Elisa had a broken leg, but her ears worked just fine. She heard Lila on the phone with Hamish, though she couldn’t quite make out the details. Elisa remained unresponsive. Hamish, unfazed, had grown accustomed to Elisa’s cold demeanor over the past few weeks. Although it pained him, he recognized that her current state, considering her previous struggles, was a vast improvement.
After Hamish left, Mrs. Rugger took over, pushing Elisa’s wheelchair forward. At that moment, a nurse approached Elisa directly.
“Miss Powell, someone asked me to pass on a message to you,” the nurse said.
Elisa didn’t react, but Mrs. Rugger froze. She understood that in such a situation, it was best to pretend not to have heard or seen anything.
Elisa raised her hand and patted Mrs. Rugger’s hand. It was the first time in ten days that she had spoken. Her voice was hoarse as she said, “Mrs. Rugger, step back a bit. I need to speak to her.”
Mrs. Rugger hesitated. “But…”
“Don’t worry, nothing will happen. Just stand back and watch me,” Elisa assured her.
“Alright.” Mrs. Rugger released the wheelchair and walked about twenty or thirty steps away, stopping around ten meters from them.
The nurse leaned in close to Elisa’s ear and whispered a few words. Elisa’s eyelashes trembled slightly as she kept her eyes lowered, and her hand resting on her knee tightened.
Once the nurse finished, without a second thought, Elisa spoke directly, “I choose 2. Also, pass a message to him for me.”
The nurse, taken aback, nodded, without asking further questions. She then turned and walked away without arousing any suspicion.
In the afternoon, a driver sent by Hamish arrived to take Elisa from the hospital.
Hamish instructed the butler to prepare a room on the ground floor for Elisa’s convenience.
Elisa went straight to the villa and moved into the room on the first floor, which was identical to the one she had slept in on the second floor.
That evening, when Hamish returned, he brought dessert for Elisa. She had always had a sweet tooth and loved all kinds of pastries. Hamish had brought her a piece of matcha cake. With one hand, he placed it on the table and scooped up a spoonful, offering it to Elisa, “Would you like some? I had someone queue to buy it today. I heard it’s really good.”
Elisa gazed blankly outside the window, showing no reaction until the cake was brought to her mouth. Mechanically, she opened her mouth to eat.
Her movements were stiff, resembling those of an old, rusted machine. Even eating a piece of cake seemed strained, and her mouth was soon filled with it.
“Is it good?” Hamish, not particularly fond of sweets, found himself feeling a bit hungry as he watched Elisa eat. Seeing cream at the corner of her mouth, his dark pupils grew deeper, and finally, he leaned in to kiss her, capturing the cream in the process.
It was too sweet…
Elisa remained silent. Hamish continued to feed her the cake, and she ate as much as he offered, until she choked, leaning over the wheelchair, retching.
Hamish’s expression shifted, and he fetched water and tissues, cleaning up the mess. It took some time to tidy everything up.
The taste of vomit was unpleasant. Elisa drank water, her mouth agape, causing it to spill from her lips, wetting her collar.
With a towel in hand, Hamish wiped her neck and face, expressing his guilt, “I’m sorry I couldn’t take better care of you…”
Running his fingers through Elisa’s hair, he said, “At the latest, in three months, your illness will be cured. Elisa, you say you’re already in hell, well then, I’ll accompany you there. And with time, when we get used to hell, it won’t feel like hell anymore.”
“For the next three months, no matter what happens, don’t believe it,” Hamish said, bending down to help Elisa onto the bed.
Three days remained until Hamish’s engagement. Over these two days, Hamish grew increasingly busy, often returning home very late, unseen for the entire day.
The cast on his hand had been removed, and the wound had healed, but the nerves hadn’t fully recovered. Occasionally, he would feel a stabbing pain in the palm of his left hand, as if being pricked by needles.
He retrieved a scarf from the closet and placed it around Elisa’s neck. “I knitted this scarf last winter at the hospital. I never got to give it to you after you woke up, as the weather turned warmer,” he said, speaking to himself. There was no response from her, and he found himself muttering as if he were a madman.
Hamish sighed and was called away by another phone call. As he left, he reminded the household to take good care of Elisa as usual, asking Mrs. Rugger to speak with her more to keep her spirits up.
In fact, Mrs. Rugger had been trying her best to console Elisa every day. She didn’t know the specifics of how Elisa’s leg had been broken, only that it was due to a car accident, leaving her leg disabled and confined to a wheelchair, with little hope of recovery.
A perfectly fine person, who had even personally brewed a pot of tonic and brought it to the hospital for Hamish, had somehow ended up in a car accident. Mrs. Rugger couldn’t understand it.
Recently, Mrs. Rugger had been knitting a light yellow sweater. It was her daughter’s favorite color. The ragdoll cat Mimi watched curiously, thinking it was a toy. Sometimes Mimi would reach out to grab the yarn, or play with the light yellow ball of yarn, making a mess everywhere.
Mimi was playful and fearless, a little master in the mansion. It loved playing with Elisa, but now Elisa barely paid it any attention. It rolled around on the floor, trying to attract her attention, occasionally licking her hand and softly meowing, melting everyone’s hearts.
Mrs. Rugger, watching the tangled mess of yarn, couldn’t help but exclaim, “You, why are you so mischievous?”
She neatly put the yarn into a bag Mimi couldn’t reach and then massaged Elisa’s legs. “Elisa, we should try to be happy in life. After all, whether we’re happy or not, a day still passes. So why not make ourselves happy? You’re only making your condition worse by dwelling on it. As the saying goes, it’s better to be alive and unsatisfied than to be dead.”
Elisa, watching Mimi rolling around joyfully on the carpet, unconsciously murmured, “Then tell me how to be happy.”
Mrs. Rugger’s nose tingled, and she sighed silently, lowering her head to hide the tears in her eyes. She was the one trying to comfort Elisa, but every time, she ended up with red eyes. It seemed better not to comfort her at all.
Elisa undid the scarf that Hamish had tied around her neck and tossed it to the floor. “A broken rope will always have knots no matter how it’s tied.”
The room fell silent.
To distract herself, Mrs. Rugger turned on the television with the remote. Just as she did, a news segment about Lila and Hamish’s upcoming engagement appeared.
Mrs. Rugger wanted to turn it off, but it was too late. They both knew that Hamish was going to be engaged to another woman, except Elisa.
“This…,” Mrs. Rugger was flustered. She wanted to explain, but didn’t know how to broach the subject. After all, the truth was right in front of them. Did she need to comfort Elisa and tell her not to be upset?
A “legal wife” was suddenly becoming the other woman.
“Their engagement banquet is the day after tomorrow?” Elisa tugged at the corners of her mouth. For the first time in many days, she smiled and murmured, “An engagement, huh… I should prepare something unforgettable for his engagement ceremony.”