Chapter 8 The Accident

"So you would prepare that you don't see her around?"

Alexus opted not to respond, but his demeanor was anything from happy.

"How come you got married to her in the first place?"

He gave him a scathing glance. He could not talk about his relationship with Rafaella without feeling regret, especially what went wrong after their marriage.

"I've previously questioned whether the events in your marriage are still having an impact on you. Your current state of agitation proves that everything in your life is spiraling out of control. Since you engaged me to take care of your injury five years ago, I have only learned a little about your marriage. And most often, when you're angry and complaining about how foolish you are."

Alexus let out a long sigh. "I wed her by proxy just a few days before she became 18 years old."

"What?"

He gave him a stern look. "For this reason, I avoid bringing up the matter. I'm aware of the audience's response," Alexus stated firmly. "And everyone would say that it was all my fault."

"And why is that the response you get mostly? What made you marry her differently?"

"I married her without her knowledge, with her father's approval."

"Oh!" Timothy said. "Do you imply that the affection was one-sided?

As he didn't like what he had said, Alexus pursed his lips.

One-sided? He shook his head after scowling. "No, it wasn't like that at all."

"Wait. There is an activity in front of us."

Where his driver's eyes were fixed, Alexus followed. The familiar image of a woman hurrying to meet a boy halfway down the road caused his eyes to enlarge.

"That's Rafaella," Timothy was so flustered that he almost didn't say it.

No! Alexus closed his eyes when she grabbed the boy, but she couldn't stop the racing car. Before falling to the ground, Rafaella's body hovered in the air.

"Move fast, Tim!" Alexus exclaimed with agitation. His heart was beating so fast. And when Timothy parked the car on the road, his feet nearly flew off. He moved swiftly to the collision where his wife's body had been found.

"Mommy? Mommy?"

Rafaella could hear her son's panic voice but she could not see him properly. She extended her right hand towards her son as she attempted to grasp his face. But her hand slowly dropped to her side as her vitality began to wane and her vision started to become foggy, she finally gave in to the darkness.

"Mommy!" Joshua got to his mother's side and shaking her shoulder to awaken his mother. "Mommy wake up. Let's go home..."

Timothy seized the sobbing little boy in his arms.

"Who are you? Let me go! I want to be with mommy." His shrieking voice echoed.

"You saw me with your mom a while ago..."

Joshua stared at him with tears cascading through his face. "I want my mommy..."

"Later. She needed to brought to the hospital," Timothy explained. "But for now, be quiet. Mommy won't be happy seeing you cry, right?" Timothy said. He was eyeing the kid closely.

The little boy wiped his tears and looked at him.

"But I want my mommy." He had beseeching eyes which touched Timothy's sympathy.

"Relax, kid. You will see her later," Timothy stated and looked down at Alexus, who was panicking at Rafaella's side. He held his unconscious wife in his arms.

"Rafa?" Alexus shouted in panic. He was shaking her shoulders. "No, you can't do this. You can't die. Rafa? Wake up!" But she was lifeless in his arms as he gently shook her.

"Stop it, Alex. You're going to make it worst," Timothy reminded him when he saw Rafaella move.

"Hmm..." Though she tried to open her eyes, her vision was cloudy. She wailed in intense, excruciating pain that tore at her bones and left her weak as she groaned in misery. Because of the torment, she wanted to enjoy and embrace the calm, white light of people passing in the street. She kept seeing the warm sunlight, which gave her energy as her mind reached and took it in.

"Please, stay with me. Rafa, I won't let you die! You heard me?" A man howled. "Damn it, where's the ambulance? What's taking them so long?"

Rafaella tried to stay awake as she was unable to ignore the beseeching voice. Nevertheless, it nonetheless brought that excruciating anguish back with it. Every time the voice spoke, the soft glow withdrew a tiny bit of support, bringing the dull despair closer.

She needed to recuperate more than she needed to fight. She required the terrible stir inside of her and all around her to stop.

With the last yell, the voice vanished, and in an instant, obnoxious hands were all over her injured body. The hands poked and prodded, forcing a minor complaint from her lips that couldn't compare to the terrible agony the contact caused her to feel. Her skull was touched, and the hell crushed her. She had forgotten to take one last breath before giving in to obviousness. Unaware that she passed in her husband's arms.

"Rafa?" Alexus uttered anxiously and started sobbing when he could not see a tiny movement from her.

While holding Joshua, Timothy knelt and picked up Rafaella's hand and felt her pulse. "Alex, calm down. She is just unconscious."

Alexus' mood seemed revived by this statement, and he looked around at the increasing number of curious people.

"Where the hell is the ambulance?" Snarling, Alexus put his ear to her chest. He could hardly hear her heartbeat as the police car's siren drew closer. And a police officer introduced himself as Detective Warren, came out from the police patrol, and started asking questions about the incident.

The hotel where they checked in called an ambulance. Only Alexus was in the car with his wife. Oxygen was immediately attached to Rafaella while Alexus kept an eye on her. He was still stunned at what he had witnessed.

"Rafa? Please, bear with me, sweetheart." He called in a tiny voice. Whispering a silent prayer for his wife's safety. Alexus continued to speak while holding her hand between his palms. He couldn't stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks the entire time. He felt like the sky had fallen on him of what had happened as he was overcome by isolation and excruciating grief as he imagined the worst-case situation.

What if she couldn't survive? The question that tormented him. And he couldn't help the vision of the automobile running over Rafaella out of his thoughts.

Her bloodied head was covered in messy hair, which he delicately removed with his hand. His wife appeared lifeless and colorless in his eyes, which bothered him, and he impatiently waited to reach the hospital.

Rafaella was unconscious until she arrived at the hospital and headed to the emergency room.

As he left the premises, Alexus could feel the heaviness of anguish in his heart as he was waiting in the emergency room hallway. He had been familiar with the emotion that ruled his heart. He seemed to have traveled back in time. His weak heart was pierced by anguish and grief.

Five years ago, he experienced the same emotion when he woke up with his face buried in the pillow, and his hand groped for the warm body next to him but failed. He jerked his head to look at the space beside him. There's no one but only him in bed.

"Rafa? Sweetheart?" He started calling as he laid back and listened to the silence in the room.

Then his eyes wandered to the bedside table with his wife's picture frame that caught his attention, the jewelry box, the ATM, the credit cards next to the picture frame, and the wedding band.

He swallowed hard while he felt his heart beat faster, but he didn't move. He began to listen to the room's silence for movement, thinking that his wife could be in the bathroom, but nothing. He quickly moved out of bed, walking into the bathroom fully naked.

In the bedroom's deafening silence, he gradually felt his chest tighten. He pushed himself to his feet and peered around. He checked the bathroom and outside the bedroom, but there was no shadow of Rafaella.

Was it just a dream that transpired last night? He pondered as he looked at the messy bed, his eyes glued to the lacy black bikini at the foot of the bedside table.

He returned to sitting on the edge of the bed and picked up the underwear his wife was wearing last night. Then he looked again at his wife's items on the table-things he gave to Rafaella.

That's when he recalled that he had broken the bond. And she was no longer his wife officially because of the divorce he filed. And that his passionate meeting with Rafaella the night before served as a farewell.

Alexus jerked from his reverie when he felt a hand gripping him on his shoulder and met the eyes of his Physical Therapist. He didn't realize tears were falling down his face. He quietly ran his palm on his face to wife it.