Author's POV
***Let me continue Lea's narration***"What is it, Jake? You look so worried."Jake was sitting in the back seat with his manager. He was fidgeting with his hands and fingers, constantly looking out of the window and then back at his watch."Umm, it's nothing. I just feel worried. Lea is not picking up. "" Lea? The girl from your hometown?" His manager asked, looking at his own watch."It's three in the morning, Jake. This is normally when people are tucked into their beds. "Jake nodded his head."I know. I know Mr. Kimberly. But she isn't at home. She is at my place. She came last night. I had to leave with Rosa before I could even talk to her. Anyway, just ask him to drive fast. Let's just get home.Mr.Kimberly looked at Jake with an expression that was a mixture of concern and regret."Um, Jake. What was your relationship with this girl again? Is she your sister or cousin?"Jake didn't answer. He didn't know the answer either. Technically, she was his foster sister, but he knew very well that was not how he felt towards her.He sprinted towards his door the moment he got out of his car.He went straight to the bedroom. The bed was untouched. He banged the doors of all the toilets and washrooms open. She was nowhere. He checked all the rooms and then found her phone and purse lying on the table. She was not in the house.Jake could hear the loudspeakers blasting one warning after another in the background. The sirens were going mad as well. There was apparently heavy rain coming along with the high tide warning in the area.Something clicked, and then he was gone.He went straight toward the shore. Lea was crazy. And there was no better place than the sea where she could be.He knew her that much, at least."Lea. Lea. "He ran like a madman, getting drenched in the heavy shower. It had already started raining, and the wind was picking up as well."Sorry sir. You cannot cross this line. The beach is out of bounds at the moment."The guards tried stopping him at the roadblock, but he shoved his way forward as they ran after him in pursuit.He somehow knew that she needed him and that she was where he was headed.And he was right.Lea lay on one of the big boulders, completely drenched and unconscious.Jake scooped her up in his arms and checked her breath.She was breathing okay, but her pulse was frail. Her forehead was burning up. She was running a very high fever.The guards and the policemen who were on Jake's trail called immediately for an ambulance. It took them straight to the hospital.Jake watched silently as the doctors rushed her in.He paced the corridor outside as the experts did their job.After almost an hour, the doctor came out to have a word with the anxious Jake."Is she alright?"he asked." Yes. She is fine. Just a terrible case of pneumonia. She will need to stay here for a couple of days. She probably slipped and fell because she has some bad bruises on her body and a heavy wound at the back of her head. We will run a full scan when she comes around", he said."Will she be alright?"Jake repeated himself as if he didn't hear a single thing that the doctor was saying.The doctor signed."Your girlfriend is fine, young man. You need to go home and get changed, if you don't want to end up beside her in that bed."He pointed inside, where she was. She had the oxygen mask on, along with the heart rate monitor,dressed in the hospital uniform.Jake tried to make his way in." No.. No. Not like this. You are soaking wet."The doctor was a fine young man. probably six or seven years older than Jake himself. It seemed like he was on emergency duty that night, which meant that he was still a student.He grabbed Jake by his shoulder.His hold was firm."Let me go see her doctor. You have no authority over me. I need to see, Lea. She just came in today, and now she is lying in that hospital bed. "Jake was fuming."My name is Phill. Take my number. I will be here on duty until tomorrow morning. You can call me if you need anything before that. For now, I will not be able to allow you to see your girlfriend. It is for the best. She cannot be exposed to any more outside contamination. She is a little fragile at the moment, young man." He paused to take a good look at Jake's face. Perhaps he looked familiar. Why wouldn't he? He was the rising star. The face on billboards all across the city"You need to go back home and come back a little refreshed. You don't look very good either. Come to the cafeteria with me. Let me buy you a coffee.""I don't need a coffee."Jake shrugged his hands off. And then he went out of the place without looking back.Phill kept staring at him and then looked back at Lea." Lovers. As stupid as they get…"And then he went to his cabin, tending to his pending work.Jake kept calling everyone he could, trying his best to give Lea the best medical advice that was possible.He wanted to move her out immediately but was advised against it. Apparently, the doctor was right. It was best for her to stay in isolation and get some rest.He went home dejected. He tossed his clothes aside and paced his room, very angry.But he was human after all.He had been at work all night. His body was cold.His eyes gave way, and he fell on the couch, fast asleep.Lea's POV***let me continue the narration***That was the way Jake and Phil met for the first time. There was no way for them to know that they were very intricately connected. In fact, their connection was biological.Phill was Jake's older brother, and Jake was one of his younger siblings. They had a little baby sister, who was at this time a full-fledged teenager. Her name was Mercy.Well, you must be confused because I did tell you guys that Jake's mother died in childbirth and his father was a drunk head. That was, in fact, what we knew. That was what we were told as neighbors. In fact, that was the lie that Jake lived with for most of his life.The truth was that he was the middle child of the rich heiress Elizabeth Rodgers. She had taken in a very wimpy man for her husband because she loved bossing around.She was a very rich and arrogant whore, if I were to be precise. She slept around with other men even after marrying the man of her own choice. No matter how wimpy a guy was
Lea's POV***continuation of the narrative from the past***I had no idea how long I had been out. I was a little baffled, being surrounded by so many people and lying on a hospital bed. But it gradually dawned on me the level of my stupidity.I was so embarrassed that I didn't even clarify when the nurses told me that my handsome boyfriend had brought me in.After a few minutes, I could hear a scuffle outside. It turned out to be Jake. He was having a heated argument with the doctors and the nurses about being sent away last night. Apparently, he was so exhausted that he had overslept and missed the call from the hospital when they were taking me to the operation theater when I was going into cardiac arrest. Luckily, they were able to revive me just in time, but Jake still needed some reassurance. He was so overwhelmed by everything that I put him through, from the moment I landed, that I was feeling guilty.I knew how overworked he was. How could I put him through so much more with
