Unexpected
"Ms Mirenda...." the security man yelled
Mirenda's gaze fell on the truck which was coming towards her briefly before her eyes were blinded by the truck's light. Her hands flew to cover her face as she screamed her lungs out. Unable to move from her spot. She was expecting to feel her body take a hit but she rather felt a gust of wind as she fell to the ground on her side. She could still hear the sound of the truck as it drove past and the last honking of the truck.
"Ms Mirenda, are you okay?" came the security man's voice who was crossing the street over to her side.
Mirenda lay on the ground for a while trying to recover from the incident. She could hear a lot of voices around her and someone screaming her name but one statement travelled to her ears.
"On no, she is bleeding," came a female voice.
"Someone call 911," came another female voice.
Mirenda tried to get up and was quickly assisted by the security man who was standing above her. She was fine and not bleeding. A little dusty but not bleeding. She could see the concerned look on the security man's face and his lips moving but she was not paying any attention to his words and hence heard nothing. She remained silent. She looked around and that was when she saw the person the voice she heard was referring to. A woman was lying on the floor not far from her and she had her clothes stained with what appeared to be blood.
"O my God," Mirenda exclaimed gaining herself immediately.
"Help, my baby," screamed the woman.
Mirenda got closer to see the woman who had risked her life to save hers and her eyes widened with surprise.
"Fiona?" Mirenda called out her name. "What are you doing here?" she asked forgetting Fiona was bleeding.
"Help me, please," Fiona begged as evidence of her pain was writing all over her face.
Mirenda quickly searched for her phone but realize she never picked it running out of the house due to her mother's words.
"Please call 911," Mirenda said to the security man who quickly pulled out his phone but before he could dial 911, an ambulance arrived at the scene.
Fiona was quickly attended to and placed in the ambulance which headed for the nearest hospital.
"Quick, bring a car around," Mirenda said to the security man as her gaze remained on the ambulance whose back she could still see. "Quick, follow the ambulance," she instructed and the guard who had brought the car did just that.
Lucky for Mirenda, the ambulance had not made any turn yet so she could still see it. They followed the ambulance to the hospital. They parked their car a couple of minutes after the ambulance had parked at the hospital emergency entrance. Mirenda got out of the car and rushed into the hospital.
"Fiona, Fiona," Mirenda said her name to the receptionist who quickly checked her system and informed her they didn't have a patient with such a name.
"Accident, no she fell, no emergency," Mirenda said.
"Calm down ma'am and tell me exactly what happened," the receptionist said.
"I was hit by a truck," Mirenda began and the receptionist looked at her from head to toe.
"But I was on the ground," Mirenda continued gasping her air. "And there was so much blood," again the receptionist looked at Mirenda from head to toe but still listened to her.
"And, And...." Mirenda continued not sure of what she was saying but her gaze fell on Fiona who was being pushed in on a patient stretcher trolley.
"I am looking for her," Mirenda said pointing to Fiona just then the guard walked in.
The receptionist saw Fiona on the patient stretcher trolley with an oxygen mask on and an IV attached to her. Her clothes were stained with blood but didn't have any major injury to indicate she was hit by a truck. She concluded whatever the lady in front of her saying, happened to the woman on the stretcher but probably not exactly how she had narrated it. She called Mirenda to her desk to get a few details from her which Mirenda shared by filling out the provided form with the help of the guard. While Mirenda was waiting for news about Fiona she recalled her words before the ambulance arrived. She had mentioned a baby.
"Is Fiona pregnant for James? Is that why she was within their area?" she thought as she paced up and down the patient waiting area.
While Mirenda was still in the hospital, news reached Mrs Haward that her daughter Mirenda was in the hospital. It had something to do with a truck running her over.
"What! What are you saying?" Mrs Haward said her breathing became unsteady.
Mrs Haward didn't like Mirenda because of how she had conceived her but it doesn't means she wished her dead.
"Which hospital?" Mrs Haward asked almost panicking.
"I don't know ma'am, one of the guards followed the ambulance," announced another guard who only heard that a truck had hit Mirenda.
"Well, call the guard you idiot," Mrs Haward yelled at the guard who quickly fetched his phone and dialled the guard's number. "You know which hospital now?" she asked once the guard lowered the phone from his ears.
"Yes ma'am," the guard replied.
"Well, take me there immediately," Mrs Haward requested.
"Yes ma'am but..." he began but Mrs Haward cut in
"Shut up and take me there at once," Mrs Haward yelled at him and the guard went mute exiting the living room with Mrs Haward.
They sat in one of the cars and headed for the hospital as Mrs Haward prayed in her heart for Mirenda to be okay.
Back in the hospital, Mirenda was still waiting in the patient area for any news about Fiona. A doctor walked to the receptionist spoke with her for a while and started walking towards her direction. Mirenda stood to her feet.
"Hello, you came with the patient?" the doctor asked.
"Yes please, how is she," Mirenda asked with concern.
"She is fine, you can see her now. The nurse would take you to her," the doctor said, turned and walked away.
"This way ma'am," came the voice of the nurse and Mirenda followed her.
Mirenda was ushered into a room where Fiona was lying in the bed with her eyes closed. She slowly walked in and sat next to her taking her hand in hers.
"Thank you and I am sorry," Mirenda said. "My family treated you so badly but you risked your life to save me," Mirenda said with tears streaming down her face. "I am so sorry," she repeated.
"You don't have to. I am a journalist and also good at reading people. I could tell you didn't like what was happening on that day," Fiona said in a weak voice opening her eyes.
"It's not the reason why I saved you. I saw someone in danger and the only thing that came to mind before I could debate about it was to save the person. Life is very precious no matter whose it is," Fiona said and Mirenda wiped her tears with the back of her hand as she l smiled weakly.
"The doctor said you are fine," Mirenda announced but Fiona had a sad look.
"Did they say anything about the baby?" Fiona asked but Mirenda didn't know what to say.
"I lost my baby?" Fiona asked her eyes quickly filling with tears. "My baby," she screamed and two nurses quickly rushed in as her screams continued.
Mirenda didn't know what to do. She stood to her feet making way for the nurses to attend to Fiona.
"Your baby is fine. The baby is fine. Nothing happened to the baby," the nurses who had just walked in announced and Fiona was immediately calm.
"Your baby is fine and please take care of yourself. You are still within your first trimester and that is a dangerous period," the nurse explained and Fiona nodded as she rubbed her belly.
"James scandal is almost three months old. Is the baby James's?" Mirenda thought as she stood close to the door.
The medical team exited the room and another nurse walked in to inform Mirenda that a woman had come to see her.
"I will be back," Mirenda said to Fiona and walked out of the ward to the waiting area only to see her mother wearing dark shades and her head covered with a scarf.
"She had the time to disguise herself before coming to the hospital," Mirenda thought with a frown as she walked towards her
"I thought you said she was hit by a truck?" Mrs Haward asked the guard upon seeing Mirenda.
Mirenda heard it and halted in her steps. Just when she thought her mother came to the hospital because she cared, it turned out she was wrong. Her mother only came there to confirm if truly she was hit by a truck. Every mother would have been super excited to see the news they heard was false and would run to hug their child but not her mother. She was rather confirming what she had heard seeing that was it not what was happening. Mirenda turned and walked back to the ward without Mrs Haward realizing it as she was busily scolding the guard for giving her false news making her panic unnecessarily.
Same time in another hospital run by Dr Andesh, she had received the straw used by Jason in sipping his drink. She picked Jason's saliva from the straw and used it to run a DNA test to confirm if he was indeed the missing boy from twenty-four years ago. She did what she needed to do and was now waiting for the results.