15. Chapter Fourteen
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MARGERY
B eep. Beep. Beep.
What was that noise? Why was it so constant?
Beep. Beep. Beep.
It almost sounded like a machine from a hospital, but that couldn’t be. Could it?
She took a deep breath in and froze. Bleach. That was the first thing she smelled. She never used bleach at work or at her house. Where was she? The beeping got louder and faster as she started to panic.
Why was it going faster?
Margery rolled her head to the left side and opened her eyes. Machines. Bags.
She was in the hospital.
But why? How did she get there? What was wrong with her? Why was there a heart monitor attached to her or an IV in her arm?
“Good afternoon. I’m glad to see you finally awake,” a lady said kindly as she walked through the door.
“Whe—” Margery cleared her throat. “Where am I?”
“You’re in the hospital, sweetie.”
She shook her head. “Why am I here? How did I get here? What happened?”
“You’re okay. Why don’t you take some deep breaths as I explain things.”
“Please.”
Margery didn’t like not being in the know. Especially when it came to her health and where she was. The last thing Margery remembered was Ethan doing something to her neck and her passing out.
What happened after? Had someone found her before Ethan could take her away?
Her breathing picked up. Was Ethan close by? Was he going to make it seem like he was a hero so people wouldn’t suspect him?
“Ma’am,” the nurse said. “If you don’t calm down, I’m going to have to give you something.”
Margery closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn’t want to be sedated, not when she didn’t know the answers to her questions.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “Please, continue.”
She didn’t know how much longer she could keep her emotions in check. The past several weeks, maybe even over a month or two, had been stressful. The constant worry about who was stalking her and how they kept getting into her house.
It was starting to take a toll on her.
“A man brought you in. Said he heard you scream and found you passed out on a floor and a man dead,” the nurse explained.
Margery wanted to ask what the man looked like, but she didn’t want to ask too many questions for the nurse to get suspicious. If Ethan killed had Max, what was stopping him from killing anyone she talked to?
“Is he still here?” she whispered.
“No, he just dropped you off.”
“How long have I been here for?”
“Over twelve hours. You were here before I got on shift, and I’m about to get off.”
“Why am I hooked up to so many different things? Am I okay? Am I dying?”
Did Ethan do something to her while she was passed out? Inject her with something that would make her die slowly?
No, that wasn’t possible. He wanted her, or that’s what he said. But if he wanted her, why did he drop her off there? Why wasn’t she with him?
Not that Margery wanted him to be. She didn’t want to be anywhere near him. Or that was what she told herself. There was always going to be part of her that wanted him and to be with him.
But he was different.
So different.
Almost like he was a completely new person in the same body. She fought her emotions over the whole situation. Did she find it hot, or was she scared out of her mind and wanted nothing to do with him?
“You aren’t dying. You came in very dehydrated and had a very mild concussion. We were monitoring you and helping you get hydrated again. Nothing to worry about now,” she calmly offered. “You are good to be discharged. I was checking in to see if you were awake before I left.”
“Did he give you a name?” she asked.
Maybe he gave whoever took her from him a message.
“The nurse who got you said he didn’t say anything. Sorry. Were you expecting him to say something? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Just wondering.” Margery shrugged, feeling a little disappointed.
“Do you remember much about what happened? Do I need to call the police?”Concern was written all over the nurse’s face.
“Nope, it’s fine.”Rainey forced her smile.
“But there was a dead body next to you.”
“I bet the guy took care of it. He found me, which means he probably called the police after he got me to the hospital.”
“Do you remember where you were?”The nurse inquired.
Why was she asking so many questions? Was this normal for a nurse? Margery shouldn’t have asked the last question. It opened a can of worms she didn’t want to talk about.
“I was out of the city. Can’t really remember where, so he probably didn’t want to wait for an ambulance. Honestly, I’m fine.”
“If you’re sure, we can discharge you.”
“I’m sure.”
The nurse nodded and walked to the door. “I’ll get the paperwork. Someone will be in shortly to help with unhooking and taking everything off.”
