She Is Alive!

XAVIER

“N-no.” She shook her head, denial in her eyes. “This must be a joke. I can feel it. My baby is alive. I'm sure she's in the nursery.”

“Child, the doctor is telling the truth—” her mother tried to hold her, but she snapped.

“Not you too, mother! Not you! I know my baby isn't gone! She can't be gone!” she screamed, pulling the drips from her arm. She flung her legs to the floor, wincing as they shook profusely.

“You are not in the right state to walk.” The doctor rushed forward to hold her, but she thrashed around, screaming like a madwoman.

“No! Let me go!” She headbutted him, staggering him backward. The doctor groaned, his fingers slipping from her arm. Her body gave out, and she collapsed onto the bed. They restrained her, but she bit his hand before running toward the door.

I got off the wall and ran after her. I noticed how badly her legs shook as she pressed her palms against the door, holding the knob, but somehow she couldn't open it.

She fell limp against the door before sliding down slowly. What kind of monster did she marry to end up in such a state?

I knelt beside her and held her hand. She lifted her head to look at me, her eyes red, her hair disheveled and falling over her face.

I didn't want to say anything because I did not understand her pain—the pain of losing your child.

Instead, I gently brushed the hair away from her face but paused, wondering if that was the appropriate thing to do. When she didn't move away, I slowly pulled her into a hug.

“It's okay,” I whispered, rubbing my palm against her back. She shook heavily before a high-pitched scream filled my ears, the raw pain in her voice nearly suffocating.

I sensed the anger, regret, and pain tearing through her.

She clutched my shirt tightly, screaming. My eyes moved to the doctor and her mother, who wanted to take her back to the bed, but I lifted a finger.

‘Give her some time,’ I mouthed, and they glanced at each other before nodding.

She grabbed my back tightly, and I shut my eyes, ignoring the throbbing pain. After some minutes, her screams died down, but the trembling in her body didn't.

“Miss, what you need right now is to be taken care of.” I signaled for the doctor to take her. I slowly pulled her out of the hug and saw her spaced out, her dry lips parted as she mumbled something.

I leaned forward, and all I could hear was—

“My baby. My baby.”

She kept mumbling, her eyes unfocused. The doctor gently held her, and I assisted him in taking her back to the bed.

Her mother covered her face, tears falling from her eyes as she saw her daughter in such a state. The doctor treated her again, and I watched patiently as she fell asleep, her face so pale that someone might mistake her for a corpse.

“Thank you so much, Mr. Xavier, for all your help, and I am very sorry for the trouble too.” Her mother's voice sounded beside me as I stepped out of the ward with her.

I stopped and turned slightly toward her. “Don't thank me, ma uh…” I paused, realizing I had forgotten her name.

“Mrs. Wayne,” she said with a smile.

“Ah yes, Mrs. Wayne.” I returned the smile. “Don't thank me, please. I believe this was the handiwork of fate itself. I'm glad I was able to save a life.”

“You're so kind and humble, Mr. Xavier.” She sniffled. “If only my son-in-law were just like you, my poor baby wouldn't have gone through all this.”

I smiled, saying nothing. However, my eyes went back to the ward. Staring through the hallway glass, I saw her lying on the bed and sighed softly.

I bid farewell to Mrs. Wayne before returning to my car. My phone rang just at that moment, and I glanced at the screen only to suck in a cold breath when I saw it was a call from my mother.

I quickly swiped the answer button.

“Son? Where have you been?” Her calm voice came from the other end.

“I'm very sorry, Mom. An emergency came up—” I quickly tried to explain, but her frustrated sigh shut me up.

“You promised me you wouldn't make up excuses to run away from the blind dates I set up. You even went as far as picking the place yourself to show you were really serious.” She sighed, and I imagined her rubbing her temple. “Why are you stressing your mother so much? Don't you love me anymore?”

“Mom, you know that's not true. Yes, I made excuses before, but this is true. I helped a pregnant woman who was bleeding to death by rushing her to the hospital.”

“Oh my goodness! Is she okay?!” she screamed, startling me.

I glanced at the hospital. “Hopefully she will be. I'll be right there, Mama. Give me some minutes.”

“Okay, son.”

I hung up the call and drove away from the place. I pulled onto the street, my hands clenching the wheel tightly, and for some unknown reason, my heart wouldn't stop racing and my mind wouldn't stop going back to the woman.

This wasn't the first time I'd helped people, and whatever I was feeling right now was something I couldn't explain.

“Mantis,” I said immediately after my assistant answered the call.

“Sup, bro?” he answered, and noises of people yelling came from the background. “Shut up, will you?! Can't you see I'm on a call?!”

“Mantis, are you gambling with your salary money? What did I tell you—” I frowned but paused, knowing it was useless talking to this stubborn head.

“I'm not gambling. Anyway, why did you call?” he asked.

“I want you to send some gifts to the hospital address I'll be sending you right now.” I briefly glanced away from the road as I sent the address to him.

There was silence for a while.

“Okay, on it.”

I stared back at the road, my mind unsettled.

For some reason, I felt like I'd seen her somewhere before.