Chapter 4: Another Blow

Annalyn’s POV

The nurse stood beside me quietly, her hands busy as she was checking my vitals, her voice soft and clinical as she explained what she’d read. But I wasn’t really there. My body lay on the crisp hospital bed, my arm lifted, cuff tightened, light shone into my eyes but my mind drifted somewhere else.

I was replaying the implications of Mr. Quinn’s offer. At first, it sounded more like a joke.. like some kind of rich-man humor or a cruel test. Be Nolan’s mother? Live in his house for a whole year? The whole thing sounded absurd, like something pulled from a poorly written movie.

He even said I looked like Nolan’s mother.. how possible could that ever be?

But the more I sat with it, the less funny it felt.

On another side was the fact that I’d still be near him. Kristoff, and his wife.

Clarissa.

Mr Quinn’s sister.

The thought sliced clean through me.

I have to see them, day after day. Watching her live life with the only man whom I’d learned to love beyond life itself. I’d have to witness Kristoff pretend like our paths hadn’t ever crossed. That was a cruelty I didn’t think I could subject myself to.

“So in summary, you are okay at the moment” that’s the only word I managed to get from the nurse amidst my shattered emotions.

My lips parted. I was about to ask when I could be discharged, when the sharp buzz of my phone broke through the silence. The nurse glanced at it on the side table and excused herself politely.

I didn’t move at first. Just stared at the screen, blinking.

Kristoff.

My heart jerked. I reached for the phone with trembling fingers. I don’t know why I didn’t simply silence it and blocked his ass off my phone. Maybe because some desperate part of me hoped this was it… that rude awakening moments, perhaps he’d finally woken up, realized what he’d done, and wanted to fix it. Maybe he wanted me back. Maybe we could return to Glasslow and forget this whole nightmare.

I hesitated. Then answered.

“Annalyn?” he said. That voice. It still curled around my spine like smoke. “We need to talk, need to see you.”

“No,” I replied. Too fast. Too defensive.

“Please. Just hear me out. Ten minutes, that’s all I ask. Please”

I bit the inside of my cheek, warring with the part of me that still craved some closure. Or a miracle.

“…Fine,” I whispered. “Ten minutes.”

I insisted on being discharged that afternoon. I didn’t have many reasons to stay here anymore, all I had left was just enough cash in my purse for bus fare and something warm to drink. I made my way to the café he’d suggested, a quiet corner shop tucked behind some bookstore in the less glamorous part of Kancun.

I spotted him the moment I stepped in. Hoodie up, hunched in the booth at the far end like a secret waiting to be kept.

I walked over. Our eyes met. For a second, his lit up… like seeing me actually brought him joy.

but mine only remembered the heart break and it made me sick.

“Annalyn,” he breathed, sliding out of the booth. “You look..”

“Don’t,” I cut in, sitting across from him without returning the compliment.

He tried anyway. Words began spilling like honey: “I know you are angry at me, but I’m sorry, I made a mistake. I didn’t know what I was thinking. I just panicked. Everything was moving too fast. Clarissa.. her family… well it’s all complicated. But you… you’re my peace. Please do not leave me…”

I sat stiff, letting the charm wash over me like a bad perfume.

I knew he’d come back to his senses soon enough. And finally he has.

Then I asked, softly, “Have you break it off with her?”

His smile flickered.

“What?”

“I mean Clarissa,” I repeated, slower this time. “You ain’t still gonna marry her right?”

His expression changed, it turned from pleading to unreadable but didn’t answer right away. And in that silence, everything crumbled.

“You haven’t,” I said, voice flat. “Have you?”

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It’s not that simple.. ”

“It’s exactly that simple, Kristof…”

“Look,” he snapped, frustration bleeding into his tone. “I still care about you. I do. But her family… there are business ties, investment deals. I can’t just throw that away.”

I blinked. “So why am I here?”

“Because I want us to continue… but discreetly,” he said, leaning in like it was some forbidden fantasy. “You and me, like we used to be. No pressure. Just… love.”

Love.

The word tasted like poison in my mouth.

“You want me to be your mistress,” I whispered, disgusted.

“Don’t say it like that, I just want to keep you,” he replied. “In the only way I can.”

I stood up. “You are a monster…I’d rather die than accept to become your mistress.”

“Annalyn…”

“Don’t you dare call my name,” I hissed, shaking with fury. “You don’t get to use me like a convenience store and call it love. You don’t get to throw me away and then come crawling back when it’s safe. Goodbye Kristoff.”

I walked out before he could speak again.

Outside, the sky had dimmed to gray. I crossed into a side alley behind the café, far from the street’s prying eyes. My legs gave out, and I collapsed against the wall, breath hitching.

I hated him. God, I hated him.

But I also hated myself more. Because some stupid part of me, some girl who still believed in fairy tales… thought maybe he’d come to his senses. Thought maybe he’d take my hand and say, Let’s run away.

I wiped my face, forcing the sobs back down. I reached for my phone in my coat pocket but as I pulled it out, a folded piece of paper fluttered to the ground.

I frowned, picked it up, and slowly unfolded it.

A drawing.

Crude lines. Oversized eyes. Wild curls drawn in loops. Me.

Sort of.

At the bottom, in clumsy crayon letters, it read: Mummy.

I could tell it belonged to the little boy, Nolan.

A weak laugh slipped out of me. It wasn’t good. Not by any adult’s standards. But it was mine. I stared at it for a long time, a smile teasing the corner of my mouth.

And just like that, my heart felt warm a little. Someone had seen me. Someone still wanted me.

Then my phone rang again.

I sighed and checked the caller ID.

An unregistered cell phone number from Glasslow.

I answered.

“Is this Miss Annalyn Smith?” the voice on the other end asked.

“Yes?”

“This is Nurse Nora from St. Mercy’s Hospital. Your mother… is in a critical condition.”

The world tilted.

Everything inside me turned to ice.

I stood there frozen, Nolan’s drawing still in my hands.

My heart pounding uncontrollably fast.

And suddenly, the weight of everything I’d been trying to outrun came crashing down on me again.