“Thanks.”
It didn’t take long for the nurse to come in and start to unhook everything, and before Margery knew it, she was walking out of the hospital.
How was she going to get home? She didn’t have her phone, keys, or anything. Hopefully, Adalisa still had her spare key and wasn’t busy right now. But how was she going to get in contact with her?
Margery stopped and thought for a moment. She left a key under her rug a while ago and hadn’t removed it. Fingers crossed, it was still there, and she could get in. Now, to catch a cab or something with no money.
“I’ve got a cab coming for you. Already paid for,” the nurse insisted as she walked out of the building. “Don’t worry about trying to pay me back. You just take care of yourself and don’t get into a situation like that again.”
“How?”
“Sweetie. I may be older, but I’m not blind. You know the guy who saved you. You were in a bad situation, and he saved you.”
“What?” Margery gasped.
“Don’t play dumb. I know about the way the guy looked at you when he brought you in. There’s something between you two.”
Margery gave her a confused look. “I thought you said you weren’t there when he dropped me off.”
“I wasn’t, but nurses talk. I heard it from them. One of them is a storyteller so we have all the good details. "
She didn’t know how to feel about that. Obviously, Ethan was trying to win over people. Acting like a hero, telling them he found her, and so much more. And all of that was false. Ethan wasn’t the hero, and while he did find her, he had been stalking her, and then he had killed Max.
People shouldn’t like people who did those things.
“I just think you should give him a chance. He obviously cares for you, even though he left you at the hospital alone. But maybe it’s because you two can’t be out in public yet. My sister was like that with her man.”
Margery shook her head. That was not the case for them, but she couldn’t flat-out say he was stalking her. Nobody seemed to believe her, so she wasn’t going even to mention it. People thought she was making things up, but that was far from the truth.
“You keep telling yourself that. You two obviously care for each other. I would hate for you to miss out on the opportunity of love. It’s one of the best things in the world. Everyone should experience it once in their life. But if you two aren’t ready for it, don’t push it. Your time will come,” the nurse mused.
How was she supposed to respond to that? There was no good way. The nurse didn’t know the whole story. She didn’t know how Ethan had died over eighteen years ago and that he had been stalking her.
Margery assumed if the nurse knew everything, she wouldn’t be saying this. That is, if she believed everything Margery said.
“Well, here’s your ride. You stay safe out there. If he does come back around, go for it. Live your life and live with him,” the nurse said as a car pulled up.
“Margery?” the driver asked.
Margery got into the car and gave the driver her address. Would everything be as she left it, or was there going to be something waiting for her?
She suspected there wasn’t going to be anything in her house because Ethan had been busy with her the past couple of days. Unless he got somebody else to do his work, but she figured that wasn’t going to be the case. She had a feeling Ethan worked by himself, but she could have been wrong.
She obviously didn’t know Ethan, or well, the new Ethan. Things had changed in the eighteen years she hadn’t seen him. Maybe someone could have taken his face and put it on another person.
Was that even possible? Margery didn’t know, and it sounded too weird, but she also knew anything was possible on the black market. She didn’t know from experience but from talk.
“Here you are, ma’am,” the man announced as they pulled in front of her house.
Thanking him, Margery quickly got out of the car and made her way toward her house. Fingers crossed, the key was still under the mat like she had left it.
She jogged to the front door and swiftly looked around to see if anybody was out before she bent down and checked.
“Yes,” she whispered and fist-pumped the air.
Unlocking the door, she walked inside and took a deep breath in. Everything looked to be where it was before she left. The stuffed zebras she received before were on the dining room table in a line. The dishes she had left in the sink were still there.
She quickly looked away from the zebras. Her mind didn’t need to be there right now, not when she had just gone through so much.
Who could she contact who would believe her? Margery knew she couldn’t call the police because the guy made it clear he didn’t accept her version of events. That it was that she had a secret admirer.
But who else could she go to? She couldn’t go to the FBI because they didn’t handle things like this. She couldn’t go to the CIA because she didn’t even know if they were real.
Who else could she go to then?
