5. Anguish

The sound of people whispering entered Elena's ears, making her frown. She slowly opened her eyes and immediately hissed when she felt pain and stinging in several parts of her body.

"Are you awake?"

After blinking a few times, Elena's blurry vision began to clear. She saw a girl with straight brunette hair standing next to her bed.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

Her gaze wandered around the all-white room. She knew this room well because she used to go to places like this when her mother was very sick and dying.

"My name is Nikolina Re... Peterson. You can call me Nina. I'm Jack's sister," the girl replied with a friendly smile.

Elena looked at her closely. Her face was similar to Jack's, but more feminine. Her skin was fair and her body was well proportioned. Overall, the girl met the standard of beauty that women have been praising.

"Where's Jack?" She asked while trying to get up.

Nina immediately helped her to lean against the headboard.

"He had some business. My brother is like that. Always so busy that there's no time to visit his family. This is just him calling me because he needs help," Nina replied and chuckled amusedly.

Elena noticed the happy look on Nina's face, making her secretly envious. She had never felt that kind of interaction with Bella, because they were not siblings.

"Can you please call a doctor? I want to get out of this room as soon as possible. It's only a minor injury and I can bear the pain," Elena pleaded.

Nina nodded and rushed to press the button next to the bed occupied by Elena.

"Are you sure you want to go home? Shouldn't you stay here for the night?"

After the incident where she and Jack were hit by a strange car, she couldn't help but feel suspicious of everything she saw and heard. Including how Nina's expression when she said that sentence.

"What's wrong? Is someone after me again?"

Nina immediately faltered and her eyes looked the other way when Elena gave her a sharp look. Before Elena could ask any more questions, a doctor arrived along with a nurse.

Elena could see Nina breathe a sigh of relief, making her even more suspicious.

After much debate, Elena was finally allowed to leave the hospital. Her legs and arms were bruised in several places. Even her temples and forehead had scratches although they were not severe.

"Can you take me back to my apartment?"

"No!" Nina shouted reflexively, but faltered immediately afterward. "Uh, I mean, you can stay at my brother's house. It's safer there."

Elena narrowed her eyes, looking at Nina even more suspiciously.

"Why do you look so suspicious? Jack told me not to come back to my apartment, and now you. What's going on?"

Nina hurriedly waved her hand quickly. "It's nothing. How about we go to the shopping center after this? You must not have a change of clothes."

"This is the first time a bodyguard has bossed his boss around. Jack has no right to forbid me from returning to my own apartment. He's no longer my bodyguard either, just so you know. We're finished as soon as I was kicked out of the house."

There was no response. Elena saw that Nina was just grimacing and helped her to get off the bed. Her eyes looked over the nightstand and found nothing. Her suitcase was nowhere to be found either.

"What are you looking for?" Nina asked with a surprised look on her face.

"My cell phone and suitcase. Why aren't they there?"

"Ah, that. I don't know, Miss. Jack only asked me to look after you. He never talked about your things."

"Just call me Elena. I'm no longer your brother's employer," Elena insisted.

She cursed to herself. Her intention was to call Alan and ask him to pick her up at the hospital, but her cell phone was missing.

She just wanted to go home to her apartment, the one asset that her father wouldn't be able to mess with because it was her own money.

Why was everything so difficult now? Was it that she couldn't live without her parents' money? Elena shook her head slowly. She still had shares in the Greenlake group and luckily she had been smart enough to buy shares of several other companies without her father's knowledge.

Of course, it was all due to Alan's coercion that they had a big fight. She used to think that Alan always thought badly of her father, even though their relationship was fine.

Ah, now Elena missed that man. The only family member who still supported her. Alan would scold her if she acted carelessly. He was like an older brother to her.

"Miss...I mean Elena? Don't you want to change your clothes first? You said you wanted to get out of here."

Nina's question broke Elena's reverie. She quickly grabbed the clothes in Nina's hand and headed for the bathroom. She winced with pain as she slipped her legs into the tight jeans that seemed to stick to her skin.

