"I assure you, the pleasure is all mine. Have a great night's rest."
As she wheeled away, she dished out her last jab; "I'd say the same to you, but something tells me you both won't be getting any sleep tonight!"
Alex smiled as Scarlett rebuked her one last time. The girl was a real character. She still managed to be cheerful instead of being depressed. He secretly wondered if that had anything to do with the hospital medication. Opiods were known to have that effect.
But he dismissed the thought instantly and focused on the older one.
"So, are we doing this or what?"
"Outside. Now." She whispered coldly and led the way. Alex followed closely, alert and on guard for any last minute tricks. But there was none.
About four minutes later, the duo were walking next to each other in the park next to the hospital. At first glance, they looked like a normal couple just taking an early evening stroll through the park. The street lights and beautiful scenery might have made this a romantic walk. But the truth was far from that.
They walked in silence, until finally, Scarlett found the words to break the ice
"The doctors call it spinal muscular atrophy. S-M-A for short."
Alex did not say a word. There was only the sound of his heavy boots constantly thumping on the ground, step after step. A gentle reminder of his presence, and his willful silence. Scarlett continued;
"It's a very rare disease you know. It's eaten into her badly, and---" Her voice trailed off as she fought back a sob. "She's been in that hospital for years!! Do you know how much it costs to keep up with her bills? A lot!"
She sniffled and brought up the cotton handkerchief to dab at her eyes.
"It's a whole lot of money. So, when the auction house offered to pay for the medical expenses, I jumped at the offer...but of course, there was a catch." She rolled her eyes; "There is always a catch!"
Alex uttered not a single word.
"Just as you've probably guessed by now- yes, I have to work for them unconditionally..." Alex remembered the phone call in the car that night and how she had received it. They had had a nice thing going before that call, and Alex sensed that it had been genuine. If it had not been for that call, he was sure that things might have ended well that night.
Her coldness towards him in the days that followed must have been as a result of direct orders. Alex actually felt sorry for her. But he could not rule out the possibility that this was all just another scam. He had seen her act before, and he knew just how convincing she could be.
But how could she have known that he would find her in that hospital? There was no way Eliana could have been planted within that timeframe. That part looked to be legit. In fact, it actually completed the puzzle. With a blood relative on treatment in the hospital for a rare disease, she certainly had the motive to rob anyone blind.
He thought long and hard about it before he decided to help the two sisters. He stopped walking and asked;
"What did you say the name of the disease was again?"
She repeated it to him again.
"I can cure it..." was his reply.
Scarlett stopped dead in her tracks and swerved to look at him fully. Her eyes were still red and puffy from crying, but her senses were very much still intact.
"What...????"
"I said I can cure it and make it go way for good." He replied her in that same rich confident voice.
Now Scarlett was used to dealing with rich folks who liked to play god. So, she assumed he was speaking about using his resources to hire reasearchers, or pharmaceutical companies to take her for a test trial. She thought about everything but the literal meaning of what Alex had just said to her.
"But Scarlett, you must promise me right now that you will no longer do anything illegal for the auction house again. That is my only condition. Do you promise? Do I have your word?"
At this point, Scarlett was willing to do anything. She nodded enthusiasically.
"Yes....I won't do it anymore. You have my word."
Alex studied her for a moment before saying; "Good." He straightened himself, and then added; "Now let's go take care of this disease."
"Hold on, what exactly do you mean by that?"
"It means exactly what I said. I'm going to cure Eliana."
He actually turned around to start down the path that led to the hospital. Scarlett quickly moved to block his path;
"Did I miss something? Are you a doctor or something?"
"Something like that."
"What does tha---"
"Look, do you want your sister to get cured or not?"
"Of course I do!"
"Then follow me. What exactly do I have to gain from lying about something like this? Is it not better to try than sit back and let things get worse? What do you have to lose?"
Scarlett was struggling with the internal conflict raging inside her. All her instincts told her Alex was lying. And yet, he had never lied to her from the moment they met. SMA was no child's play. It was recognized worldwide as a very difficult and rare disease to cure.
But she was like a kitten that had been stuck in a dark cave for a really long time, and was only just seeing what resembled a faint light at the end of the tunnel. She did not have the luxury of wanting to be curious. Alex had all but dangled a way out before her, and it was the closest she had come to hoping in a pretty long while. Even though she was not so sure about this, she had no other option.
"Fine. But I want to be hands on all through the process. I want be present."
"Suit yourself." He stepped back, and gestured with his out stretched arm; "Lead the way then."
She did.
The hospital doors welcomed them again for the second time that evening. In silence, they rode the elevator all the way to the top. This time, they went straight to Eliana's private ward. Alex's nose was assaulted by the strong scent of the room. The entire space reeked of the residue of antiseptic and decontaminating fluids. On the bed, sleeping with a peaceful expression on her face was the patient of the hour. She had the soft gentle features of a sleeping beauty.
Her chest rose and fell as she inhaled through the breathing aid fastened to her nose. The oxygen tank next to her suggested that she had had several of those. Little wonder her treatment had been fiercely expensive. As Scarlett moved towards the body of her sister to pet her head, Alex took a long hard look at the sick girl.
In actuality, he knew next to nothing about human anatomy, neither had he the first clue about modern nor old medicine. What he could do however was to run through her and find out the root issue. He had already analyzed her with his Eye of god before, but that had been just a peripheral scan of the nature of her being. This time, he decide to look at her from a much higher level. He activated his Eye of god immediately, and began a deep dive into her soul.
The broken links and defects came into the orbit of his vision. He was in no way a traditional healer, but from what he saw, it looked like the soul and the body were visibly intertwined.
Modern medicine and brain surgeons interpreted this in theories, but it was basically the same thing. They divided the mind (soul) into two. The conscious and the unconscious. Unarguably, humans consciously controlled their bodies to a certain degree like movements, speech, and thought. But the unconscious part of the brain controlled tissue growth, regulated blood flow, and other body functions that were hidden beneath the surface.
The paralysis, as well as the SMA, were as a direct result of these severred links between her soul and her body. At the core, it was a soulish problem, so it fell right within his purview. Alex approached the bed, lifted both his hands above her body and began to work.