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The sound of her ring tone jolted Faith from a dreamless slumber. Her eyes fluttered open to the sound of the rain, the weather outside was gloomy.
What a great way to start the day!
She couldn't complain much about it as it suited her depressed mood quietly.
Her eyes located her cellphone which had stopped ringing. There were about three missed calls, all from her brother.
She was still wondering what the problem could be when it rang again.
"Hello." She answered while shoving off the bed covers and getting out of the bed.
There was a loud sigh at the other end of the line.
"Why weren't you answering?! Do you know how anxious I was? After what happened, I thought something might have happened to you as well!"
A puzzled expression spread across Faith's face as she dashed into the bathroom for a pee that couldn't wait.
"What happened? Why would anything happen to me? I'm fine!"
It couldn't be that her brother had gotten to know about her fight with Sterling, right?
How would he know that?
The silence from her brother's end only increased her uncertainties.
"Um__I don't know how to tell you this since you don't seem to know__" His tone sounded very grave, Faith immediately got that feeling that something was wrong, her first thought was if something had happened to their mother.
"Just tell me! What happened?" She voiced in worry, walking out of the bathroom, she entered the living room, bracing herself for whatever Julian would tell her.
Nothing could have ever prepared her.
"It's about the accident, Sterling__I mean your husband, I saw it all over the news."
Faith's heart gave a sudden hard pound.
"What acci__" Her words were brought to an abrupt halt when her eyes fell on the television on the wall not too far away.
A familiar name struck her attention and she forgot how to breathe.
"__The owner of the car has been identified as Sterling Hunter, a business tycoon, no one knows his condition as the situation is still unclear__"
Faith couldn't tear her eyes away from the screen, it felt as though she was frozen and all her blood had been drained.
How could this happen?
'__ You don't have to travel so far to get away from me." His words hunted her memory as a lone tear escaped her eyes.
No! No!
"Hello, Faith, what __are you there?" She barely heard Julian speaking to her.
Without a care about her ragged hair, or a change of clothes, she dashed out of the room through the door.
She had to find him and could only hope and desperately pray that it wasn't too late.
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*
"Ma'am, I'm sorry, you can't go inside! The patient is very critical, only family and close relatives are allowed!"
Faith stared at the nurse in pure irritation, she hadn't driven to the hospital like a crazed woman only to be blocked from seeing Sterling by these nurses!
"I'm his family! I'm sterling's wife! I want to see him right now!" She grounded out without hesitation.
The nurse blinked, wearing a confused expression.
"What are you waiting for? Take me to him!" Faith spoke when the nurses wouldn't budge.
"I'm afraid a wife wasn't mentioned in the patient's file, I'm afraid you aren't allowed inside!"
Faith felt like growling out her annoyance, she couldn't believe this was happening!
"Faith?"
Faith whirled around at the familiar feminine voice.
It was Emilia.
Emilia removed her sunglasses and Faith noted that the woman looked distressed.
"What are you doing here?"
Faith exhaled in slight relief, at least Emilia would be able to vouch that she and Sterling were husband and wife.
"I came to see Sterling! I'm sure you know what happened, oh god! I'm so worried! I can't believe that they won't allow me because they think that I'm not family! You can tell them that I'm Sterling's wi__"
"Secretary you mean!" Emilia completed and Faith stared at her stunned.
She watched as Emilia turned to the two nurses, "Excuse us please, I would like to have some words with her."
"Why did you say that to them?" Faith voiced suspiciously, and Emilia merely shrugged.
"Only a few people know about you and Sterling's marital status, most of them still think it's just baseless rumors as Sterling hasn't announced it publicly!"
"That may be the case but he's still my husband rightfully! It wasn't in your place to lie to them!" Faith voiced in irritation.
Emilia was silent for some seconds.
"After all that I told you about him, You still appear to care a lot about him! You don't care about all he's done!"
"I don't have time for this now!" Faith bit out and started to walk away, Emilia's eyes flashed with annoyance as she called out.
"I just saw him a few minutes ago! He's not doing well!"
