It's the first time Adrian feels any genuine feeling towards his wife.
As soon as he learned about the plane crash and Cassidy's current condition, genuine fear ascended within him. He was completely thrown to sixes and sevens. For the entire ride to the hospital, he couldn't settle down at all.
That's when he also recalled his grandmother's words to him before he got married.
"Adrian, my grandson... Take good care of your wife. You may not be able to see it now, but that young woman possesses an imperceptible, special kind of fire within her - one that can melt a cold heart. She's strong-willed and relentless, never backing down... But even then, she's just as alone as you are in this world. That's why you two have to stay by each other's side no matter what," was what she said to him back when she's still bedridden at the hospital.
His grandmother is the main reason why Adrian decided to just go along with this marriage. He always respects her more than anyone else as the two of them share a particular kind of bond and closeness that made him earn such deference for her.
"Grandmother mentioned something about my wife having some kind of fire..." Adrian remembered silently, eyes as wide as saucers while he just continued watching the perplexing turn of events before him.
"But all I see now is how fired up she is to beat me into pulp."
At this very moment, Adrian is sitting on the floor with his hand covering half of his assaulted frame, an excruciating pain travelling throughout his jaws and cheeks after getting kicked straight in the face. All the while, Cassidy just seems to be raring to go for more as she just stands there and keeps cracking her knuckles, her fiery, penetrating gaze never breaking contact with his nonplussed one.
At this point, he doesn't know what he's more confounded of anymore - either this stunt that she pulled all of the sudden or the realization that she could actually make such a disdainful face all along.
"Ma'am Cassidy! What are you doing?!" Charles exclaimed before stepping between the two of them and stopping her, evidently bewildered and disconcerted.
"I kicked him! Are you blind or something?!" Cassidy hollered back matter-of-factly.
"You're not supposed to be moving around so much like this! You still haven't recovered completely-"
"Why the heck do you care?! You're the ones who did this to me in the first place!"
At that, a stretch of momentary silence prevails. Charles and the nurses can only gape at her while Adrian blinks rapidly, all of them looking thoroughly surprised and baffled. That's when she suddenly points her finger to her husband and his secretary, brows furrowed in vex.
"You guys were the ones who challenged me for a fist fight after school, right?!"
Then, silence.
For what seems like a long while, there's only silence.
Everyone musters a stupefied expression, not uttering a word. It's as if they're facing the world's most difficult crossword puzzle at that moment, or perhaps, the dumbest conundrum that they have ever laid eyes on.
As much as they want to give a coherent response and ask her to clarify this madness, they still remain in thunderstruck silence.
"What's with those stupid faces? You think you can fool me by acting innocent? Too bad for you, though, I'm so ready for a second round-"
"I'm afraid you have to hold that for now, Mrs. Millicent."
That's when the doctor earlier enters the room out of nowhere, making everyone pause and turn their heads to his direction. The old man seems to be very calm and composed despite this situation, looking like he knows what exactly is happening as he quietly approaches his patient.
"Dr. Gilmore..." Charles blurted out in surprise, stepping aside to let him take a closer look at her.
"Please calm down, Mrs. Millicent. You're not injured because of any fight or whatnot, and you're having a very big misunderstanding," the doctor explained, much to her confusion.
"Huh? What are you talking about? I clearly remember everything. Some dudes came up to me for a roughhousing earlier," Cassidy pointed out with a skeptical brow lifted.
That's when Gilmore asked one of the female nurses to lend him a mirror all of the sudden to which she just simply complies. He then shows the hand mirror to his patient, letting her have a clear view of her frame.
"Do you recognize yourself, Mrs. Millicent?"
Then, she froze.
For the next seconds to come, Cassidy only stares at the mirror with eyes as wide as an owl's and her jaw dropped. She looks immensely nonplussed and puzzled, almost as if she's not buying this whole thing at all.
"What the?! This is not my face...!" she then bolted out exasperatedly in aghast shock.
"Why did my hair turn black again?! I just dyed it a week ago! Was that hair dye a scam?! And why do I look so... so pretty...?! I don't look like me at all!"
"May I ask something, Ma'am...?" Gilmore suddenly trailed off amid her confusion, making her look at him again.
"May I ask how old are you now?"
At that, everyone reacts taken aback, their eyes widening in surprise. Adrian still hasn't stood up from the ground at that moment, too focused on this chain of happenings to even think of anything else.
His wife is acting like a completely different person, after all. For all those year they've been living under one roof together, he never saw this side of her. It's very surreal that everything almost feels like a dream.
But then again, Adrian never had any interest in his wife to begin with. He never tried to get to know her more in a personal level. He's been seeing her like any other woman out there but with only the exception that she shares a legal relationship with him - married but only according to the papers, to be specific.
All in all, Adrian doesn't know his wife beyond the image she's displaying in public. Despite those candlelit dinners and romantic advances, he didn't really get to know her at all.
That's why as soon as Cassidy answered the doctor's question, he suddenly felt like regretting not putting any effort to learn more about her all those times. For some reason, felt like he lost something.
"I'm eighteen," she said in a heartbeat - very certain and confident.
She declared it loud and clear, no room for second thoughts nor any hint that she's lying.
Everyone there, except for her and the doctor, is struck flummoxed and a bit enlightened at the same time. Now, Adrian and Charles are starting to understand what's with the uncalled-for one hundred eighty shift in her character, but even then, they remain immensely bewildered about almost everything.
"I see... So, that's the biggest damage you received..." Gilmore thought out loud, scanning her dubious and perplexed expression.
"You were in a plane crash, Ma'am, and though you managed to survive and recover this fast, you appeared to have lost your memories."