Chapter 3: Going Crazy

After much persuasion from Dr. Monica, the confused Dr. Glenda, and Laera, Eloise finally agreed to carry out the test, even though she found it so absurd, and resentment towards Dr. Glenda slowly crept onto her chest. With tightened lips, anger blazing through her eyes, she sat in the lounge.

“ Who does she think she is? Coming in here like some princess and claiming my daughter is not mine, is she crazy?” Eloise fumed.

Laera glanced over at her, biting her lips and unable to tell her that she was feeling suspicious.

“ She's my daughter, she's mine,” her love and affection for her laughter flashed across her eyes. Her hands curled up into a ball, fisting her hand as her chest rose and fell with determination and assurance that Alisha was hers. She's a mother who doesn't toy with her child, and she's not planning on forgiving Glenda for her ludicrous claims.

Eloise felt her phone ringing inside her bag and reached out for it, a pinch of wrinkle plastered on her face as she saw the name of the doctor taking care of her grandfather appear on the screen. She swallowed as she swiped to answer.

“ Hello,” she said and awaited the response that caused her face to drop.

Laera was startled by the sudden jump of Eloise, who gave it a run without saying anything to her or answering when she called after her. Laera stood confused; she had no idea where she was running to, but she decided to stay behind and wait for the return of Dr. Monica and Dr. Glenda.

The message had come like a bolt of lightning, sharp, sudden, and utterly paralyzing, but she didn't stay frozen. Her legs moved before her mind caught up, carrying her through hospital corridors that felt too long, too sterile, too calm for the storm that had just erupted inside her.

The ward where he was being treated happened to be in a different section, but the same hospital. The nurses glanced up as she passed, startled by the desperation in her eyes, but no one stopped her.

Her breaths came in ragged gasps, pain lancing through her chest, not from the running, but from the ache threatening to swallow her whole. The ward door finally came into view, looming ahead like a final threshold. She shoved through it, her footsteps echoing loudly and unsteadily. And then, stillness.

There he was.

His body lay covered, still and cold, and the air was thick with antiseptic and silence.

“ Grandpa?” The word came out heavily as her trembling hand reached out to him under the sheet. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she received no response.

He was gone.

“ Gran. Grandpa?” Her lips trembled as tears streamed down her cheeks, her nose become runny, and her chest felt so tight. She shook his body as if it'd wake him up, but the body felt so cold against her palm, unbearably cold.

“ We're so sorry,” she heard the doctor mutter, her head hung as she wept. Apart from her husband and daughter, he's the only family member of hers left, and now he's gone too.

“ He asked us to give this to you, before he died,” his doctor said and handed over the wristwatch to her.

She cried out louder as she took it from him. It was her grandfather's favourite wristwatch; he was someone who believed in everything superstitious, be it ghosts, demons, time capsules, anything paranormal. He was a free, funny man with the heart of gold. Eloise cried bitterly as she remembered.

(Flashback)

“ Cute pa,” Eloise called giggling as she pecked him on the cheek,

“ My favorite fox,” he called, beaming ear to ear upon seeing her. She laughed upon hearing her favorite nickname given by him, “ Miss me?”

“ Always, even though I saw you this morning,”

“ Haha, even though you love these, your possessions more than me,”

“ That's not true,” he pouted,

“ It is,” she feigned jealousy, “ especially this, your wrist watch, did you ever take it off?”

“ No,” he shook his head and burst into laughter, “ don't you know time is precious, I have to always check the time, and sometimes when life seems so hard, and suffocating, your only rescue is time.”

(End of flashback)

Eloise clutched the watch close to her chest and wept bitterly. The watch he so cherishes now lies in her hands; she could no longer call him ‘cute pa’ anymore, and he could no longer clean his possessions excessively like he always does. Eloise felt utterly alone; This was the moment she needed Mason the most. This was the moment she wished at least Tamara, her best friend, would be by her side, cause she feared she might run out of air with how tightening and suffocating her chest felt.

**

Hours had passed, Eloise dragged her feet out of the sterile room, with her shoulders dropped, dried tears plastered on her face, red nose and red swollen eyes, her hair was as messy as it could ever be, and she didn't bother brushing the strand of hair over her face off. All she wanted at this moment was to collapse into Mason's arms, his arms that are her home of comfort, she needed him to pat her hair, pull her into his big arms like he always does.

“ Eloise.”

She stopped walking and slowly looked up at Laera, who had just called her. She was standing beside Monica and Glenda, and they all gave her a look of pity.

‘Is it right to tell her now? God, she's grieving, this will ruin her,’ Laera said worriedly in her mind, hating the situation more than anything she's ever hated.

Without saying anything, Dr. Monica stretched the brown envelope towards her, but all she did for about three seconds was stare at it before taking it from her with her trembling hand.

Eloise felt her chest being stabbed from the stomach as she tore the envelope open and took out the white sheet. Then her eyes scanned the result.

Her eyes brimmed with tears as the sheet shook between her trembling hands.

“ What's this supposed to mean?” Her voice came out fiercely, laced with fear that caused her voice to shake. She shook her head, rejecting everything she read, scrambling to make sense of it.

“ It must be a mistake,” she said with a shaken voice, shaking her head and stretching the paper back to them.

“ It's the truth, Mrs Eloise, Alisha is not your baby.”

“ Don't! Stop. She's mine, she's my child, so take this thing back.” Her throat felt blocked, and her head banged.

“ I don't know exactly how it feels, but I know it hurts, a truth no one would want to accept, but the result can't lie, Alisha's HFI also says a lot,” Monica added,

Eloise made to speak, but all that came out was heavy air; her knees buckled, and she sank onto the floor. Fighting to breathe, she felt the room spinning as she replayed every memory.

Alisha’s cries, the late-night feeding, the lullabies, the tiny hand wrapped around her finger, the laughter, the milestone. How could she not be her daughter?

She shook her head in denial and made to speak but no word escaped her mouth.

“ Ah, ah!” Then she let out a deep wail that tore from her chest. A grief she never knew existed claws through her, savage and raw. Her head vibrated like she was on the verge of losing her sanity.

Mourning three loved ones at the same time, the one she loved since her childhood, the one she lost and didn't know she lost, and the one she can't let go of.

“ No,” she shook her head vigorously, “ I sang to her, she cried when I left the room- she knows my voice,” tears spilled down her cheeks, hot and unrelenting.

Glenda knelt beside her, her eyes welling up with tears as she watched Eloise cry out her soul, “ I'm sorry,” she whispered, “ I thought you knew, I thought your husband told you,”

“ Ma.mason? He knew?” she cracked.

Glenda nodded, sniffling.

Eloise shook her head, not knowing what to feel, with her heart sinking to the bottom of her chest.

“ There's no way he'd know and not tell me, and this test is fake! If she's not mine, then who's?” she asked angrily, yelling more like a plea for them not to drive her insane.

“ I think the best person to answer that is your husband, Mason.”