Fati couldn't catch a wink of sleep no matter how hard she tried; conflicting thoughts were on the verge of tearing her mind apart, and Jaguar's toxic words of revenge still echoed in her ears like a terrifying reverberation. She realized she had to act swiftly and decisively to escape the cage of this poisonous marriage. Driven by both curiosity and pain, she desperately wanted to visit Jaguar's grandfather to see if he had fully regained consciousness, and to question him directly about the details of that final phone call between him and her late grandfather.
With the very first rays of dawn, she rose from her bed, washed up, and showered to shake off the exhaustion of insomnia. She then hastily ate her breakfast, knowing a long and grueling day awaited her in the hospital corridors. Dressing in her official white attire, she stood before the mirror and whispered to herself with heavy self-reproach,
"Grandfather... you had better have a convincing reason for what happened, or else I will never forgive myself for how things turned out... because I was the one who handed you the phone to speak with my grandfather!"
She went downstairs quietly, heading toward her workplace. However, her feet did not guide her to her office, her clinic, or even the emergency room this time; instead, she marched straight to the most critical and pressing location in her mind and heart the suite of Jaguar's grandfather. She asked the nurses for the room number he had been moved to after leaving the resuscitation unit, and approached with hesitant steps. Standing before the door, she took a deep breath to gather her scattered courage, then turned the handle and stepped inside.
The moment she stepped inside, she realized instantly that Jaguar had never left the suite; he had spent the entire night right there by his grandfather's side. He was stretched out on the side sofa in a wretched, disheveled state, far removed from his usual imposing demeanor. She wondered in astonishment to herself: How could a man of his dominance, power, and crushing pride be brought down to such a state of vulnerability and exhaustion?!
The moment the faint sound of the door reached his ears, he bolted upright, his eyes immediately locking onto hers. Fati struggled to maintain her professional composure, speaking in a dry, formal tone,
- I heard that your grandfather has regained consciousness and is able to speak now.
He answered in a low voice, stripped of its usual sharp edge,
- Yes... he is in a much better state than he was yesterday.
She nodded, clutching a medical chart to hide her inner turmoil, and continued with a doctor's strict authority,
- I must immediately order a comprehensive examination for him; this will include a CT scan, full blood work, as well as an ECG and an EEG to monitor his neurological and cardiac functions.
He studied her exhausted face with a gaze laden with hidden sorrow, replying submissively,
- Yes... that would undoubtedly be for the best. Thank you.
Their conversation was rigid, hollow, and wrapped in a deadly formality as though they were mere strangers brought together by chance in a hospital corridor, rather than a husband and wife who, just hours ago, had experienced the heights of conflict and embrace amidst the freezing snow.
She stepped quietly toward the grandfather's bed, casting a thorough, professional medical gaze over him. The old man was sleeping peacefully, though the medical monitors still enveloped his fragile frame, emitting their rhythmic, low hums. Turning to Jaguar, she said formally,
- If the test results come back positive, I will immediately order the removal of some of these connected machines. There will be no need for them to remain.
Jaguar replied in a low voice, brimming with a genuine gratitude he rarely showed her,
- Yes... that would undoubtedly be for the best.
Fati turned slowly, heading toward the door to make her exit. However, she stopped abruptly at the threshold, as if a raging question had finally conquered her pride. Turning halfway, she asked one final question, struggling to keep her tone casual:
- Did he... did he speak to you?
He averted his eyes from her for a brief second, feeling the crushing weight of the secret resting upon his chest, and answered in a raspy voice,
- Yes... a little.
She nodded, maintaining the coolness of her features as she added,
- Good. That bodes well.
She uttered those words without waiting for another syllable from him. Pushing the door open, she paved her own path of escape and walked out of the room, leaving Jaguar behind to drown in the hell of his own reality, entirely alone.
Jaguar reached his hand out into the empty air after she left, but her decisive departure made his heart groan with an unfamiliar agony. He knew deep down that he had to apologize, but... how? The one thing his grandfather had never taught him throughout his life was how to show his emotions, and he had never received a single lesson from anyone on how to apologize or draw closer to someone he loved. All the overflowing, warm feelings in his life were lessons he had experienced and discovered with Fati alone; she was the one who had once taught him that emotions are beautiful and noble when revealed to the other person. Yet now, ironically, she showed nothing; instead, she suppressed the entire contents of her broken heart, wrapping it in an absolute silence, as if it were a sacred secret she had forbidden Jaguar from ever discovering again.
Outside the room, Fati stood right behind the door the moment she shut it. She did not want Jaguar to overhear whatever his grandfather might tell her when he woke up, realizing she needed to be far more cautious and shrewd in her next steps. But... why was he in such a state? What had he heard from his grandfather last night to lose his composure and appear so utterly broken?
