Chapter 1

I tried to open my eyes, but a heavy sensation weighed them down, preventing me from doing so. It felt as though I was confined within my own body, unable to move. I struggled again, but it was all in vain.

When I managed to blink them open, the rays of the sun coming from the window made me regret my decision, and I hurriedly shut them closed.

I wasn’t one to give up, so I tried again, squinting my eyes to reduce the light, but it only brought more discomfort.

My senses were dulled, as if I were submerged in a pool of water, unable to escape its grasp. My throat hurt as I tried to take a deep breath, and a weak cough left me, but even that was enough to leave me drained and tired.

I tried to turn my head around to figure out where I was, but that was a horrible mistake because pain flared up from every part of my body.

It triggered the machine because it began to go off, blaring warning sounds, and I cringed. The noise was too much for me to bear.

I was too lost trying to get the noise to stop when I heard a faint shuffling and a chair creak. I could hear footsteps approaching, and without warning, there was a figure leaning over me.

My thoughts were muddled from whatever they had given me, and I couldn’t exactly think well, but everything in me could tell that this man in front of me was handsome.

I tried to focus my weak eyes on him, but it was more than I could handle, and I settled for his clothes.

He was dressed in a dark suit, although I couldn’t tell if it was black or dark blue. But it fit him well. I returned my gaze to his mouth to see that it had been moving all this time.

My face must have given it away because his mouth stopped moving and he looked at me. “I think it is better I call a nurse.” I thought I heard him say. I wasn’t sure because my brain was still muddled. But one thing I was sure of was his charming smile.

The blurry handsome man moved away from the bed, the smile never leaving his lips, and I was drawn to it.

It didn’t take long before I saw people coming towards me wearing white. And then it came to me.

I was in the hospital.

“Hello dear?” A nurse said in a calm voice that it would have annoyed me if I were myself. “It is good to have you back.” She said, flashing a smile that was more businesslike than friendly, and it took everything not to slap it off her face.

“Hmm.” I managed to moan weakly when pain spread to my arms.

“Sorry about that.” The nurse from earlier said, “I am Nurse Bella, and these are my colleagues. We are just going to check your vitals, and I will ask you some questions. Blink once for a yes and twice for a no, is that alright?"

There was something within me that had problems following the rules. Rules were meant to be broken, and I have made it my life mission to break rules. But this was important, so I blinked once.

“Good.” The nurse said, her smile widening into a genuine one, that this time I didn’t want to barf. “Can you remember your name?”

My name? What sort of question is that? I was offended that that was what she wanted to ask me. My name is...

I was blank. No matter how I tried to rack my brain, I was met with a blank wall, making my forehead flare in pain.

“It is alright.” Nurse Bella said, squeezing my arms gently. “You don’t have to try so hard. If you can’t remember, just blink twice.”

I blinked twice, and she took note of it.

“Do you know where you are?" She continued, and this time I knew the answer, so I blinked twice, and she smiled. “Do you know how you got here?”

I tried to rack my brain, but none seemed to come to mind, so I blinked twice, and she noted it down. The question took a while, and I had begun to grow tired, plus my eyes were hurting as I was still getting used to the environment.

“Thank you for your patience. Be rest assured, you are in safe hands.” She didn’t finish talking before I felt another prick in my hand, and I was floating in the sky.

I slept, and this time the sleep was peaceful, but when I woke up, it was nothingness.

I blinked my eyes open, relieved that the pain was gone and I could see better. I shifted my head from side to side, trying to familiarize myself with the environment.

I tried to raise my hands, but they were connected to different wires hooked to a machine, all connected to my body. There was no one around me, so I guess the room should be a private one. Apart from the machines and equipment, the room was empty, save for the wilting flower beside the window.

“How did I get here?” This was the question that had been on my lips, and I could feel the answers at my tips, but they were refusing to come forth.

There was nothing I hated more than being kept in the dark. I hated being ignorant, and staying here with no one beside me to even tell me things was making me get angrier as the seconds rolled by.

“Think, you. Fucking think!” I whispered/yelled as best as I could with my feeble voice. But it ended up sounding like a voice that had been in the Sahara desert and haven't gotten any water.

Which wasn’t exactly a lie.

I raised my hands to hit my head in hopes that it would reboot it, but it was the wrong move because my hands were weak, and they hit the bed with a thud that had the needle shifting, and I let out a silent scream as pain developed in the area.

“Fuck!” I cursed weakly, regretting my actions almost immediately. I tried to clutch my hands to soothe the pain, but it was long forgotten because everything in me went numb as images began to flash in front of me.

Ruby. The name was flashing in bold signs in front of me. Images of my life were playing like someone had been recording every day of my life, and I could feel my memories coming back.

I remembered who I was and how I landed here.

I was Ruby, a too-grown orphan who was in a foster home, but I was too broke and scared to move out. I had made a deal with my foster parents that if they continued to house me, I wasn’t going to bother them with anything. Ruby was what everyone knew as a daredevil, and I always wanted to experience life and have fun.

But it turned out to be my downfall. The last thing I could remember was skating through a very steep path, and I was going to perform a stunt I had been learning, but unfortunately, it took a dark turn, and I missed my steps.

All I could remember was that I was lying down in the pool of my blood, and somehow I had found myself in the hospital.

The creaking door disrupted my thoughts, and I turned my head to see the man who had walked in. He was still adorned in his suit, which makes me think of those rich men who live and breathe in their suits.

“Hello dear? How are you feeling?” He said as he came close to me. While I appreciated the fact that a handsome man was talking to me, my danger alert was going haywire.

I just woke up from what should be a coma, and there were no familiar faces around me, so I had every reason to be wary.

“Where are my parents?” I only called Gene and Stella's parents when we were outside because they would develop a fit if I said anything but. But they were far from being parents.

Even though I see them as a parental figure, right now, their presence would do me a lot of good.

“It is alright, love.” The strange, handsome man said. His smile would have made me have butterflies if I wasn’t too concerned about my safety. “I have informed the nurses that you are awake, and they should be here anytime soon.”

A little sigh of relief left me as I heard the information. Maybe he wasn’t as evil as I had thought him to be. I heard footsteps retreating, and I looked up to see that the handsome stranger had made himself comfortable on the sofa.

I found the action strange, if you ask me. I wasn’t one to beat about the bush, so I asked right away.

“What are you doing here?” He looked up from his phone, his eyebrows titling upwards as if in shock.

“I am watching over you.” He replied and went back to his phone. I dismissed the idea, taking him to be my caretaker. But the warning bells in my head were ringing.

Caretakers don’t wear fancy suits with even fancier shoes or call their patients love, and frankly, if he were a caretaker, then I would have been looking in the wrong place.

So I tried again, but I shouldn’t have because that statement changed my life.

“Who are you?” I asked and his mouth widened in a smile that would forever taunt me.

“Why love? I am your husband-to-be.”