She Said I Do (But She Don't) ✔

Chapter 1 [Prologue]

"He's dead."

The desperate woman kept repeating the same words like a mantra with every breath she managed through her sobs. The woman came running to the ER only to receive the awfully bad news that her husband and father of her one year old had been killed in a terrible car accident.

Being one of the most gentle ER doctors there was, Alice took it upon herself to comfort the grieving woman sitting beside her on the cold flooring and rubbed the woman's back with a soothing hand.

"He's dead, yes. But you're not. Your life is still yours, go live it. There's a reason why you're alive. You just have to figure it out. Go home, take care of your boy. That's what your husband would tell you."

"He's gone." The widow buried her head between her bent knees and broke into the weeping Alice got used to hear. Working at the hospital ever since she began her studies, Alice learned one of the most important lessons in life: not to ever get attached to someone or something because one day you might just lose it and lose part of you with it. Actually, she might have learnt that several years before, before she was even a teen and was still an innocent little girl. She could still recall the countless times when her father would strike her mother, when her father left them, when her mother got desperate raising two kids by herself and took the road to destruction till her death.

Now, looking at the fragile woman shaking with her agony, Alice took a breath in and reminded herself thoroughly she'd do anything to prevent herself from having her world split in two because of her attachment to a man. She'd dedicate her life to her work as a doctor.

After several minutes of persuading the woman to return home with her relatives, Alice returned back to doing the quick check-ups on her patients.

She was listening to a family recounting the memories they shared with the old grandmother trying to beat her dementia, when Amy, her colleague and only close friend, beckoned her with a slant of her head from the doorway. Alice understood the message. Break time. As usual, she got deeply consumed with work completely forgetting her own necessities.

"You know you have to eat or you'll be the one needing nursing." Amy told her while they walked down the sterile corridors. "Or were you going to skip lunch because it's your turn to pay?" Amy mocked friendlily.

"Absolutely. I'm starting to be frugal." The two friends laugh at the light banter. "Speaking of money. I'll go get my purse from the car. I was paged here urgently and left my bag in the car. I'll meet you at the front."

Alice split from Amy and hurried to the parking area, all the way racking her brain to remember where exactly she had parked her car. As the elevator to the parking floor opened, her car was right in front of her.

She unlocked her car and reaching in for her bag. She opened her purse and assured she did actually have money for lunch. Then, she checked her phone. Eight missed calls! Dear, her brother Ethan must have scored whatever business meeting he went to. Lately his business wasn't going so well so every news, little or big, meant too much.

She had just shut the car door when an incoming call caused her phone to vibrate. An instant smile formed at her lips.

"Hey there, brother. I smell some news coming my way, am I right?"

"Alice."

"Owen", she says with a grin of hearing his voice. Owen was her brother's biggest friend and partner in their game production business and she hadn't spoken to him in months. He was even more workaholic than she was. "Owen, please give me something. I'm dying to know how you're doing."

The receiver goes silent as if no one was on the line.

"Owen?"

"Alice."