that Elisa’s condition had deteriorated to this extent.
“How is this possible? She clearly didn’t care about that child. She even said she was disgusted to be pregnant with my child. Even if this incident hadn’t occurred, she would have gotten an abortion. So how could Elisa develop split personality because of this ‘insignificant’ child?”
Hamish muttered to himself, wearing an expression of disbelief. The doctor felt puzzled by his reaction and said straightforwardly, “But that’s the reality. She couldn’t bear to part with that child, and even after the abortion, she started experiencing hallucinations.”
Closing his eyes tightly, Hamish clenched his hand on his thigh with force. He had thought that Elisa despised his child so much that, out of revenge, he even brought Lila in front of her, discussing having more children as if it were a trivialmatter of breeding animals.