Lucy POV
I wake up with white walls surrounding me with no one in sight. The room is silent as a graveyard, I want to shout for help but no one would hear me, it looks like an isolated place and on another thought, like heaven. Could I be in heaven? Surely, I wouldn't be. I've been living a reckless life for the past two years when I left my job. Such mercy from God would be undeserved, what I require now is punishment.
I wonder in my mind the last thing that happened to me. It came flowing into my memory that something like myself lying on the ground in a certain apartment with great pains in my chest and pleading for mercy from the man who was about to shoot me occurred, this brought me here. Who was that man? I could remember him calling my name in shock after tearing off my mask and screaming something like 'You're a woman' in shock. I sigh.
I would never do such a thing if I had work to do or someone to look over me. I didn't have anyone, no relatives or friends to call my own. After my parents died in a plane crash, my entire family including my siblings and others leaving me as the only survivor, I've been on this earth without anyone. I don't know how I managed to survive that crash which killed everyone most especially as a baby but I think God intended me to do something great in this world, that's why He kept me alive. My aunt, who was my only relative and the one I managed to live with for nearly a year once I left Illuminex, died a year ago from the cancer she'd been battling with for years. The dreaded disease finally defeated her, I cried my eyes out that day. The only source of my comfort became Casey, her poor dog until it died of poisoning a few days after. As if my sorrows weren't enough, I was driven out of the house by the relatives of my aunt's husband soon after. This' when the walls of my life came crumbling down, I started doing those things I never wished to do in my life, just to survive and fit in.
These pains and sorrows would not be so intense as this if I had someone to show me true love, someone I could call my own. I just wished I had a true and caring boyfriend, then we'll build our lives together again. Something else was about to set into my mind when the door of the room opened, it's only till this moment I realized there was a door, everywhere was just white and sealed to me.
A doctor walks in wearing his green uniform with a stethoscope hung on his neck. "Lucy, someone is here to see you. He wants to see you now." I quiver at how my name is known in such an unlikely place and by a stranger. Who is the person that wants to see me? I'd thought this place is heaven and I was waiting for my judgment until the doctor came in, he's a surgeon by verdict of the green uniform. Perhaps he's the one who had the bullets removed from my body.
I wanted to ask who it was that was there to visit me but he left before I could open my mouth. Having no one inside the room, I closed my eyes to have a little rest before the person came in. I'd barely done this when the sound of the door opening reached my ears, I quickly opened my eyes to see who it was.
"Arrgh!" Edmund? My body begins to shake, he himself could see that I'm really afraid. The thought of what I did to him two years ago at Illuminex starts haunting me again. I was glad to have escaped him not knowing we'll meet face to face again. I fear, for the stories I'd heard of him even before he resumed work as the CEO were not so good. His absence from my life gave me some kind of peace, I had successfully escaped him until this moment, the whole evolution of this isn't obvious to me. How did he find his way here?
"What are you doing here?" I ask in a shaking voice, more frightened than a little mouse before a furious cat. Though I'm really afraid of him and what would happen to me, his eyes are somewhat unusual. Instead of a furious eyes, he's having sorrowful and sympathetic eyes. "What's really going on?"
"I'm really really sorry for those things I've done to you, Lucy," he said as he walked closer to my bed, with emotions obviously showing in his eyes. I'm really astonished, why is he telling me what I ought to tell him?
"I...I..don't get you?" I stammer, shaking my head slowly in confusion.
"Last time I made you run away, please, I want to make up with you. Can't just afford to lose you!" His statement gets me more shocked.
I'm about to say something else when he reaches out and strokes my head and my hair with tears in his eyes, I can't control myself any longer. I weep as I've never before, receiving love when I'm supposed to receive condemnation from all the terrible things I'd been doing in the past is totally surprising and unexpected.
"I failed to say it last time but I need you to be my lover." I locked gaze with Edmund with dreamy eyes, I feel really dreamy. "I've been dying hard to meet you again, now I have to take you, I can't take this second chance for granted. I can't risk losing you again." I just kept staring into his face with the greatest astonishment. Why should I be chosen for this even after all I did to him and what I've done in leading robbers to rob him although I didn't know he owned the apartment we took interest in.
"So you mean you didn't have any girlfriend before me or you're trying to fool me?" I regret my statement, it's things like this that made me run away from my work. "Sorry about that!" Despite this, I had to ask because the speed at which he's riding tells me there might be some secret behind which he doesn't want to reveal.
He looks intensely at me with sorrow, like he was afraid that I'd decline his request if I knew the secret behind his rush. "Why are you asking Lucy, I really love you." I rolled my eyes in disbelief, this' too fast to be true. I can't fall into a love portion I'd regret in the end.
"I need you to cover up for me," he continues, though I keep mute. "Edwina, I think you know her, is pregnant for me." My jaw drops, exactly what I thought, I'm to be used and not loved. "Not what you think, Lucy." Edmund mutters as if he knows what's in my mind.
Edwina is a clerical staff member I knew while I worked at Illuminex, Edmund must know that I really hate involving myself in such complications as this, it's just not my life. I have suffered a lot out there in the street to engage in another fit of trouble. "This' a clear trouble you want to put me in, I'm sorry I might not be able to cover you up in any way. I need not make any enemies now. I wish to become a new person." I responded firmly.
"I need you by my side aside Edwina. I need you in my life so she'd be completely out of my life. That's why I need you Lucy, not to use you as you think." The tone Edmund used was fast changing to an emotional one.
I pondered on the fact for a while. "I'd only be yours if you didn't impregnate anyone. For now No!" My aunt taught me to be firm in any situation I surely know would land me in problems if I compromised, such a situation is this and I got to be more than a firm lady.
"How will I do, I'm encountering a serious challenge here Lucy, I risk being accused of a scandal if you still persist." He pleaded but I've already made my decision.
"I don't know if I'll accept your request but for now, I'll have to decline." Edmund's eyes dropped a tear, I looked away. I feel reluctant to agree to such a deal, selfishness strikes before me, it seems he only wants me for this, to cover him up and not because he truly loves me but this second thought crosses my mind, if he's not truly interested in me, why didn't he get another woman to take up this job. He has all the money, why doesn't he hire them for this. I sigh in frustration, he brushes my arms lovingly.
"Please do this for me, Lucy. Please." He raises his hands and places them together in supplication.
"What do I hope to gain from this in the long run?" Sarcasm trails my words, he brings up an assuring face. I swallow the lump in my throat.
"I just wanna surprise you!"
"What!" I'm kind of amazed, he nods his head squeezing my palms but not saying anything, his eyes have a lot to tell me as he stares at me steadily. I sigh heavily, a great decision lies before me to make.