After having failed to chase Niamh to the elevator, Kendrick finally ran over to her.
He assumed that Niamh had only run down so frantically to search for the bottle of anti-toxoid test reagent. He was right, for he was met with Niamh squatting by the flowerbed searching.
Striding over to her, Kendrick felt his heart tighten as he watched Niamh ignore her own body to search for the bottle.
Her complexion was pale and filled heavily with panic and nervousness.
Kendrick’s heart hurt at the sight. He ran toward her to help her up.
Seeing Niamh’s scarred and dirty hands, he felt a strong pang of pain hit him.
“What are you doing, Nia?” Kendrick asked, his heart clenching as he stared at her complexion that was drained of colors. “Did you forget that you’re injured? You need to rest.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and tried to carry her away.
“I’m not leaving!” Niamh rejected him and pushed him away again. “Just leave me alone!”
Kendrick did not know where Niamh summoned her strength from. The push almost had him losing his center of gravity as he staggered backward.
Niamh returned to the flower bed and bent down to keep searching.
Unable to bear the sight, Kendrick walked over to her again to carry her. “Nia!”
Niamh was angry as she pushed Kendrick strongly. “I told you to leave me alone for now! Go away!”
“…”
Kendrick stood behind Niamh, feeling lost. He could not imagine that she would one day be so angry to the point of pushing him away.
His already worn-down heart felt like it had been shredded to pieces as blood began to flood his chest. His arms and legs grew cold.
It had not occurred to Niamh that she went overboard with her words and actions. The only thing that mattered to her now was the anti-toxoid test reagent.
That anti-toxoid test reagent was Kendrick’s lifeline!
“Why can’t I find it? If it got thrown from upstairs, it has to be here somewhere. Where is it…” Niamh muttered to herself. She was close to tears with how frantic she felt.
Turning on the flashlight on her phone, she searched every corner but it was to no avail.
A heavy and dark weight loomed over her, and Niamh felt herself suffocate as her vision turned to black.
Kendrick would suffer even worse injuries if she could not find the bottle.
No.
She had to find it!
Niamh clenched her jaw and thought to look for it from a different point of view. Standing up, she felt her mind buzz as black spots filled her vision.
“Nia.” Kendrick snapped out of his daze and went up to support Niamh who seemed close to fainting.
His heart ached, and he hated the fact that he could not take her discomfort on behalf of her.
“What are you looking for, Nia? Is this thing so important? To the point that you’d jump into the river and ignore your injuries to rifle through trash? Just what is it?”
Niamh was dizzy, but she could clearly hear Kendrick raise the topic of her jumping into the river.
He knew all along.
Someone must have taken a video and passed it around online.
After taking a short break, her vision cleared.
She balled her fists and walked out of Kendrick’s arms. “Leave me alone.”
Kendrick pulled her back and made her face him. “How am I supposed to leave you alone? You’re my wife, the person who matters the most to me!”
Niamh’s reddened eyes met Kendrick’s sharp and overwhelming ones. She pursed her lips and suppressed her tears as she replied, “You’re the most important man in my life too. That’s why I have to find it!”
Stubborn, she turned to continue searching.
As she turned her face away, Niamh’s tears began to fall.
‘This is your lifeline, Kendrick.
‘I don’t care what injuries I suffer. As long as you’re okay, it’s all worth it,’ she thought to herself when a silver glint shone in the corner of her eyes.
Niamh took her phone to shine the area again and found the anti-toxoid test reagent bottle hidden under a leaf. She reached out to take it.
In a rush, the back of her hand suffered another cut from a flower’s thorn. With the anti-toxoid test reagent in hand, Niamh broke into a child-like smile until the corners of her eyes grew hot.
She had finally found it.
It was then that Niamh seemed to realize that her body was rather weak and she was unsteady on her feet.
The wound on her thigh was screaming in agony for it had reopened.
Without a word, Kendrick carried Niamh back to the room.
He washed her dirt-caked hands and called the doctor to redress her wound. It was after a while when Kendrick stared at Niamh sitting quietly against the headboard that Kendrick’s heart finally lightened.
Kendrick was sitting silently by Niamh’s bed as he peeled the apple and cut them into small pieces before feeding them to Niamh.
Niamh stared at the silent man and squeezed her fingers. “You have questions, don’t you, Kendrick?”
Kendrick’s gentle gaze stared into Niamh as he swallowed his words back down. Without saying a word, the man placed the fruit platter down and stood up.
“Kendrick?”
Watching the man walk toward the door, Niamh felt her heart race uneasily.
The man ignored her and continued to walk away.
Frantic, Niamh got out of bed and ran toward him without even putting on her hospital slippers. She hugged the man from behind. “Kendrick! Don’t go.”
When Kendrick felt her arms wrapped around him, he quickly turned around.
He saw Niamh holding him listlessly while bare-footed. He did not hesitate for a second before picking her up.
Niamh felt really sad, and with all of her remaining strength, she wrapped her arms around the man’s neck tightly as she buried her haggard face between his neck.
“Kendrick, don’t ignore me.”
Niamh’s voice sounded as if she was on the brink of crying, even sounding a little inferior just like how she was last time.
Kendrick felt the pain in his heart growing.
How could he bear to ignore her?
He wanted to comfort her, but all he heard was Niamh apologizing. “I know I was fierce to you just now, but I didn’t mean it.”
Kendrick stopped his steps, lowered his head, and kissed her on the cheek. He pressed his thin lips to her ears. “What nonsense are you talking about? How can I be angry with you? You don’t need to apologize to me. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
His gentle tone that was like a breeze of air washed over Niamh’s injured heart as she closed her eyes and weakly sank deeper into him.
“Then don’t go. Stay with me.”
“Okay, I’m not going anywhere.”
Kendrick promised, wanting to bring Niamh to the bed to sit. However, she only tightened her hug.
“I want you to hold me,” she requested in a coquettish tone that she had never used on him before.
Kendrick did not want to let go of her either, so he sat down on the bed with Niamh in his arms as he gently ran his warm palm and fingers through her long hair.
“Kendrick, I know you have a lot of questions, but you have to trust that no matter what I do, I’ll never hurt you.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kendrick nodded.
“Don’t go anywhere tonight, okay? Just stay with me here.”
Niamh looked up at him with her tear-stained eyes that were like dewdrops on a flower petal. Kendrick’s heartstrings were tugged at the sight of her at the moment.
He did not give her a reply verbally and only slowly lowered his head to gently kiss her lips as a response.
Niamh closed her eyes and continued to sink into the man’s sweet tenderness…
It was already late into the night.
Niamh woke up on time. She looked at the time and wanted to give Kendrick the reagent.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.