Chapter 32 Regret
Elsa was rushed to the emergency department.
By sheer luck, two men had been standing farther down the escalator and managed to catch her before the fall became catastrophic.
She escaped with several bruises and abrasions.
Physically, she wasn't seriously injured.
Emotionally, however, the repeated shocks had pushed her close to collapse.
Alexander refused to take chances. He had the doctor order twelve hours of observation.
Elsa sat on the hospital bed with gauze wrapped around one elbow and both knees.
Alexander stood on one side, Lucas at the foot of the bed, and Violet on the other.
The atmosphere was so oppressive that Violet cleared her throat twice and still didn't dare speak.
If this had happened to her, she thought, she probably would have chased the man with a knife by now.
Lucas rested both hands on the foot rail and looked back and forth between Alexander and Elsa.
For once, even he had nothing clever to say.
Apparently, one box of sanitary pads really could cause a bloodbath.
Alexander was in trouble this time.
He sat beside Elsa and watched her pale face for a long moment.
In the end, he still didn't explain.
"Rest. I'll get you something to eat."
As he stood, his phone vibrated.
He checked the caller ID and instinctively glanced at Elsa.
Elsa bit down on her lower lip. Her body trembled from the effort of holding herself together, but she said nothing.
Alexander turned to Violet. "Stay with her. Don't let her out of your sight."
Lucas followed Alexander into the corridor.
The moment the door closed, Lucas blocked his path.
"What exactly are you doing? You practically admitted your connection to Serena and her son at the family house. Elsa hasn't even recovered from hearing that, and then she catches you buying Serena sanitary pads?"
He stared at Alexander in disbelief. "Is Serena the only woman on earth who gets a period? Why are you treating every tiny thing involving her like a national emergency?"
Alexander's frustration deepened. "She called while I was on the way somewhere and asked me to pick up a box because she needed it urgently. I agreed without thinking."
Lucas laughed without humor.
"She comes back and asks you to pick her up from the airport—you agree without thinking. She cries that nobody is taking care of her—you agree. She says she's afraid people will look down on her and asks you to hide the child's background—you agree."
Lucas stepped closer. "You agree to everything Serena asks. So why are you so calculating with Elsa?"
Alexander frowned. "When have I ever been calculating with Elsa?"
"Aren't you using money to trap her?"
Alexander's expression went still.
Lucas continued. "She asked me to lend her one billion so she could divorce you. Do you think she'd ask me for that kind of money if you hadn't pushed her into a corner?"
Alexander looked toward the hospital-room door.
His fingers tightened around his phone until his knuckles whitened.
Inside, Elsa's emotions surged again.
All she could hear were Alexander's words from the study.
He had said clearly that Serena was the woman he wanted.
Serena was the woman he had always loved.
He had said his happiness had been destroyed.
He had said the boy was his son.
He had promised to take responsibility for Serena and her child to the end.
Elsa covered her head with both hands.
Before marriage, people had warned her that marriage was a grave.
She used to laugh and say that if she could marry Alexander, marriage would feel like home.
Now she understood how childish that had been.
This marriage hadn't only buried her youth.
It had buried her pride and self-respect with it.
What Elsa wanted had never been complicated.
A life for two people.
A husband who didn't need to be the richest or most impressive man in the room, but who belonged to her completely, in body and in heart.
Alexander's heart was no longer clean in her eyes.
Neither was the life he was living.
No matter how much she loved him, she didn't want him anymore.
Crying, Elsa picked up her phone and called her father.
When Harold answered, she fought to keep her voice steady.
"Dad, I want to come home."
Harold asked only one question.
"Where are you?"
Elsa gave him the address.
Then he hung up.
Violet knew then that Elsa was serious.
She immediately called Eleanor and asked her to come.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Violet held Elsa's hand carefully.
"Elsa... do you regret marrying my brother?"
Elsa tightened her fingers around Violet's.
Her lashes trembled.
"Yes," she whispered. "I regret it. And I truly can't accept what my life has become."
Outside the door, Alexander's hand shook on the handle.
It was the first time he had ever heard the word regret from Elsa's mouth.
Lucas glanced at Alexander's unsettled face and pushed the door open.
Alexander walked to the bedside, his dark eyes fixed on Elsa.
Violet hurried toward him. "Alexander, Elsa called her family. I called Mom too."
After a hesitation, Alexander sat beside Elsa.
One hand braced against the mattress as he leaned closer.
"I know you're angry," he said. "But whatever happens between husband and wife, we can solve it together. Don't worry the elders."
Elsa kept her eyes lowered and waited silently for her father.
She gave Alexander no response.
Since Serena and the child had returned, since Alexander had gone to the airport in the middle of the night and stayed away from home for a month, Elsa had lost count of how many times she had cried or fought with him.
She had become sick, injured, fainted, screamed until she had no voice, even threatened to hurt herself.
Nothing she did moved Alexander enough to change his decisions.
Nothing changed the ending waiting for them.
At last, her love for Alexander was changing from possession into release.
She would let him go.
And she would let herself go too.
Her silence made Alexander inexplicably uneasy.
He turned to Lucas and Violet. "Give us a few minutes alone."
The two exchanged a look and had barely reached the door when it opened from outside.
Elsa's parents entered.
Alexander stood. "Dad. Mom. Why are you here?"
Harold controlled his expression because other people were present. "I heard Elsa was hurt. Her mother and I came to see her."
Alexander looked at Elsa, guilt in his eyes. "Dad, Mom, I didn't take good enough care of her."
Margaret went straight to the bed and checked Elsa's injuries.
Elsa's chin trembled. She bit her lower lip hard to stop herself from crying.
Margaret knew her daughter.
Elsa had been spoiled and dramatic as a child, but this expression only appeared when she had been truly wounded.
Margaret's own eyes filled with tears. "What happened? How did you get hurt?"
Elsa couldn't hold back anymore.
Just as she had when she was little, she opened both arms and threw herself into her mother's embrace.
"Mom," she sobbed. "Hold me."