Hamish could tell that Elisa was in a bad mood at the moment, so he changed the subject: “Now that you’re alone at home, would you like to hire a maid to take care of you?”
“No need, I have hands and feet, I don’t need anyone to take care of me.” Elisa drank the soup in her bowl listlessly, her mind wandering.
“You can choose a maid yourself, it’s also good to have someone at home to talk to you.” He genuinely considered Elisa’s well-being. The psychiatrist had also mentioned that her current condition was not fully recovered, and she had a tendency to isolate herself, so she needed someone to accompany her.
But he couldn’t be by her side every moment. He hadn’t been to the company for a month, and there were piles of documents that needed his signature and handling. There were also social engagements that required his personal presence.
Elisa had changed a lot since she was discharged from the hospital. Her gentle and kind nature had turned into inexplicable bursts of anger. Before, when she was upset, she would tease Hamish a bit, but now she would just hide in a corner. If he didn’t keep an eye on her, she would have self-inflicted wounds on her hands.
Elisa obviously didn’t want his concern: “If you were gentler when you hit me, I would be fine by now.”
Domestic violence happens zero times or countless times. In the past, Hamish would slap her at most. But since the Powell family fell, he had become increasingly ruthless towards her. He would lock her in the bedroom without food, chain her to the balcony with handcuffs to endure the cold wind against the glass, and now he even threw her from the second floor.
From such a height, throwing her down the stairs directly, if there was an accident and she hit her head, she could suffer a cerebral hemorrhage and die. Losing a child like her was already a minor consequence.
Hamish glanced at her and lowered his head to drink the soup.
Elisa propped up her face and looked at the dishes on the table, her thoughts drifting away. Hamish furrowed his brow slightly and asked, “Does it not suit your taste?”
“I have no appetite, I can’t eat.” Now even delicious food in her mouth felt like chewing wax, she couldn’t swallow it.
“Even if you can’t eat, you still have to eat. How can you go out without being full? Do you want to be confined at home forever?”
After lunch, Hamish took the bowls and chopsticks to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and looked at the fruits he had bought today. The grapes this season were sweet, large, and dark purple.
He washed a plate of grapes and placed it in front of Elisa. Taking care of Elisa for a month had become a habit for him. He skillfully peeled and deseeded a grape, then held the fruit with his fingertips and brought it to Elisa’s lips. “Try it.”
Elisa frowned, her expression impatient. She turned her face away and said, “It’s disgusting.”
Hamish remained cold and calm, “I fed you like this when you were in the hospital.”
“I won’t eat.”
Hamish smiled and threw the grapes in his hand into the trash can, then took out a tissue to wipe his hands. “If you don’t want to eat, that’s fine. But you should eat more fruits. You can’t just not eat anything.”
Hamish had a germophobia and was not good at taking care of others. For someone like him, who was arrogant and unruly, it would be quite shocking for people who knew him to see him peeling grapes and feeding someone.
Hamish was not a person who didn’t do any housework, but he wasn’t very skilled at it. After finishing washing the dishes, he took out his phone and called Tobias to arrange for a maid to come over. He preferred someone around Elisa’s age who was diligent and honest in doing household chores.
Finding a maid in her early twenties was quite difficult, let alone meeting Hamish’s high standards. Tobias nodded in agreement and hung up the phone to start recruiting.
Elisa sat on the sofa outside and listened to Hamish’s phone conversation clearly. She didn’t think Hamish was considerate; she only felt annoyed. She had clearly told him that she didn’t need anyone to take care of her, but he insisted on arranging someone.
He said it was to take care of her and keep her company, but in reality, it was to monitor her actions. She felt no different from a prisoner.
The more Elisa felt irritated, the more restless she became. Her stomach began to ache, and she covered it with her hands. She curled up on the sofa, with her feet propped up and her chin resting on her knees.
Hamishdidn’t expect his attempt to be counterproductive. When he came out after the phone call, he saw Elisa staring at the stairs. His heart trembled, worried that her continuous gaze at the stairs would trigger the fear and trauma from that day.
As he approached, he realized that Elisa’s gaze was vacant, as if she was staring at the stairs but not really seeing anything. Her eyes were simply fixated on a random spot.
“Elisa,” he called her.
Elisa snapped out of her daze and shifted her gaze to the window on the left.
Elisa held a grudge against him in her heart. There were many barriers between them, and even the loss of two lives couldn’t bridge that gap. While the doctor was hypnotizing Elisa, Hamish was thinking of ways to make her lose her memory.
But even if Elisa didn’t remember those things, he would remember and could never forget.
For example, those stairs. Even though they had been cleaned, he still felt them covered in blood. He could even sense the presence of a small lost soul floating there.
Hamish rubbed his temples with his hand, feeling a slight pain when he pressed down. He must have been exhausted lately, otherwise why would he be thinking about such things?
But he could somewhat understand why Elisa would look out the window and feel like there was a crying child. Because that sound came from within her heart.
The next morning, Hamish woke Elisa up for breakfast. He found a short-sleeved shirt and jeans for her to change into and took her to Goodlife Orphanage.
Elisa leaned her chin on her hand and looked out the window. When she saw a cake shop, she spoke up and asked Hamish to stop by the roadside.
“Stop the car, I want to buy a cake.”
Hamish complied and parked the car by the side of the road. The two of them entered the cake shop together.
Elisa remembered that she had promised Autumn to bring something delicious, so she thought it would be convenient to buy cakes from this shop on the way. She bought a total of sixty cakes, spending nearly two thousand.
Carrying bags of various sizes, Hamish put the cake bags in the trunk.
It was Hamish’s first time visiting an orphanage. He had heard in previous years that Elisa had sponsored many orphans, which slightly changed his perception of her.
On the passenger seat, Elisa glanced at the sign of the orphanage through the window. “I want to be alone.”
Hamish turned his head and glanced at her. “What’s wrong? Do you feel embarrassed to be seen with me?”