madelein | ✔

twenty

The chapter is going to be finished soon, just a few more days, at the least. That's what Sian felt. Staring at the monitor of her laptop, she sighed and slammed her hands on the keyboard, pressing several keys  that showed up on her word document. She needed some air but consoled herself that soon, it will be over.

She was still bothered by her guilt crawling up onto her heart and nerves. How could she do it?  She wanted to slap herself straight in the face, if she could only could. Her mind was in a daze even though it happened almost a week ago. Her mind couldn't wipe off Duke's reaction with what she revealed to him.

"Oh..." she recalled were the first sound that came off of Duke, "Well, he didn't tell me about it..."

"M-Mom..." Sian gasped when she heard Tyler suddenly spoke from behind her. The little one was rubbing his eyes with his free hand. He blinked his eyes open to see an unknown man sitting at the other side of the room. His little voice was hoarse from the longevity of his sleep.

"B-Baby... oh you're awake. Do you want anything? Does anything hurt?" she was quick to gulp down the knot on her throat and trying her best not to stutter any further. She stood up and squatted beside the bed and started stroking her son's soft brown hair.

Tyler just shook his head and smiled a bit. His temperature was already down but it wasn't back to normal, yet. Sian saw his little eyes darted to the stranger sitting on one of the sofas in the ward. She just gulped as his son continued to observe Duke from afar.

Without a word, Duke stood and went to the door and opened it. She could see his shoulder moving up and then slowly going down. His back arched a bit forward, his confident stance wasn't there. Unlike the moment he stepped inside the ward... she sighed. He must've still processing the information.

He then slammed the door behind him making her jerk and Tyler wince from the volume. "Who was that, mom?" her son managed to ask but her eyes didn't leave the ward's door. She could still see him heaving a huge sigh, his hand shaking at it held the doorknob. Oh, what have she done.

"Just someone... special..."

She was quite thankful that Tyler didn't hear about what she said to Duke earlier... or maybe the child just decided not to ask about it.

"What have you done?!" Jennie shrieked with her hands in the air making big gestures. Some of their co-workers were already glaring at her but her friend seemed too dense to feel their intense scowls. Sian tried to calm Jennie down but her lilac-haired friend wasn't backing down from her decision.

"That was quite idiotic of you, Ms. Maddy Elysian," her friend added before settling back into her. Sian just puffed out a breathe before resting her elbows on the table and her hands holding up her forehead. Her mind was still in a whirl, "I know, it was stupid but I've already said it."

From the side of her vision, she could see Jennie shaking her head while lifting the mug of coffee to her lips. She just finished telling her the story of what had happened in the hospital. Jennie bugged her about it because she's been looking like a mess since she came back to work. In the end, she dragged her friend into their office's little cafeteria and told her all about it.

It was a slap in the face to her when her friend just said that it was an idiot move from her. She agrees. She was an idiot. She had the guts to say such things but not being able to stand up for what really happened. For what really is the truth. In the end, she will be the only one in trouble.

Sian sighed, "I can't take it back anymore. I already said it."

"You can always take it back. Maybe not the pain those words that hit him, but somehow, to replace that evident pain with relief and joy when he found out that it's you and he's his," Jennie implied still sipping her coffee.