Chapter 53
ONE WEEK LATER.
The door unceremoniously opened, and Cassandra entered with a sweet smile on her lips. “I have good news for you, Heart,” she told me, unable to hide the excitement in her tone.
Cassandra had called me “Heart” ever since I woke up from the hospital. She based it on the shape of my face. Since I couldn't recall my real name, I temporarily accepted the name Heart.
“The doctor allowed you to be discharged today!” she added, skittering across the room and stopping just beside the bed.
“Thank God!” I mumbled under my breath. For the first time since I woke up in the hospital, I felt relieved. Slowly, a smile curled on my lips.
“I don't want to be a burden to you. You can just leave me here in the hospital, and I will find a way to survive and find a place to stay,” I told her, then bit my bottom lip afterward.
“Silly young woman!” Cassandra exclaimed as she threw me a sharp look. She didn't mean any harm, though; she was simply expressing her thoughts. “No way will I let you go with that condition of yours! The streets are full of bad people with ill intentions! There's no way on earth I will let a beautiful young woman like you wander the streets!”
Exactly the way I thought she would react, I thought to myself. Ever since Cassandra found me on the shore and brought me to the hospital, she had treated me like a sister. I admired her strong sense of responsibility. Despite not knowing me, she didn’t turn her back on me, which anyone else might have done if they were in her shoes.
“But you've done enough for me, Cass. I'm a burden to you, too,” I reasoned.
“You're never a burden to me, Heart,” Cassandra told me with a thoughtful expression on her face. “In fact, I owe you my life.” She added, which brought a deep frown to my temples.
“How?” The question automatically emerged from my lips.
“The day I found you washed ashore, I was planning to end my life.”
“Y-you're joking, right?”
“It's the truth,” Cassandra admitted, a shadow of sadness crossing her sad and tired eyes.
“Why?” I whispered, my eyes glued to her angelic face.
“Because I lost everything when my fiancé left me. He ran off with my cousin, took the money with him, and left me with a mountain of debts. I could work a lifetime, but I'll never be able to pay the loans. The interest goes up every day.”
Cassandra let out a deep sigh. “I planned to drown myself that day, but then I found you. I immediately brought you to the hospital while abandoning my plan to end my life. After seeing you fight for your life in the hospital for days, I realized I don't want to die yet. Though I have to work to death to pay the debts, I still want to continue living.”
Finally, that explained the sad look I saw in her eyes every time I looked at her when she thought no one was watching. Though I never knew the kind of life I lived before the accident, I strongly sympathized with her. I could almost feel her pain as though it were my own.
“I'm grateful that I was there at the right time and place, Cass. Though I never wanted to put myself in that situation, at least I saved your life,” I murmured under my breath as I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.
“I'm grateful too,” she replied, drying the dampness on her cheeks.
“Why are we crying?” she exclaimed, laughing. I joined her laughter. “We should be happy because you're doing well now! In fact, we must celebrate!” she added, smiling at me. I smiled back at her.
“Forget about the celebration. I still owe you for my hospital bills.”
“Don't worry about the bills. I'll make a special dish once we arrive home. I'm very good at making desserts too,” Cassandra beamed.
“Well, I can't wait to taste your specialties!”
***
It was around two in the afternoon when we finally came out of the hospital. The peerless blue sky greeted me as I looked up. I took a deep breath of fresh air, savoring my freedom. The days I spent in the hospital room seemed to last an eternity, and at last, I had finally escaped the walls that kept me like a prisoner for a week.
“Be careful. Don't strain your body by walking fast,” Cassandra said behind me, and I abruptly stopped as I realized I had left her.
“Sorry, I got so excited,” I told her.
“I know,” she replied with a smile. “You’d definitely miss the outside world after being trapped inside the hospital for weeks.”
A cab skidded to a stop in front of us. Cassandra opened the door for me. After I entered, she turned to the opposite side of the cab, opened the door, and climbed in beside me in the passenger seat.
Soon, the cab joined the array of cars peacefully crawling across the four-lane highway.
Colossal skyscrapers, expansive buildings, and modern establishments greeted my eyes as I looked outside the window.
The city did not look familiar to me at all. It was as though it was the first time I’d ever set foot in the place.
“Do you recognize any buildings?” Cassandra asked after she noticed my gaze was drawn outside at the view passing by the window.
“No,” I replied. “To be honest, I feel as though I’ve never been here before.”
“Maybe you don’t live here. I found you near the shore, so it could mean you might be from another place or perhaps another country. But I doubt the waves just carried you from one county to another. Maybe whoever shot you brought you somewhere in the ocean in a boat and then tried to dispose of you by dropping you off the boat. Then the waves just washed you ashore.” Cassandra said the words more to herself than to me.
What Cassandra said was only a theory, but there was a huge possibility that it could be true. I thought to myself and wondered if I had a lot of enemies who wanted me dead.
Seeing the worry on my face, Cassandra laid a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Stop worrying. Your memories will return in time. Just don’t force yourself to recall what you can't.”
Letting out a sigh, I returned my gaze to the window and saw just in time as the cab passed in front of an expansive palace. My jaw dropped as my eyes surveyed the magnificent place that I had only thought existed in my imagination.
“That’s Fleur De Lis Hotel,” Cassandra explained, her eyes glowing in fascination as she eyed the place. “That’s the largest hotel in the country. I have never set foot in that place because only the rich and the elite are allowed inside, but one day I want to enter that place,” she added with a dreamy look in her eyes.
“The Phoenix family owns that hotel,” Cassandra told me.
Something inside my chest jolted. The Phoenix family name sounded so familiar to me.