Author's POV***completing Lea's last bit of narration before she takes over her story***Jake was the most clueless guy out there. He had no idea what was going on in a girl's mind, though he was ready to fight the world for her sake.He wasn't very keen on show business. It was Lea's encouragement that pushed him on. When they went riding their bicycles up on the mountain tracks, Lea would often stare at the valley spread in front and wonder aloud how wonderful it must be to be a bird."Why would you want to be a bird? They are so fragile and easy to smash. Like you! Jake would shove her and joke, You should want to be something like an elephant or a lion."Lea would watch him and smile slightly.She would toss him the apple that she was carrying, and as he munched on it, she would say,"I don't need to be a lion or an elephant, silly. You will always be there with me. Protecting me. I just want to be a bird that can roam freely. I want to travel the world without any boundaries. I
***Back to the present ***Phill was walking down the corridor, doing his usual rounds when he got mistakenly shoved by the ward boys, because they were in a hurry. There was a new arrival at the emergency ward. It was an accident case and the patient was gravely injured. " We are so sorry Dr. Rodgers..."one of them turned around, trying to apologize while they ran with the stretcher. " Go ahead. Concentrate on your job, " Phill reprimanded him but followed it with a thumbs up and a smile. He was going for a short coffee break so he took the right. He came back walking with his favorite Espresso in one hand and holding a file in the other. But as soon as his eyes fell on the patient that was being rushed in, his coffee cup went flying and so did his file. " Lea... Oh my goodness... Lea.... what happened? Why do we keep meeting like this... "He ran along with the rest of them as the others watched him closely but none of them dared to utter a single word. Phill kept stealing a
Jake's POV***lament***I couldn't tell reality and haze apart. Ever since she left, my life wasn't mine anymore.I was just living like I was being told. " Jake, the team head wants to talk. Take it in a good sense... It's nothing severe but it is important."My manager thumped me twice in the back before I was pushed inside the board room. The first and last time I was in there was when I had signed my contract. I was too nervous back then. It's been months since then. Seemed like nothing changed. My hands were as sweaty as it was on the first day. I still remember that day. The day was etched in my memory, like a bullet. The conference room was dimly lit as I took my seat at the head of the sleek, modern ebony table. Mr. Reynolds, the big shot in charge of our entertainment group,AandC, had his laser-focused gaze locked on me from across the table. The whole setup sent chills down my spine, and I couldn't help but feel the high stakes of the meeting.I was just an ignorant boy
Jake's POVI parked the car beside his little cottage. I sat on the armchair that was worthy of being an item on display in the museum. The scent of tea brewing in that kettle, mixed with the scent of soil and the dung, filled my nostril with a strange blend of repulsive temptation. If that even makes any sense. " Here you go dear boy! " As we sipped on that perfectly handmade porcelain crockery he smiled at me as my eyes wandered around the place. There was wide stretched pasture with the hint of another house anywhere near. " You stay alone here? " I asked. " Now? Yes... but was not always like this. " His sipped as he said. " You have a family? Do you own all these lands? "I know I was bombarding him with unwanted questions. He had been too kind to me already without having to deal with all that interrogation. But I was being selfish. Anything to keep my kind busy for the moment. I didn't want to think how I would face Lea. The old man smiled. " Yes, I do. Like all human.
Phill's POVI knew I had a special spot for Lea from the first day that we met. It was beyond the relationship of a doctor and patient. I was not the type to swoon over random women but Lea felt different. It felt like I knew her, perhaps from another life, another dream. Don't know exactly what this feeling was. But it was building up, slowly. Fate, you could blame it all on fate. She kept bumping into me now and then, and every time she looked miserable. I hated that. I hated seeing her in pain. And it always turned out it had something to do with that jacka*s boyfriend that she had. Though she never admitted that he was her boyfriend. They seemed more like an old married couple without the physical part of the relationship, or so I thought. Now she was again in front of me and I was staring at the images being shoved in my face. A live foetus in her womb. She was pregnant with her bones broken, and could perhaps remain in the icu for a couple of days. It definitely belonged to
Phill sat in Lea's cabin. " She is in her first trimester but we will do a detailed ultrasound later when she regains consciousness." He had personally talked with the gynecologist assigned to her. Her phone was in his hand. He had taken it from the concerned department which had the rest of whatever was found on her body. The phone was still switched off. Phill looked at his own reflection, repeatedly on the screen before finally making his mind up and turning the phone on. He had to immediately turn the volume off because her phone's speaker began blasting the room with constant, incoming notifications. " As expected! " Phill retorted. " This was a bad idea. " He murmured after looking at Jake's messages -" LEA WHERE ARE YOU? "" LEA CALL ME BACK? "" LEA I CAN EXPLAIN. "" LEA I AM SORRY, COME BACK. "Phill couldn't read till the end of it. He switched the phone off and slid it inside his pocket. Just then he noticed Lea's fingers moving. He ran up beside her, checking if all