There weren’t a lot of options, and she felt lost and unsure. Her coworker didn’t even seem to believe her, which was speaking volumes.
If her own coworker and Max didn’t believe her, then who would? ’
No one.
Margery was feeling more alone than ever, and she didn’t like it. Not one bit.
“What am I going to do?” she whispered to herself.
She patted the back of her pocket to grab her phone but quickly realized she didn’t have it with her. Margery had left it at the cabin when Ethan showed up in the middle of the storm. Not that it would have done her much good if she had it because it was probably dead by now. She wouldn’t have even been able to charge it since her charger was back at the cabin.
Yeah, her life kind of sucked right now .
Not only was her phone there, lots of her clothes and shoes were also there. And she didn’t have a car either because she totaled it in the rain. Thankfully, her stuffed animal wasn’t at the cabin. Margery had a feeling she shouldn’t bring it, and she was glad she didn’t.
Then she would have been really lost.
Honestly, she probably would have driven up there to get it.
But with what money?
Her wallet was also at the cabin. All her credit cards and cash were in there. How was she going to do anything? How was she going to get a new phone?
There were so many things she needed to work out, but she couldn’t unless she had something that she could actually sort out. It was a vicious cycle, and she didn’t know how to figure it out.
Maybe when she saw Adalisa at work, she could borrow some money and buy a phone. That would be the start to a lot of things. Then she could figure out her credit card stuff and maybe even open up her PayPal to pay for things.
One little step at a time. That’s what she needed to remind herself at this moment. There was nothing else she could do. Not until she saw Adalisa tomorrow.
Margery just hoped that Adalisa would be understanding of this situation. Maybe once she said explained about the car accident and ending up in hospital, she would be. And there was no doubt she would pay her back.
She wasn’t like one not to pay back her friends when they helped her out. It was rude, and she was able to do it. She just needed help first .
There was no reason for her to do anything now. She had no clue if Adalisa was at work, and she didn’t want to walk all the way there, only for her to be at home. But she knew Adalisa would be working tomorrow morning, so she would be able to see her then. Right now, she would just relax and try to get some sleep that she desperately needed.
Sighing, Margery walked toward her bedroom, opened her door, and went through. The first thing she saw was another stuffed zebra sitting on her bed with a card next to it.
She screamed and backed up against the wall.
“Not happening. This is not happening,” she mumbled to herself.
Her eyes were trained on the stuffed zebra. It looked so real, but it couldn’t be. Could it?
“I’m seeing things. I am seeing things. It isn’t real. I’m okay. There isn’t a stuffed zebra on my bed. I must be hallucinating, or it must be the mild concussion I have,” she started to talk to herself, sounding crazier as the seconds went by.
There was no way he could have put the stuffed zebra there. Was he not busy doing something else? Was all his focus on her and trying to torture her?
There was a possibility Ethan could have placed it in her house. She was in the hospital for hours, and he wasn’t. Ethan could have also put it there after she had gone to the cabin. There was no real way to know when he placed it in her house, and she figured she was never going to find out.
“This can’t be real, but it looks so real,” she mumbled.
Margery carefully pushed off the wall and tentatively walked toward the bed. She knew the stuffed zebra wasn’t going to bite, but she couldn’t help but be wary. Was he in her house right now? Was he outside, waiting to see her reaction?
Her eyes went to her window, only to find the blinds closed. She relaxed a tiny bit, knowing he wouldn’t be able to see inside her house. He couldn’t possibly since there was only one window in her room, and it was closed.
She bent down and picked up the zebra. The word ‘ for ’ was embroidered on the heart with the same signature at the end.
“This is real,” she whispered. “So real.”
She put the stuffed zebra on the ground before picking the note up. Ethan had never left a note before, but this time, he decided to.
Why?
Why give her a note after he had already sent so many other stuffed zebras? It made no sense,. However, Ethan was different and not the person she had known before. This could be the new him, someone who didn’t make any sense until the very end.
With shaky hands, she opened the note and read it.
The time wasn’t right. Be prepared. Your love.