She tried to rebuke her thoughts, telling herself that she shouldn't care about him anymore. Yet, the bitter truth was that she did care about his well being, and this hidden concern suffocated her, choking her every single time she attempted to push him away. She inhaled deeply, expelling with every forceful exhale all the negativity and bitterness she was enduring these days. She had a demanding job to attend to right now; she resolved in her heart that she would only visit the grandfather to question him when Jaguar was away from the hospital premises after all, he wouldn't stay stationed here forever.
In her clinic, Fati stood stunned as she reviewed the medical file of one of her patients, only to discover that another doctor had performed an entirely unnecessary surgery in her absence a blunder that caused severe complications and plunged the poor patient into a complete coma. Fuming with professional rage, she immediately marched up to the Chief of Medicine's office to demand an explanation for why this doctor had taken such an arbitrary measure without her knowledge. The moment she pushed the door open, she found the culprit standing there, enduring a blistering reprimand from the Chief.
Fati's sudden entrance ignited the spark of arrogance in that doctor's chest. He turned around, casting a resentful glare at her, and snapped at the Chief of Medicine,
- I have been a physician in this hospital for over ten years! Do you reduce my stature and reprimand me like this... for the sake of a fresh graduate?
Fati locked her eyes onto him with absolute sternness; she was already well aware of his history of committing countless medical errors and attempting to cover them up. Stepping forward, she spoke in a calm yet razor-sharp tone,
- You still haven't grasped the reality of the situation, Doctor. He is not reprimanding you for my sake; he is reprimanding you for the sake of that poor patient who now lies in a coma between life and death... all because of your reckless haste to prove yourself
The doctor's voice echoed back, shouting with resentment throughout the office,
- I didn't do it to prove anything to anyone
Fati confronted him with a piercing gaze and a crushing question,
- Then why on earth did you take her into the operating room without a clear medical reason?! I personally performed a delicate surgery on her just three days before my leave, and it was entirely successful and stable
The doctor was struck dumb, unable to utter a single word in response. The Chief of Medicine turned to her with anxious features, asking pleadingly,
- Dr. Jack Pike... can you do anything to save her now?
She took a deep breath and answered with cautious professionalism,
- Right now, we cannot intervene. Neither her body nor her brain can withstand another trauma. I will monitor the stability of her vital signs first, and based on that, I will decide when I can take her back into surgery.
Then, she turned her head toward the other doctor, stating in a cold, ominous tone,
- You had better pray that this woman survives and wakes from her coma... otherwise, I will never forgive you as long as I live
She immediately headed down to the emergency room, and from there rushed into the operating theater, losing herself in saving lives. She didn't return to her private office until many grueling hours had passed. The moment she pushed the door open, she froze in her tracks; an elegant bouquet of flowers sat upon her desk, and nestled in the center was a small card bearing a single, solitary word:
"Sorry."
A bitter, mockingly smile touched her lips. It seemed the doctor's conscience had finally awoken, and he had at last realized the gravity of his mistake. Yet, she tossed the card aside and thought to herself coldly: She was not the one who deserved this apology; rather, it belonged to that poor patient lying in the shroud of a coma behind those freezing walls.
Outside, directly behind the closed door, Jaguar stood with his exhausted frame, gathering the courage to step inside and apologize. However, the words that pierced his ears from within froze the blood in his veins, as he caught the mocking tone of her voice saying aloud,
- And will a bouquet of flowers and a hollow apology card make me forgive you so easily?! You are not even the one who deserves my forgiveness to begin with
He took a step back, knowing in the depths of his guilt ridden soul that his path to earning Fati's compliance would be long and arduous, and that her wound was far too deep to be healed by a flower. Turning around slowly, he exited the hospital corridors with heavy steps, heading toward his chaos-strewn office to bury himself in the backlog of work he had abandoned for two whole days for the sake of Fati's recent journey.
As for Fati, she resolved to visit the grandfather to check on his vital signs now that the initial trends of his laboratory tests had surfaced. The moment she pushed the door open and stepped into his private suite, she found him awake, gazing at the outside horizon through the window with vacant eyes. She approached and stood at the head of his bed, her features dry and completely devoid of any smile as if she were pouring the entirety of her resentment toward both the arrogant doctor and Jaguar onto the head of this poor old man lying before her.
Yet... the moment his eyes fell upon her, his entire being shuddered. He extended his frail, trembling hand toward her, his eyes welling with thick, burning tears that instantly brought back the vivid memories of that ill fated night he had collapsed. Exhaling a breath laden with the agony of lost years, he spoke in a faltering voice steeped in raw regret,
- Fati... my granddaughter... the daughter of my long lost Rose... At last... at last, I have found you