Chapter 3. When She Closed Her Eyes

“It’s okay, Cindy. It’s fine, really,” Daisy said lowly with a knowing look, trying to stiffen out a smile.

“I’ll be back soon,” Cindy sighed, but Daisy shook her head. “No, you should rest, Cindy.”

“I’m so grateful, Cindy, you’re the best friend ever. But could you not make me feel like a burden? Please go home and rest. My mum is going to be fine. I have strong fate in her will to live and her love for her family.”

Cindy nodded in agreement. “I believe she would fight through.”

Then with a final wave at the two, Cindy turned around and walked away.

Daisy watched Cindy walk away and couldn’t help but sigh.

“You should go home and rest too, Edward,” she raised her head to stare at her boyfriend, who had an arm firmly holding her waist.

“And why should I do that?” He scoffed, feeling slightly offended.

Daisy shrugged helplessly, and with that, they continued their journey.

They were initially on their way out, but Daisy suddenly said she wanted to go into her mum’s ward again before leaving. Edward obliged, changed routes, and both went towards the VIP ward.

Soon, a nurse appeared in the corridor and began approaching in the opposite direction. She had the blue hospital mask on, making it difficult to mark her face.

Daisy wasn’t at first bothered about who she was until their eyes met. Those eyes looked as dark and cold as an abyss, and for some unknown reason, she felt her heart skip.

Her eyes were dark grey, and they felt oddly strange but familiar like she had seen those eyes somewhere.

Dark-grey eyes…

She tried to remember but couldn’t. Instead, her head hurt.

The nurse held her gaze for seconds before peeling her eyes away. Then, they passed each other wordlessly.

The nurse is blonde with fringes, with her bob gently brushing her shoulders. As hard as Daisy racked her memory, she knew no one in that description. She wondered why her presence made her feel so alarmed and anxious that her heart had raced hard when she passed by her.

Suddenly remembering she had been feeling paranoid and overreacting since her mum’s sudden surgery, Daisy huffed and brushed it off.

‘I was definitely overreacting,’ she concluded.

Unknown to her, Edward had been frozen for a few seconds when he met those eyes, but he shrugged it off. Anyone could have dark-grey eyes anyways, and her hair was totally unfamiliar to him.

And even though those eyes looked familiar, he did not want to admit it. Besides, he didn’t want to have anything to do with the woman from his past.

He felt slightly guilty thinking about her, but things had changed now anyways.

Daisy walked warily into the ward, and Edward let go of her.

She adapted to the low lights, then stared at the cords everywhere, the unfinished IV solution hanging on a drip stand, and the sterilized tools in a tray before her gaze finally settled on the bed. She took slow steps towards the bed her mum had laid on, knelt by it, and buried her face in the white sheets as her heart thumbed heavily.

She inhaled her mum’s saint, now mixed with antiseptics, and her tiny drop of tears fell on the sheets.

Her shoulders began trembling, and soon, she felt a hand gently part her shoulder. Edward was now kneeling beside her as she cried silently.

The dark grey-eyed nurse walked out of the hospital building to the parking lot, her blue mask hiding a great deal of her face, her initial cold eyes showing a mix of emotions.

She unlocked her black SUV, got into it, and placed her hands on the steering wheel with a huff.

She could not believe herself.

The hate she thought she had built up for him over the years could not stop her heart from skipping when she passed by them, and what is this rush of jealousy she was feeling now?

Just then, her eyes went cold again, and she scoffed.

‘This is it. I am not stopping.’ She gripped tightly unto the steering wheel, her gaze cold, murderous, and unyielding.

‘I have started anyways.’

Back at the hospital’s recovery room, Mrs. Louis slowly opened her eyes.

It felt like she had gone on a long journey and seen a vision. And while the nurse monitoring her went out to call the doctors, her blurry vision stared deep ahead with her heart trembling with fear. Her face was pale and white as death.

She had always prepared herself to embrace death anytime it came since she first discovered she had chronic breast cancer. But now, things have changed. She didn’t want to die again.

Daisy was in trouble, she had seen it, but death was knocking. She wanted to at least warn her daughter of the scores of burning arrows she was going to pass through soon, but how could she do that when death was hovering over her like the heat of sexual pleasure?

At that, tears strayed down her eyes from the corner of her eyes down both sides of her face.

Doctors soon filed into the room, and as they fixed their gazes on the monitor and other machines connected to her. Suddenly, it made an alarming screeching noise, and she could vaguely hear the senior doctor soon exclaim, “Get the defibrillator. It’s a cardiac arrest.”

Then there were footsteps, pushing of machines and equipment being pressed against her chest.

“Charge 17 joules. Shock!”

“Charge 20 joules. Shock!”

“Charge 30 joules. Shock!”

But she was slowly embracing death. As their noises faded away, the last thing she heard was the thin noise from the monitor.

She didn’t want to die just yet. She wanted at least to warn her daughter.

‘Daisy… b..be careful,’ she could only say that in her mind as two more drops of tears strayed down her face. She could not even voice a word out.

How would Daisy hear now?

Who would help her out?

Who would protect her daughter?