Her brow furrowed at how the pants showed off her shapely legs. She had never worn clothes like this and now she felt like she was naked.

"Elena? Are you okay? Can I help you?" Nina asked on the other side of the door after knocking a few times.

Elena chuckled. That girl was exactly like Jack, so annoying. It was just that Nina was the chatty version, while Jack was the cold and rigid version like an ice sculpture.

"I'll be done in a minute!" she shouted as she put on a short-sleeved black T-shirt that was again very tight on her body.

As soon as she came out of the bathroom, Nina looked at her with a grimace.

"Sorry, I didn't know your size, so I just brought my shirt when Jack asked me to bring you one. But you look younger and fresher," the girl said with an enthusiastic face, but turned gloomy when she saw Elena's exposed arms.

Elena looked down and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the purple-black color on her arms. She looked like a victim of violence rather than an accident victim.

"Don't worry. Just put on my hoodie," Nina said as she held out the jacket she was wearing to Elena.

She accepted the jacket and put it on immediately. They were the same height, so the jacket fit perfectly. They left the ward after they were sure Elena was ready.

They walked straight until they reached a place where many pregnant women were sitting in rows on waiting chairs. Elena's steps immediately stopped a few meters before reaching that place, when her eyes saw two familiar people in front of there.

Without being able to prevent it, her eyes immediately glazed over. It turns out that it's not that easy to forget the man she once loved. Maybe even now, there is still in her heart although not as strong as before.

But still, the pain of being cheated on is not that easy to get rid of. The pain is like a sharp and deep knife scratch, but cannot be treated because it does not appear.

"Elena? What's wrong? Why did you stop?"

She hurriedly put on the hood of Nina's hoodie to hide her face. Her eyes looked back at the two people who had been so good to her, but now betrayed her to that extent.

Lucas and Bella. They were queuing in front of the maternity room and looked happy. Does that mean they have been having an affair behind her back for a long time? She could forgive Lucas' affair with another woman, but not with her half-sister.

"Elena, are you okay?" Nina asked with a worried look on her face.

Elena immediately turned around and walked ahead of Nina, even though she was limping a little because of the pain in her legs.

"Let's go the other way," she replied in a trembling voice.

Once at Nina's car, Elena burst into tears for the umpteenth time. She was really emotional now. She needed her mother to vent all her problems to.

When her crying didn't stop, she looked at Nina who was patiently waiting for her without even asking her anything.

"Can you hold me? I'm so...I need..."

Without saying anything, Nina immediately obeyed her wishes. She shed her tears again without holding back. Her arms returned Nina's embrace tightly, seeking support there.

"It hurts so much. It really hurts. Have you ever been betrayed by your lover? Even worse, he betrayed you with your own sister," she sobbed.

Alan should have been here to comfort her. Keep her company in the worst moments of her life. But even her cell phone was gone somewhere. Now, she had nothing but borrowed clothes clinging to her body.

Meanwhile, Lucas and Bella reveled in her misery. Bella took everything from her. Her father, her boyfriend, and her position in her own family company.

"I really hate that bitch. She and her mother came into my family and took my mother's position. Now they're taking everything away from me."

Suddenly a thought crept into her brain. Could this all be Bella and Miranda's doing? She and Jack were trapped in a hotel room in an unconscious state, was it all their doing?

She remembered Alan saying that someone had carried her into the hotel room. That meant someone else knew about this incident, right?  Was it the same person who took the photo of her and Jack?

"Feeling better already?" Nina asked, stroking Elena's hair.

Somehow, Nina's presence really helped her. She had never poured out her heart to any woman other than her mother. And now, she felt relieved after doing so to a stranger.

"Thank you. You really helped," she replied as she released their embrace.

Inwardly, she felt embarrassed for looking like a mess in front of the beautiful girl who looked like a model. She hurriedly wiped her face with a tissue.

"I wonder why you love a villain like him."