"Hello, Mr. I?" The woman went into a bathroom stall, locking the door behind her. She spoke in a low voice, as if afraid someone would hear her.
"What?" The person on the other end spoke in a carefree way, completely unlike her alarmed and urgent tone.
"Mr... Mr. I, that person is recovering fast. He showed signs of movement a few days ago, but fortunately, no one but me saw them. What should I do? 'That' again, to delay his recovery?"
Ian chuckled and shook his head. "No, no. You've worked hard. Although this is different from what I initially planned, this is good too. I just have to pay a little visit to a certain someone. You don't need to do anything else; your job here finishes now." He added, "The remaining payment will be transferred to your account within an hour."
Ian hung up. He looked at his room, a maniacal grin on his face. "Ethan... you're not dead, but this is okay too. After all, would you still be able to live happily after you have your beloved's blood on your hands? Soon, you'll kill yourself due to the grief... and join me up there, right? Finally, we can be together then."
The woman in white hastily deleted all call records before taking a deep breath and coming out of the cubicle. Her heart was still beating fast as she washed her hands, pretending as if she just used the lavatory.
"Nia? You're here?" One of the other nurses took her by the hand, leading her to a patient's room.
"You won't believe what happened. You know the patient you've been caring for a long time, Mr. Ethan? He's showing great recovery! He might even wake up in a few hours!" she cheered, "Isn't it great?"
"He never really showed any positive symptoms before, and complications arose out of nowhere. Remember when out of nowhere, his blood pressure started to drop like crazy after he moved his finger 2 months ago? It was like someone injected a drug in him, wasn't it?"
Nia barely managed to mask her expression. "Y-yes. Crazy things, right? But our hospital has such excellent security, how would something like this happen?"
"And when his oxygen was cut off? That was such a dire situation, right?"
"R-right."
"Why's your palm so sweaty? Are you okay?"
Nia nodded with difficulty. "Yes. I... I'm going now."
The other girl didn't notice anything strange and went on her way as usual, bidding Nia farewell.
A man walked by her in haste, almost bumping into her. With barely contained happiness, he didn't stop and offhandedly apologized, "I'm sorry! I'm in a hurry!"
Nia's expression got even uglier as she saw the man hurry away, a bright smile on his face. She frowned, pained by her conscience. She... she is such an awful human being.
"...I'm sorry, Mr. Ethan, Mr. Edward. I... I had to do it for my family. I'm sorry." She knew her words of apology won't do any good to either of the people she'd wronged, but still, she couldn't help but say it in the hope of lessening the overwhelming guilt she's feeling right now.
She is so selfish. Did she... did she have any right to take away someone's family for hers? She, who was supposed to do everything in her power to help him get back his family, fell to such a point.
She didn't know if she can ever recover from the pressing guilt she was feeling, or if she even deserved to.
"Doctor!" Edward cried, "How's Ethan?"
"Mr. Edward, the situation is great. He has already opened his eyes, although it might take some time for him to be able to speak." The doctor's tone, for once, was happy. "If nothing goes wrong, I believe you two will be able to talk today. Although rehab would take several months, your brother's recovery is almost guaranteed now."
Edward didn't know when tears sprung in his eyes. His eyes were watery as he joined his hands, looking up to the sky. He thanked, "Thank you. I never really believed in you, but still... thank you."