Esmé's eyes opened as she gasped, abruptly sitting up. She knows she had her eyes open but it felt like he is seeing nothing but darkness.
She looks around in panic. She couldn't see nor could she hear anything. She is dead, she knows she is. Or she thinks she was supposed to be dead.
But right now, she is on something soft while another...thing is draped on top of her lower body. Her hand grips what is on her. It felt like a soft fabric. It is a blanket.
Her vision slowly brightens. Then, it clears.
Finally, she saw that she is lying on a hospital bed. She turns to her left and saw the heart monitor. She only recognized the beeping sound of her heartbeat from it the moment her eyes saw it.
She knows she was dead. So, how come she is on a hospital bed? Her entire body hurts, and a headache made itself known, so she lays back down. Why is she here and not swallowed by the raging river during that storm?
The pearl necklace that she had swallowed to make sure Dominic couldn't get his hands on it... She really hopes that she still has it even if she had survived.
But, what if he found out what she had done? If she is in the hospital, they might have found out about it right? Panic began to rise up with her. What is she going to do?
The door opens and she turns her gaze towards it. It seems like it was the nurse, who Esmé made direct eye contact with. The panic forgotten for now, as she looks at the nurse in surprise.
There was silence in between them before the nurse gasped. "Ah! You're awake! I'll go get the doctor!"
Before Esmé could say anything or ask a question, the nurse is gone and the door is shut after she left.
There is something familiar about this particular hospital room. It feels as if she had been here before, like an odd sense of déjà vu.
She remembered the same, thin table at the corner of the room, a pair of plastic chairs pushed underneath the very same table. The bedside on her right is filled with a fruit basket of apples and oranges. Both were where they were in her memory. Weird.
There is also a vase filled with red roses and some lavender, her two favorite mixture of natural fragrance, arranged just the way she loved it. Esmé noticed a card on the table, stuck on the fruit basket. The name written after the word 'from' was Abigail.
It was the very same bouquet that her best friend had given her when she was hospitalized, back when she woke up on the 21st of May.
Her eyes widened. Did she went back in time at least a month before her marriage with Dominic?!
If that's the case, the pearl necklace at this time is with Abigail for safekeeping. Esmé would have to contact her in some way to get her necklace back, before Dominic realizes that Abigail has it.
The door opens and just as Esmé expected, in came a doctor. The nurse that saw Esmé awake was nowhere to be found, probably doing rounds on different rooms instead.
"Good afternoon." The doctor greeted. "How are you feeling, Esmé?"
She looks at the doctor before tilting her head at the side slightly. "I feel okay other than the headache. What day is it?"
The doctor writes something down on the clipboard that he had with him. "Today is the 21st of May."
Esmé closed her eyes briefly. She knew it. She did come back. Her arranged marriage had a fixed date of June 24th and no one can stop it. It was a marriage Esmé's parents have done years ago, so she will not be lonely in the future in case they passed.
When she opened her eyes, she nods. "When can I be discharged?"
"You do remember why you're here, right?"
Esmé's eyebrows furrowed a little. "I think so... I fell down the stairs, if I remember correctly."
To her, the memory still seems foggy. It was like the memory is overlapped by another and it became blurry, almost unimportant currently.
Did she really fall down the stairs, or was she pushed? All she remembered was that Dominic and she had been fighting about something.
Suddenly, she fell. Then, nothing.
The doctor nods as he continued to write on the file. "Yes, your fiancé reported that. You had been out for five days straight. The only injury we saw was on your head, and a few light scratches. Thankfully, no broken bones. We will keep you under observation for the night. If everything else seems fine, we can discharge you by tomorrow afternoon."
Esmé takes a deep breath and gave him a thankful smile. "Thank you. And if I could ask a favor, please don't let anyone know I'm awake yet. I would like to be alone until I'm discharged."
If the doctor thought her request is weird, he didn't voice it aloud. Instead, he gave her a smile back. "Very well, I will pass on your request. There will be a nurse that will come to check on you later. Continue to rest in the meantime."
As the doctor left, Esmé eyes her personal phone on the beside table where the fruit basket is on. There is numerous text messages from Dominic, all apologetic from the summary she saw. She didn't open their chat.
Instead, she went straight for her contact to Abigail. She bit her lip, a little hesitant.
The last time she and Abigail spoke was a major fight that ended with their friendship almost cracking in between. Abigail had just found about the arranged marriage and she didn't seem to have taken it well.
That was three months ago. But Abigail send her the flowers and the fruit basket...
Esmé bit her lip nervously, before pushing the call button.