****
Rafael waited for another week. It has been three weeks now since he found Amara and admitted her to the hospital. But still no sign of her waking up. The doctors didn’t say much about her condition. They were always walking oneggshells around him, afraid that a single wrong move of them might cost them their lives. They were not fools to not realize by now what type of person he was within this timeline of three weeks.
Something about Amara didn't let him leave her alone. He wanted to be around her all the time. Stay close to her. Protect her. He had no idea how he grew to be so fond and protective of someone so fast and easily, even though she was just his arranged wife whom he hadn't even talked to more than once. But he didn't feel disturbed by this feeling.
He was indeed growing immensely protective of her that seemed who seemed to have hundreds of secrets within her. Maybe it was the guilt and his male ego, that someone else, someone who was not him, touched her.Rapedher.
His jaw clenched but all his anger vaporized in true anxiousness when he felt her finger moving. For a moment he was confused and though he must have imagined it, when her fingers moved again, Rafael immediately sat up straight and called the doctors. Both he and the doctor rushed inside again. What greeted them inside left them both surprised and alert.
There she was. Eyes open and curiously looking around the room, though with some difficulty.
Amara noticed Rafael and stared at him, blinking rapidly, not yet getting used to the bright light all around.
Rafael waited.
Waited for recognition.
Waited for warmth.
Waited for the soft curve of her lips, that same smile that used to greet him every evening when he returned home, tired, blood on his hands, sin on his shoulders, yet somehow feeling human the moment she looked at him.
He waited forhis wife.
But the woman lying in that hospital bed… looked at him like he was a stranger.
And that,thatterrified him more than death ever could.
Her eyes were open.
But they weren’thers.
Gone was the warmth that once lived in those honey-brown depths. Gone was the softness, the familiarity, the quiet love that used to undo him with a single glance.
In its place, there was darkness. Confusion.
An emptiness so hollow it felt like staring into the ruins of a home that had already burned to ash.
Rafael forgot how to breathe. Around him, the room erupted into movement. Doctors speaking over one another. Monitors beeping faster. Nurses rushing toward the bed, checking her pupils, her pulse, her oxygen levels.
But Rafael heard none of it. Because all he could see was her. Or perhaps… what was left of her.
His wife.
The woman he should had crossed oceans for.
Should had killed for.
And now… she looked at him like she had never seen him before. The realization hit him so hard his knees nearly gave out. No. No—
This wasn’t happening.
His heartbeat thundered violently against his ribs as he forced his frozen body to move.
One step.
Then another.
Until he stood beside her bed.
