The Burning Rose

65 | The Beginning of The End

"Hi," I mouthed.

He smiled at me. "Everything's fine now."

"You were quite lucky," the doctor said as he watched the nurse check my IV. "The bullet didn't damage anything vital, though you did lose a lot of blood."

"How long was I out?" I asked, my voice coming out in a raspy whisper.

"About fifty hours," he answered.

I glanced at Gray, who gazed down at me in concern. He must've been distraught, waiting for me to regain consciousness. I could already imagine the amount of self-blaming he had done.

"So," I muttered, turning back to the doctor, "if the bullet had hit something else, then it could have potentially sentenced me to a lesser chance of survival?"

The doctor nodded. If my position were off even the slightest inch, I would've died. Was I really that lucky?

While the doctor and nurse assessed my condition, Gray held my hand with an iron grip. He was unwilling to let go even when the doctor asked him to stand back for a moment so he could raise my bed at an angle, enough for me to be able to drink water. The doctor told me that the cast would take at least two months before it could be removed. Then he asked a few questions about how I was feeling and informed me on the medication I would have to take to support my recovery.

When it was all over, he flashed me a reassuring smile. "I'll have the nurse check on you again in an hour."

"Thank you," I replied.

Gray's hand slipped out of my grasp gently, the warmth leaving me as he rose to his feet and walked them out of the room. The nurse headed out first, and the doctor patted him on the shoulder before exiting.

Gray closed the door slowly and remained standing there with his head down. I waited for a couple of seconds, the uneasiness rising in my chest. When he still didn't turn around, I called his name. This brought him back from his train of thoughts, and he dragged himself over to my bed with his lips pressed together into a hard line.

He stood by the foot of the bed with his hands inside his pockets, his eyes disturbed. The sound coming from the heart monitor was blaring in the soft silence.

"I-is something wrong?" I croaked out.

"Our families have come to an agreement regarding your stand in the Inner Circle," he revealed. "If we end our relationship now, your life will go on as initially planned. You'll inherit and run HJ Corporation as you were supposed to."

"And if we don't end our relationship?"

"You'll leave for Italy by the end of the school year with Isaac."

"Right away?" I questioned in disbelief.

He heaved a sigh. "When Leonardo heard about what was happening, he immediately hopped into his private jet."

"And what about us?"

"I know you dislike the idea of taking over the company."

Tears burned my eyes. "So you just want to throw away our relationship like that?" I scoffed, glancing away from him as a tear slipped from my eye.

"The reason why I'm telling you this now is so that we can get it over with."

My forehead creased as I stared out the window with bleary eyes, my chest tightening as I fought back the tears. I was aware of my heart pounding aggressively, but I couldn't give a damn. He was being this irrational airhead again. The only thing left in this conversation was him saying he'd leave me because he'd want to protect me.