CHAPTER 504: THE LIGHT WE WAITED FOR (3)

The surprising thing was that the jubilation and chaos were not contained in the hospital. Though speculations, almost everyone who had seen the most powerful couple’s grand entrance was sure of this good news. Most were happy, but as usual, there were a few not so happy with this news.

"I just saw them," a nurse whispered into the phone, ducking into the supply room as the elevator doors closed at the end of the corridor. Her hands trembled slightly as she gripped the receiver of the wall-mounted phone ... one of the few untraceable lines left in the old wing.

"Both of them. Together. Alive. In the flesh."

There was a pause on the other end. A silence too deliberate to be natural.

Then: "Where are they going?"

The voice was distorted—mechanically scrambled, barely human.

She swallowed.

"The obstetrics and gynaecology."

Another pause. Then, almost like static laced with amusement:

"Of course he did. Watch them. Don’t interfere."

The line went dead.

She stared at the phone a moment longer before slowly replacing the receiver. Her heart thundered against her ribs. They were supposed to be gone. Everything had been so carefully contained, cleaned, planned. Now they were back!

Immediately she hung up the phone and turned, she stared shell shocked at Currey, who stood quietly behind her,

"Looks like this creature infestation in the human world is too deep rooted..." Currey muttered staring at the nurse’s shell-shocked face.

"Now, do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?" The nurse took a step back, eyes darting all around as if looking for an exit....

"The hard way, it is then...." Currey said and reached out to her....

****

Back in the elevator, time seemed to slow for Shelby. It was then that she understood Ian’s plan and her heart swelled with pride.

She watched her husband with quiet awe and couldn’t help but have her heart overflow yet again. Though the couple were at peace, it was the same for the hospital staff, especially those who worked in the VVIP space.

"Who did you say arrived at the hospital?"

"Sir, Mr Ian Thornston,"

"What?! OMG!"

The doctor screamed and almost fell out of his desk. It had been a month since Ian Thornston, a supposed comatose patient, had seemingly disappeared from their hospital and under their care. They had combed through everything, but even the CCTV cameras had not captured how this man had just disappeared from his hospital bed. Then they only hear that he had come the with his wife?

Though they were not sure what was going on, he could not sit still. Within moments, the heads of the VIP floor were all on their way to the obstetrics and gynaecology ward as well.

They knew they could not question Ian about what had happened. They had felt the wrath of Ian’s supposed new old wife within the month that he had disappeared. That aside, there was also one thing that they didn’t understand, as it did not make sense to them that Ian would not take their services but would go to the general ward.

Of course, the top-most head of the ward met the couple. No questions were asked—at least not aloud. A private room had been prepared. The doctor, a seasoned very professional-looking woman with silver-framed glasses and an unreadable expression, had been summoned without delay.

Inside, the room was quiet. Light slanted in through narrow windows, giving the pale walls a softness that hospital wards rarely possessed. A faint scent of lavender—artificial but calming, hung in the air. Shelby inhaled deeply and followed all instructions.

Soon, she lay back on the examination bed, the paper beneath her crackling. Ian stood close by, holding her hand, his thumb tracing absent shapes across her knuckles.

The doctor pulled up a stool, adjusted the machine beside her, and offered a small, professional smile.

"I heard you’ve been gone for a while," she said gently, applying the gel to Shelby’s stomach. Shelby was not sure if she was to answer this question or not.

"Let’s have a look and see how baby’s doing."

The cool touch of the ultrasound wand made Shelby flinch, then breathe out slowly as the screen flickered to life. Her eyes locked onto it immediately, searching the snowy static for something she wasn’t quite sure how to recognize.

And then ... there it was.

The doctor patiently pointed about the relevant data to them.

"Baby looks healthy and should be about more than twenty weeks old, based on the data I have...." She said after asking Shelby a few more questions. Then, there was a flicker and a pulse, followed by a soft, rhythmic thudding.

"There it is." The doctor’s voice softened with a smile. "That’s the heartbeat."

