BIRTH
1473 Words
CHAPTER 53: BIRTH
“How long had I been out?” Eliot asked.
So far, his conditions are getting better. He is already recovering from the worst scenario that Raquel feared he’ll fall once he lay there on that hospital bed.
“Just a couple of days, but everything’s good.” She was busy peeling an apple as she glanced on her shoulder to look at him. “Jerome said that you can be discharge tomorrow, since you’re okay now, but they are still going to run some test, Eliot.”
“Who’s Jerome?” A tiny bit of jealousy made his chest twitched.
Raquel noticed it.
“It’s the doctor, Eliot.” Raquel rolled her eyes.
“I’m just making sure that no one’s trying to pursue you yet, Raq.” He joke, chuckling
“Oh, don’t be absurd.” Raquel placed down the apple and the knife in the table and dried her hands. She grab the plate and walked near to his bed. “Are you still not going to believe me after I confessed?”
“Of course, I do.” Eliot hold her hand. “Because I love you.”
Their eyes meet.
Raquel softly smiled at him, “And I love you too, Mr. Duke.”
“I am looking that it could be a missus someday.” He genuinely said.
Raquel did not say anything. But she didn’t wanted to ruin the moment, seeing aside her personal life and betting her heart for Eliot is what matters for now.
It was just him and her… Raquel and Eliot, together.
“But I have a question.” Eliot looked at her. “Have you gone to the place we are suppose to before the chase?
“No.” She shook her head. “I can’t leave you.”
“But I don’t thank so you’ll need to, Raq.” Eliot words hold meanings.
“What do you mean?” Raquel frowns.
Her forehead ceased.
“Look behind you.” Eliot tilted his head.
He was looking at something. Confused, Raquel looked behind, and she as surprise to read the words carved on top of the door recognize easily.
“Evangeline…” She read the name. Her heart skip a beat as she gulps. “… Medical Hospital.”
It’s here.
It is the hospital, where she was born. Her birthplace that would lead her to the truth.
“I miss you, Conrad.” The glee on Lauren’s face was far itched. She looks happy, almost as if she wanted to engulf Conrad in a tight embrace, and she was just holding back herself. “You should have told me you were coming, so I could arrange a car for you, son.”
“So that I wouldn’t know that you are hiring men to track Eliot?” Conrad was extremely cold to his mother. “No thank, and for the record—you do not have any right to call me son.”
“Conrad, you don’t understand—”
“Let me understand first what did you do to my brother.” He needed some answers.
He knew that Lauren was plotting against something.
“He… He us not your brother!” His mother glared at him. The smile on her lips disappeared. Her eyes are sharp, almost angry. “He could never be your brother, Conrad! So don’t you every say that word again…!”
“He’s my brother from a different mother, is that what you are so disgusted to hear of—”
SLAP.
It didn’t take any second. Lauren raised her hand and slapped him hard.
“I warned you.” Lauren was enrage.
She was blinded, reminded of how much she hated Eliot’s mother. That woman that her husband cheated on. That woman, who lies with him, while Lauren suffered through loneliness, dithered nights she wonder if she was enough. He was so sorry, when he died, begging for her to take his son, and now this….Her very own son by blood was trying to fueled the fire.
“You didn’t know anything, and you should be grateful that I retrieved you back here, Conrad.” Lauren couldn’t let herself break away.
Not yet.
“You left me to rot there, mom.” But Conrad’s grudge is intact. “You throw me away as if I am a thrash!”
“I was just protecting you from the world!” She hollered.
“Yeah, you were right…” Conrad chuckled, but there’s no humor in his laugh. “Protecting me? Should I send my regards of how grateful I am—”
“You will soon, but I am warning you not to provoke me much longer.” Lauren held her head high.
“Or else what?” He sounded challenge.
Lauren stared directly at his eyes, “Does the name Erika rings a bell to you, Conrad?”
“Erika…how did you know?” He was bewildered.
“I am your mother.” Lauren stood from her seat and stalked to him closer. “It is my right to know everything, and do some things so that I could do the best for us…for the family, even if it will hurt me, us…Do you understand?”
“No. You are just doing it for you.” Conrad is tired believing her lies. “And don’t you dare touch Erika!”
“I won’t, I’ll give that to you.” Lauren reassured him. “Only if you do what I am asking you to, son.”
Lauren knew how to play her games right.
“What do you want?” He’s no fool.
Lauren smiled, “I wanted you to raise in power.”
“What?” Conrad looked at her, confuse.
His gaze is full of questions.
“Let me out it simply.” She chuckled. “I wanted you to take over to the company.”
“Ours?” The frown deepens on his forehead.
“No.” Lauren shook her head. Her smile widens. “It isn’t ours, but the one own by that bastard… Eliot.”
“I didn’t know we are already here.” Raquel couldn’t believe her eyes
They are really there, on that hospital, where the mother that Doctor Vergara told her had her records, Indra. If she finds it, then everything would be cleared. The truth would free her life from the lies she fed on.
“You didn’t notice it, because you were busy worrying about me, Raq.” Eliot sounded apologetic. “But what now? What are you going to do?”
“Maybe, I’ll ask around?” She’s uncertain of her next move.
“And what are you going to tell them?” He asked.
“That I am here to find my mother.” She sounded determine.
How can she not be?
“Afterwards, what would happen?” He continue to pry on.
“What… what would happen? Why does it matter?” She glanced to where he is.
“I just wanted to ask what would happen after you find out that she’s really your mother?”
“Then, that’s it…” Raquel was unsure.
This is the first time she had been questioning herself. After the truth, what would happen? Is she just going to march back to their house, confronting her family as if they would comply, but no—she knew her mother, Raquel knew that they wouldn’t tell anything to her, let alone a single thing that could free her from the chain they tied across her neck.
They want her. They want whatever fortune she was left that Grace was talking about before. Greed, and caprices, that is what matters to them.
She sits down, her head on her palms, *I didn’t know… I just came here to be enlightened… to know why, because me and my sister, I was the only one who was always beaten, always the one who should selflessly gave away what I have, my free will to how I should run my life…they took it away, Eliot.”
Emotions brew inside her chest that was kept for long.
In spite of pain, Eliot climbed down on the bed to wrapped his arms around Raquel.
“I could feel your pain, Raq.” He said. “If anything happens, I am here. I am with you. We’re on this, together.”
And that’s what she needs the most.
Tears fell from her eyes, sobs raked as she settled her distress to lay her head on his shoulder. She was left defenseless, while Eliot lulled her.
“Shh, it’s okay.” Eliot tried to consoled her. “Everything’s going to be alright soon.”
But she was in pain.
After this, Raquel knew that everything’s not going to be okay.
- Writer
