The pack's little sick bay was void of any living soul.
I staggered out of the place on one leg as I'd sprained the ankle of the other.
I called a taxi to take me to the city's hospital.
When the nurse came to replace the water bag connected to the drip with another full one,she asked whether I had a family waiting for me outside.
She had suggested I get the drips as I looked drained and it would be best of both worlds; treating my ankle and looking after my health.
I shook my head negatively and told her untruthfully that he'd called and spoken to me on phone.
I went ahead to tell her that I was fine with it.
"Our family will not always be by our side physically. It's their feelings that wishes us well in every moments and linger around us that matters."
Her eyes pinched a little and she offered me a warm smile then left after connecting the new bag of water.
My chest was heavy, it felt almost as if I had a stone hiding there and to draw a single breath in means getting overwhelmed with thousands of pain.
I plucked my phone from my bag to make a call but a notification from Instagram popped up and I tapped on it out of curiosity.
A post created by his best friend a minute ago appeared at the top of my news feed.
"Life is fun and free when there's no tigress around keeping tabs. Joe's achilles heel is truly Nelly."
Attached to the caption was a photo of Alpha Joe Breed looking tenderly at his childhood sweetheart who was lying on the bed.
With a sharp exhale,I tapped on the love button but the photo vanished right after.
The next minute,Joe was in my inbox explaining things.
"Have a blissful night."i casually replied him.
He sent a voice note and I clicked on it.
"Racheal, why aren't you worried about me?"he sounded panicky.
..
Today was our wedding anniversary.
In excitement of this day,I had barely managed to get a pardon not to work till 10 pm like I usually do.
I had rushed to the pack - to our home to get things ready but fell on the stairs,twisting an ankle in the process.
Previously,i had sent my husband a message while at work, wondering if he could pick me up.
I had gotten a tulips flower from a good shop on my way from work.
I waited for him to come and thrust the flowers in his hand,hoping that would be a lovely surprise to him.
His reply popped on my phone some minutes later.
"Racheal,I have to catch some drinks with friends tonight. Order a nice food online for dinner."
Friends? Again?!
Enraged, I'd thrown the flower away and called a taxi to take me to the hospital to get my wound treated.
As I sat before the doctor in his office,his message came in again just as the doctor asked if I came with a family member.
"Not strangers, just friends from back in the day. More like a reunion party."he tried to clarify.
I ignored the message.
"He's out of the country for business." I answered the doctor and he gave me one sorta look.
Understanding that sounded weird,I quickly modified my statement.
"To be fair, I'm a…widow."I lied.
The empathetic look he threw afterwards made me wanna puke.
The procedure went more faster.
I was in agony,but that doesn't come from any physical injury.
My insides felt void as if I had just lost a vital organ.
After the treatment,I started heading back to the packhouse.
While in the taxi,I got a whiff of Joe's car heading to the opposite direction, towards the hospital and my stomach twisted in inexplicable feelings.
Unsettled,I brought my phone out of my bag to give Joe a call and ask what he was doing.
I shook my head. It'd be me proving them that I was an inquisitive wife if I call him.
I chewed on my nails for some minutes.
I'll just call him,I have to why he is there.
Weren't they supposed to be having drinks?
I got notified about his friend's new post on Instagram and decided to check it out.
"Life is fun and free when there's no tigress around keeping tabs. Joe's achilles heel is truly Nelly Barclays."
Attached to the caption was a photo of Joe Breed looking tenderly at his childhood sweetheart who was lying on the bed.
Their friends group consists four - three boys and one girl.
Joe Breed and Nelly Barclays has always been shipped as the jade girl and jade boy.
They would have made perfect partners in marriage if only Nelly hadn't been forced by her parents to get married to a foreigner of a man.
Joe's friends saw me at the villain in their love story,they pushed the balme on me not the woman that ran off with another man after she came back to America with a young boy who she gave birth to.
They were greatly disgruntled about Joe's engagement with me so they always manage to snag him up every night to have drinks with them.
Fully aware of Joe's weak tolerance for alcohols,I would call to tell him to come home but I would be viewed as a killjoy by his friends and he might end up spending the whole night with them.
Whenever they come visiting,I was treated like a premium housekeeper in the house.
Tonight again,Joe has chosen his beloved friends over me.
Maybe this is cool,afterall,since there wouldn't be anything in me that would want to soften.
I bit down on my lower lips before reacting to the post with love.
The post was nowhere to be found again the next second; An evidence that they forgot to block me from seeing that post.
Around three in the morning, Joe staggered into the house.
He stayed in the kitchen for a while before coming inside the room, contaminating the air with the strong scent of alcohol on him.
When he saw my eyes staring at him,a line of panic flashed on his face before he came to lie down beside me, pulling the quilt to cover me.
"No hangover soup for me today?"he asked softly.
"You can cook a pot for yourself."i replied,averting my eyes from him.
Beneath the nose-bleeding reek of alcohol on him,I could smell a faint scent of lavender which made my stomach experience a sharp pain.
A sigh left his lips as if he has more to say but got a second thought of it.
"Get some sleep. Both you and the baby need it."