The sound filled the room, steady and alive. It wasn’t loud, but it was all-consuming. A tiny, rapid drumming that echoed somewhere deep in her bones.

Shelby’s hand flew to her mouth, eyes glistening.

Ian also looked down at her with a softness she hadn’t seen in so long. There were no secrets, and no need for them at all. No shadows too.... She could only see Ian budding with pride and love.

"That sound..." she whispered. "It’s real. It’s... ours."

The doctor nodded, angling the screen so they could both see. A tiny form took shape amidst the grainy black and white—still early, but unmistakably there.

"Strong heartbeat. Healthy size. Around approximately twenty-two weeks, I’d say."

Ian leaned down and kissed her temple, lingering there as if trying to freeze the moment.

In that room, nothing else mattered. Not the rumour, not the past, not even the mystery of where she’d been. For those few minutes, there was only this:

A heartbeat, a beginning, and a quiet joy.

Outside the door, the few doctors and nurses who had rushed there stood still, unwilling to interrupt the moment.

"Would you like to know the baby’s sex?"

***

Marvin walked into his parent’s old house and looked at the overgrown weeds. It had been a while since anyone had come there, it would seem. It had been a long and tiring day, and all he wanted was to get some much-needed rest. At the back of his mind, he had also wished that he would get a chance to see his sister, Ava.

"What did I expect? That she’ll be here waiting for me, after all that I did to her?"

Marvin sighed again and then started to pull out the weeds in the yard. He only pulled out a couple before he gave up. He was too tired.

Just as he was about to enter the almost run-down home,

"Didn’t you say your sister hooked up with some rich guy? Why are you here doing yard work, when yo-"

"So what? What’s that got to do with you? Fuck off!"

Once, that question would’ve lit a spark in him. The old him-the cold, calculating bastard, would’ve seen it as an opportunity. Another way to squeeze something out of her. She wasn’t really his sister, anyway. Just adopted. Just... convenient.

Another scheme to get something out of the sister he had felt owed him, but it turned out that he had only been a fool. A big one at that.

Back then, after their parents died, Ava was easy to manipulate. She had no one else, and he made sure to use that. Thinking back to the things that he had done to Ava, Marvin felt ashamed.

But that version of him died somewhere out there - in the dirt, in the dark, chained and half-starved in that godforsaken drug camp.

He remembered the pain—the silence. The way time stopped being time and became a matter of survival. Months of forced labour, of torture that didn’t always leave bruises. And when the police finally stormed in and dragged him out into the light, something fundamental had shifted.

He wasn’t going back, but the lesson that the thugs had taught him was already deeply ingrained.

Ava didn’t owe him a damn thing. And he didn’t want anything from her anymore.

The lesson had been burned into him, cell by cell: Your mess is yours. Your demons are yours. You don’t pass that pain on. You don’t use the people who tried to love you.

He’d carry that truth like a scar, in a deep, permanent and unshakable way that will always be with him.

And he wouldn’t forget. Not now. Not ever.

Marvin threw a glare at the person who had spoken from outside their little door and then entered the house.

Coincidentally, he found a small photo frame that seemed to have fallen to the ground, maybe when Ava was packing out.

Marvin reached for it and sat on one of the dusty chairs. He used his hand to wipe the dust from the frame, and his eyes widened.

"What is Brainna doing with Ava and Shelby here?" He shouted to the empty room

Marvin was confused, though he had been at Brianna’s trial; he had not really paid much attention to the boring proceedings, or rather, he had not listened because his eyes had been glued to a certain someone. Also, the fact that Brianna had been so uptight, she had never visited Ava’s house, so in that sense, Marvin had never been introduced to her as Ava’s friend, and he, himself, did not know his sister well, because of his past actions.

"Does that mean that the Ava they mentioned in the trial is my sister?" He was starting to panic as he screamed

"I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT THE GIRL I AM CRUSHING ON TRIED TO KILL MY SISTER!"

’.... But I kinda still like her though...’ He thought the last part, not daring to say the frightening words.

*********

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