Plum Blossom | Completed

Chapter Four

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah," Mellisa said, stiffly. "Just a bit nervous."

"Don't be. My friends are going to love you," Alex said, guiding Mellisa towards the car.

"Did I tell you how beautiful you look?" Alex offered, causing Mellisa to smile, the tension leaving her body.

Twenty minutes later, Mellisa was greeting what seemed like hundreds of Alex's friends. In reality, there were no more than twenty people. But Mellisa was already feeling claustrophobic and uncomfortable.

"How's it going? You doing okay?" Alex asked her.

"Yeah. Just a little overwhelmed," she replied, shakily. "I think I need some air."

"You want me to go with you?" Alex offered.

"No. I'll be fine. I'll just be a few minutes. You stay here with your friends," she assured him before moving towards the front door.

"I'll have a drink ready for you when you're back," Alex assured her before letting her go.

As she stood outside, Mellisa thought back to the last few months of her life. No matter how much Alex overwhelmed her, he had been good for her. She was finding out new things about herself. It had been the happiest she had been in a long time.

The excitement of being around Alex finally calmed Mellisa down. She turned to head back into the club and to Alex, but she never made it. It took less than two minutes for everything to go black.

When she gained consciousness, Mellisa found herself in the hospital, hooked up to various tubes, disoriented, and had a nurse checking her vitals.

When she made known that she was conscious, the nurse fussed over her incessantly. But Mellisa didn't miss the look of pity and sympathy that flashed in her eyes.

"What happened? How did I end up here?"

"I'll get the doctor. He'll be able to tell you more," the nurse said, running out of the room without looking Mellisa in the eyes.

"Welcome back, miss. We're happy to see you awake," said a doctor in his early 50's. "My name is Dr. Korsac. You have been in my care since you were brought in. Can you tell me your name?"

"Mellisa. Doctor, why am I here? What happened to me?"

"What's the last think you remember?"

"I was at the club with my boyfriend Alex. I had stepped out to catch some fresh air. I was about to head back inside when everything went black."

"When was this?"

"I don't know. I assume I've been unconscious for awhile."

"Do you remember the date you were at the club?"

"September 5th. What day is it today?"

Dr. Korsac sighed. "You've been unconscious for over a month, Mellisa."

"WHAT! How? It takes serious damage to cause that." Mellisa found herself coughing after her outburst. The nurse immediately stepped forward to help her drink water.

"You seem to know a lot."

"I'm a nurse."

"We're finally getting somewhere."

"What do you mean?"

"We've known nothing about you till you woke up. You've been Jane Doe for the past month."

"What do you mean? Where am I?"

"You are at Hillsbrooke Memorial Hospital."

"What? I'm in Boston?"

"I take it you're not from here?"

"No. I live in California."

"You're a long way from home."

"How did I get here?"

"You were left beaten and unconscious at a fire station a few blocks from here. Why were you in Boston?"

"I wasn't. I was in a club in my hometown. I don't know what I got here. Has no one come looking for me?" Mellisa stated panicking again. She had to be sedated.

When she woke up, the same nurse from earlier was watching over her.

"Can you please tell me what's going on?" Mellisa pleaded.

"I'm sorry, honey. We have to wait for the doctor," the nurse said, sympathetically. "But we have to get some prenatal vitamins in you now."

"Prenatal vitamins?"

"You didn't know you were pregnant?" the nurse whispered, in shock. "I shouldn't have said anything. I am so sorry." The nurse looked ready to burst into tears.

"I've never had consensual sex," Mellisa whispered, rattled.

"I'm sorry for the insensitivity, Ms. Mellisa," Dr. Korsac said, walking into her room. "I take it you figured out that you were raped?"

The thought hadn't dawned on Mellisa till then. She burst out in hysterics.

"I am so sorry, Ms. Mellisa. I really didn't know. Is there anyone we can call for you?" the nurse asked her.

"Alex," Mellisa managed to utter once her sobs were under control.

It took nearly twelve hours before a disheveled Alex came rushing into the room.

"Oh my god! Mellisa! I didn't know. I'm so sorry," Alex blurted out as soon as he saw her.

"Why weren't you here before?" she cried, hugging him tightly.

"I didn't know. Just after you stepped out of the club, I got a message from you, saying you had an emergency and you had to leave town. I didn't hear from you after that. I checked with your brothers. But they didn't want to talk about you. Then, a week later, I started getting emails from you saying you were taking care of a long-lost grandparent. The email said that you'd lost your phone," Alex explained.

"But I never had your email ID."

"I thought so too. But I figured you found out what it was from the hospital. That's, after all, where we met."

"The hospital? Oh my god! I haven't called in to work," Mellisa panicked.

"Apparently you have. Nurse Johnson told me that you sent in a request for extended leave of absence to tend to a family emergency."

"Oh!"

"God, you look awful. What happened to you, babe?" Alex asked, a worried expression overtaking his face. His question made Mellisa burst into tears all over again.

"I'm pregnant," she bellowed, causing Alex to freeze.

"What?" he gulped out, painstakingly.

"I was attacked that night, and raped."

"By whom? And how did you end up in Boston?" Alex's anger raised with every word.

"I don't know anything. This is as much as the doctor told me." The conversation had tired Mellisa out. As she laid back down in bed, Alex told her to rest up and that he would get to the bottom of everything.