Chapter 13 EARLY MORNING EARDRUMS

Chapter 13 EARLY MORNING EARDRUMS
I couldn’t sleep. I’d refuse to go home despite Collin’s insistence to the point of him almost flaring up physically. I’d not lie and say I didn’t enjoy riling him up, but if I have any hope of keeping up with this ruse of an engagement I need to stick to character, until I can think of a plan.

It was already six a.m. when I gave up on the thought of being able to catch any sleep and stood up from the recliner chair I was using temporarily as a bed. I checked on dad who was still sleeping soundly before heading downstairs hoping for coffee.

I tried not to think about the fact that I had been so sure I was dying just a day ago and now not only was I back and very much alive, my dad was also alive too.

Perhaps the inheritance war could be avoided after all. 

I no longer have to guard myself against my deceptive fiancé and his murderous lover, my own sister. 

Perhaps I was given a second chance at finally enjoying the familial love that always left me with a gaping hole in my heart that nothing else could fill.

Remembering the phone I’d found in my bag, I brought it out and started scrolling through not able to get rid of the thought that this contact list belonged to someone else.

Most of the names on the phone was a surprise to me. It was surprising that I use to have a life outside Collin, a community, interest and a personality. I lost so much while trying to conform to Collin’s needs, they are yet to come up with a word to adequately describe how realizing that made me feel.

Going by the timeline, I’ve already stopped talking to most of them either because I kept cancelling plans at the last minute to spend time with Collin, and they eventually stopped including me, or because they didn’t approve of my relationship with him.

The. No, my phone rang.

It was Amber, my postgraduate cohort and room mate. 

Even though going to Harvard Business School had been my dad’s idea, I jumped at it mostly because it gave me an excuse to escape the stifling mansion and everything tied to New York. Mostly to avoid Scarlett. 

That’s how I tried to keep the peace: I stayed out of her territory while she undermined mine.

I shied away from conflict; she shoved it in my face.

I kept our contact to a minimum; she insisted on maintaining hers.

But that’s all going to change because in this life I’d not go out of my way to cater to someone else’s need.

“What is this trash circulating around school about you dropping out of school to prepare for your wedding?” 

I grinned, keeping the phone just far enough from my ear to be safe. Hearing Amber again was nice… even if she had zero idea how early-morning eardrums or eardrums at any time worked.

“And even though you plan to drop out, why didn’t I hear this from you. I thought we were friends.” 

I twisted my ring between my fingers, a nervous habit I need to shake. I let my hands drop.

In the original timeline, I never spoke to Amber after I dropped out. We were roommate for more than a year and I just… left. 

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. For my cowardice, for being such a people-pleaser. You had to step in more than once to stop me from being taken advantage of, and I was never grateful… for all the times I hurt you.

At the time, Collin had sold dropping out to me like it was a dream. I needed to be in New York City, where our new life was waiting, and I didn’t need the degree, I had him, and we needed to spend more time together.

In hindsight, I was utterly naive.

“I was being foolish. I’d be in school,” I told her. 

“Right?” Amber scoffed. “I knew you wouldn’t make a move this big without telling me. And quitting school now? You’d be crazy, we’re almost done, and you’re one of the top students. Nobody deserves this degree more than you do. Unlike me, I’m only here thanks to a few cheques from my father.”

I think one of the reason I never contacted Amber was because I knew I could never explain my decision to her. I think a part of me back then, even naive and stupidly in love knew I was making a mistake.

Yet, I went ahead. I chose to believe in love and I paid the price.

Still deep in thought, I took a sip of the cappuccino I’d gotten from the hospital’s coffee vending machine and my eyes watered at the restraint it took for me not to do a spit take. I gulped it down while staring at the cup accusingly.

“Here.” A cup of coffee suddenly appeared in my line of vision. I blinked, startled, and instinctively grabbed it, the warmth seeping through the paper sleeve.

I was about to turn and say thank you when movement caught my eye. Scarlett, striding toward the elevator, she looked panicked. 

The vending machine was farther from the elevator, so by the time I processed what I was seeing, she was already stepping inside. 

Feeling an irrational flare of panic, coffee still in hand, I muttered a rapid, half-hearted “thank you” over my shoulder, not even seeing who had handed it to me as I practically bolted after Scarlett. 

I was a moment late but I took the next elevator.

Somehow, I could tell the moment I got to the ward.

Scarlett was being restrained by a nurse as she cried, wanting to hold on to dad. 

I wanted to cry too and make a ruckus but all I could do was stare at dad just like I did yesterday. He was wearing a smile just like yesterday too but I knew that will be the last time I saw it.

He was dead.

He died of a cardiac arrest while I was drinking coffee.