Chapter 3 A Ring That Wouldn't Fit
1272 Words
When Abby woke up again, she found herself alone in the ward.
Her cellphone was dead.
Abby didn't know how long she slept, but when she looked out the window, it was still dark.
She got up, put on her shoes, and headed out.
As she passed by Mia's ward, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Her feet suddenly grew heavy, and she couldn't seem to lift them.
The patient living here was Mia, but the person taking care of Mia was her husband, Jason.
Mia had a baby face.
Even the blue-white striped johnny she was in couldn't take that innocent and graceful look away from her.
Her skin was fair, and her eyes bright like a kitten.
That must be what Jason loved her for.
That innocence look about her.
While she, on the other hand, was the jealous b***h who was trying to tear them away from each other.
It killed Abby to see her husband treat Mia with such gentleness and adoration. It was something she could never have.
For someone who didn't know Jason well, he would think Jason wasn't hardwired to love anyone; that he was naturally cold and distant.
But Abby knew it otherwise.
There was love and tenderness in Jason's heart. He just didn't give it to her; he gave it to Mia, all of it.
But of course...he was once nice to her. It was a long long time ago.
Her "snooping" eventually caught the attention of the two people inside.
Shooting her a frightened look, Mia immediately hid behind Jason, her slender form shaking.
She was so timid and red-eyed, as if she had just seen a monster.
Jason patted her gently on the shoulder and snapped his cold eyes to Abby.
A strange feeling of irritation and disgust came over him, and he growled out: "What are you doing there, sneaking around?!"
Abby stood at the door.
It was hurting her to see them glued to each other.
But she couldn't help watching them.
Because she saw a Jason she had never seen before. A gentle, caring Jason. Something she wanted but was never given.
She felt her eyes start to blur to tears.
Jason pulled Mia behind him protectively and stared at her.
Taking note of how pale Abby looked, there was a funny feeling in his chest. He brushed the feeling away before furrowing his brows: "Now that you're awake, go home."
Abby hesitated for a moment before asking in a hoarse voice: "Are you coming back tonight?"
Jason looked alarmed at the suggestion.
Abby didn't bother to explain. She couldn't figure out what heinous things she had done to earn this distrust.
It was true that she broke them up; but in their four years' marriage, she had been nothing but a nanny to him.
She never asked, snooped, or stopped him from dating Mia, or whatever relationship they were having.
She knew they had been seeing each other; but up until her family went bankrupt, they had only done so secretly. Now that her family was no longer a threat, she figured they no longer have any qualms. They began to do it in broad daylight.
She never mentioned a word of how she felt about this.
But it'd be lie if she said she didn't care.
Ever since she got married to Jason, she had lost everything. She was dying of cancer, and now she had to help save Mia's life. But who was there to help her?
Abby felt her heart clenching together, as if it was pricked by thousands of needles, clenching and cleching. Even her fingertips were shaking with pain.
For all these years, she had obeyed Jason's words like a puppet.
Before, she obeyed because she wanted him to like her.
But now, she obeyed because she was numbed to the pain.
She turned to leave, Mia's voice reaching her ears from inside: "Is she okay? She gave me a lot of her blood, and she doesn't look well..."
"It's okay. She can take it."
See, this was the man she loved.
Even her rival in love could tell she was not well, but he didn't.
Jason had never been a careless person.
He could notice a problem at work at one glance; he could tell when Mia was not feeling well at the earliest time possible. But he had no patience for her, even though she was his wife, even though they had known each other for six years!
Abby took a deep breath and left the place without looking back.
It was raining harder and harder outside.
She walked slowly with her head down. She didn't have an umbrella, and was drenched wet within minutes.
Her body was sensitive to coldness; when cold kicked in, it felt the icy coldness came from within, not without. Even the blood felt cold.
The rain didn't help with the pain on her cracked and pale lips, and a few rain droplets blocked her vision by sticking onto her eyelashes.
It was so cold that even her stomach began to ache. She tried to warm it up by rubbing it but ended up dropping her wedding ring accidentally.
She followed the movement of the ring with dazed eyes.
After four years, the ring had lost the lustre it once had.
It looked black, and cheap.
She still remembered when Jason bought it.
Four years ago, when they signed the marriage contract, Abby had said to him, half jokingly: "Aren't you going to buy me a wedding ring?"
Hearing the words, Jason bought her a plastic ring from a market stall. It cost $5.
She remembered when he said: "Here. That's as much as your worth."
Abby plastered a fake smile at the words, but deep down, she felt a sadness eating her. The ring was too small for her finger. She forced it on, even though it grazed
her skin.
She thought to herself back then, that one day, one day the ring would fit.
But now, it slipped out of her finger from being too loose.
Just like her marriage.
It just wouldn't fit.
Abby curled up in the heavy rain. Her stomach was burning with fire. She quickly covered her mouth. Her eyes were red from pain, and tears flowed out uncontrollably.
It was still raining.
People on the street held up their fumbrellas.
Abby bent down, picked up the ring and held it to her chest.
She waited for the pain to ease up before standing up.
She wandered alone in the rain, like a lonely soul, lost and forgotten by God.
A small yelp of surprise escaped her lips when she bumped into someone.
She quickly apologized, and looked up.
It was a mother and a little child.
The mother said gently: "It's okay."
The child looked up at her and asked in a low voice: "Miss, are you crying?"
The mother gave Abby an apologetic look before walking away with her child.
She could hear the child asking his mother: "Mommy, why is she crying?"
"Mommy, is something scaring her?"
The voices gradually died away.
Abby raised her head to blink back the tears.
Scared? How could she not be scared? She was scared when she went to the hospital alone, she was scared when the doctor asked her to meet him in his office, she was scared when the medical report came out, when she was given death sentence... She was so scared that her blood felt cold in her veins.
But compared with all these, she was more scared that she would die alone, lost and forgotten.
- Writer