Faith paused midway, whirling around to stare at Emilia.
She wasn't even related to Sterling! Why was she allowed?!
"You must be wondering, I should tell you that Sterling's mother is also here! She was the one who wanted me to accompany her! She is already distressed by the whole situation, she doesn't need the sudden appearance of a wife to further complicate things!"
In other words, she was telling Faith to return home!
"Don't worry, I can give you info on his situation if you want!" She smiled slightly.
Faith pressed her lips together, holding her stare.
"Didn't you tell me about how you hated him? How he used you and ruined your life? Why do you appear so interested in staying with him?"
Emilia only scoffed as though the question was unreasonable.
"I'm only doing this because Mrs. Barbara wants me to! She still regards me as her son's fiance, I can't help it if she still has hopes for us!"
Faith suddenly understood it all, Emilia was telling her these on purpose.
She had been a fool!
Emilia had had no intentions of helping her at all!
Her initial suspicions turned out to be right! The woman wanted Sterling and wasn't able to hide her intentions anymore!
"You told me those things not because you wanted to help me! You want me to leave him so you can get back with him!" Faith started, staring at Emilia with a new look.
"I should have understood your devious nature!" She spat and Emilia's gaze narrowed.
"Are you blaming me? Were any of the evidence I showed you false?"
Faith couldn't help but notice how she didn't bother to deny the rest of her accusation.
Faith made the decision then, whatever conflict between her and Sterling would be resolved.
He just needed to be fine!
"I'm going to see my husband!" Faith dared Emilia to try and stop her, she didn't expect the woman to laugh, pointing her manicured finger at her.
"Well, I hope you don't end up disappointed by your decision!"
Faith walked away from her, surprisingly, the nurses didn't try to stop her this time, it appeared they were taking their orders from Emilia! Faith couldn't help but feel irritated, it was a lack of professionalism at its finest! How would they offer good care to Sterling?
She was roaming in no particular direction until she heard the sound of voices, a woman's voice and that of a man.
As she walked into view, she saw the man wearing a white lab coat, he had to be the doctor in charge.
Faith also instantly recognized the woman immediately.
This was Barbara Hunter.
She hadn't always been in the best of health and had only visited the company on occasion during the last four years.
"Doctor, why did he lose consciousness again? Why can't he remember anything that happened? When will he be alright?"
Faith's heart lurched to her throat as her feet suddenly stopped moving.
"It's already a miracle that he survived such a fatal accident, it's common for these type of accident victims to lose parts of their memory, I'm afraid that was what happened to him, but what is quite odd is that he can't only remember events that happened in the last four years, cases like this is quite rare!"
Faith's heart was being cut open by a sharp blade.
It all but felt like a nightmare. She wanted to wake up.
It was all her fault!
He'd been upset when he left her place.
How could he have gotten into an accident if she hadn't lied to him about her feelings and the baby?
Guilt and sorrow made her eyes well, her chest hurt so much that it became hard to breathe.
"You heard it right? You might go and see him, but I think instead of you, he will remember me!" Faith heard Emilia speak behind her.
The sound seemed to gain the attention of the doctor and Mrs. Barbara.
Emilia threw a side glance at Faith before hurrying to meet Barbara in an embrace.
"Mom! Sterling will be fine, won't he?" She cried.
Faith had never felt so much like an intruder, she could do nothing but stare in a daze and wish last night hadn't happened.
"Thank you so much for still caring about my son even though things didn't work out between you two!" Barbara spoke, her eyes flickering to find Faith.
"You're also here? I remember you, you are his secretary, right?"
Faith started to respond but Faith beat her to it!
"Yes, she is! They were quite close, they were even a heavy rumor about them being married, but of course, it's false!"
Faith stared at Emilia, was there any use arguing when Sterling wouldn't be able to remember her? Not to mention that they both were on the verge of getting a divorce.
If the accident had not occurred, she would have received the divorce papers by now.
There was no use starting an argument with Emilia, she already lost her right to Sterling.
And if he didn't have any memory of her, then that was retribution for her lies.
She deserved it!
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