Erik
I looked at her through the glass walls of the office. She was scared, I could see that in her eyes and her body language.
"Sir, it's going straight to the voicemail," Kelly told me from behind her desk. Right now we all were panicking.
"Was there anything on the schedule for any business meeting in the previous week or the next that he might have taken up right now," I asked her because Aaron wasn't like this. I knew him and his love for Serilda well enough that he wouldn't do anything wrong. I trusted in him more than I could in myself.
"He hasn't taken up any business trips for a while. Most of the time it is managers that he send-off in meetings. He has been connecting through video calls for the last many months." She explained to me making my mind go awry thinking what was happening. I couldn't understand anything. Serilda was here saying that Aaron had gone on a meeting but according to me he had gone on a holiday with her.
"Did he have any threats or some problem going on?" Aaron couldn't lie like this and not to Serilda. In no way would he do this to her because he knew how hurt Serilda had been with all the lies in the past.
I wouldn't have even come down here if the business wasn't that damn important and he hadn't called. Aaron had said that I needed to look at the files and take over for a week. Something was very wrong here but I couldn't understand what.
"There was one woman, once-," Kelly began only to stop as she saw something.
"Sir, Mrs. Reid!" Kelly yelled looking past me. I turned around seeing Serilda stand up with tears in her eyes and phone to her ear. We both rushed into the office. I saw her hand going to her chest and her face turn into one I never wanted to see again. She was in terrible pain as she talked on the phone and I saw her giving up. I reached just in time to catch her before she crashed into the glass table beside her. She fainted right in front of my eyes.
"Serilda," I called her name again and again patting her cheek slightly to wake her up.
"Kelly get me the phone," I ordered her making her pick it up and hand it over to me.
"Hello," I answered the phone. "Aaron, where are you?"
"He is in surgery right now," a female voice answered.
"What?" A bolt from the hit right into me. Surgery, what surgery? My mind had gone blank over what to think.
"Just give me a minute," I told on the phone as I signaled Kelly to come over to me.
"Take care of her," I told Kelly as I moved away from Serilda. Kelly took my place and tried to wake her up as I moved to the other side of the room trying to catch up with what was happening.
"What is he in the surgery for and where are you calling from?" I asked away trying to control my beating heart. Deep down I was scared for everything that was happening around me. I knew Aaron had a life-risking surgery earlier for which I blamed myself but he was well enough after it.
Had he gotten ill again? Had the tumor return.
My mind was going crazy with all the questions.
"May I know your relation to Mr. Aaron Reid?" She questioned.
"I'm his brother, Erik Reid. Now please tell me what has happened to him and where he is?" I looked behind me to see that Serilda was still unconscious.
"He is right now in surgery because of sustaining multiple injuries after an accident just near the outskirts of Las Vegas," she spoke making my mind go silent. Why would he go there and accident?
"Is he alright?" I could feel myself panicking. Sweat beaded around my forehead.
"We can't say anything right now as he is still in surgery," her answer didn't help ease off any of my worries.
"Which hospital are you calling from?" I looked at Serilda as I understood the deep devastation she was going through.
"St. Rose Holy Hospital, sir," she replied and I ended the call assuring her that we were going to be there soon. Picking up my phone from the table I made a call for the private jet to be ready to go back to Las Vegas again. I was assured that within half an hour we would be able to fly back. the next call I made was to our father telling him about Aaron's accident having him assure me that he was going to reach there as soon as he can but it would still take him two hours at minimum.
In the next five minutes, I called my secretary and had him going over to the hospital to have me updated about Aaron's health as soon as he could. There was no time for me to waste. It would take me twenty minutes to reach the airstrip. I had no time to overthink much about anything right now I had to make a choice for Serilda and I did it without much thinking. I called my driver and had him bring the car front.
"Get her bag," I told Kelly to have her look up at me from where she was beside Serilda who was still unconscious.
"I'm taking her with me to Las Vegas," I informed her as I moved towards them. There was no way I was going to leave her behind. I didn't know why Aaron had called me here but I no longer wanted them to suffer. Leaving her behind would be punishing her. she had suffered enough and I no longer wanted her to be a victim of her thoughts.
"But she is no condition," Kelly argued but I just looked at her silencing her. She didn't know the past between us and she wouldn't even understand. I cared about Serilda more than I did for any other woman because she was the only woman that I had ever wronged in my life. Leaving her behind could destroy her, make her feel betrayed and I never wanted her to go through those feelings ever again.
"Her husband is an accident, he lied to her and left her here. She would need someone whom she knows besides her and god knows she doesn't trust anyone besides my brother. I'm not going to leave her on her own. She is better with me," because if she wanted to hurt someone and blame for the pain she is going through I would take it.
"Bring her bag," I ordered her as I bent down to pick her unconscious body. Her chest was rising and falling which was enough for me. As late as she woke up would be better for me because I knew she would have questions that I couldn't answer until I knew everything myself.
I no longer cared about what people thought and judged because most of them were always wrong just like I was. Just like everyone was about Serilda. Having her settled down in the car with her belongings we both traveled to the private airstrip where our plane was ready to take off. I didn't trust anyone with Serilda.
I was the one to have her secured into the seat to make sure I was in the seat in front of her. She was my responsibility for now until Aaron was alright.
"We are ready to take off," the pilot came informing me and without delay, I ordered him to have us take off to get us to Las Vegas.
Looking out of the window I breathed for the first time. Every single passing minute was torture of not knowing. How had a day filled with nothing but with work had come to this?
Chaos. Utter chaos was what I felt surrounded myself with. Almost as the earth has been pulled from underneath my feet.
I looked at Serilda, my hand went to check for her pulse and it was strong and steady. Sitting back in my seat I just stared at her. She was beautiful like always.
When she came in I had felt my world go still. For a moment I wanted to lose in the thought that it was me who she had come for. Sometimes dark in the night feeling low and lonely I would think how beautiful life would have been if I had given her a chance, If I had believed her maybe we could have had a life. When she was with me I just wanted to hurt her and when she was gone all I wanted to do was protect her. I was so twisted in my pain and misery that I never saw hers. I drowned her in mine but still, I let myself think of how it could have been.
Serilda was the woman in my life who had made me see the light. She had pulled me from the darkness of lies to bring me to the light of the truth. She hurt herself in the process and for that, I was indebted to her.
I envied Aaron for having her but never hated him because Serilda deserved happiness and Aaron gave her that. Their history wasn't filled with actions that couldn't be taken back. They weren't colored as we had ours.
The vibration of my phone had me look away from her. The signals weren't there but the wifi for the plane was on. It was my secretary on a call.
"Hector," I answered the call as my eyes went to Serilda who was still unconscious. "Tell me," I told him.
"He is still in surgery. The car is in terrible shape. They had to cut him out of the car and they barely made it just in time to the hospital." I closed my eyes thinking about how Aaron was. I silently prayed for his well-being.
"How did the accident happen?" I asked him as the burning thought of him going to Las Vegas had me going crazy.
"The police are still looking into it. They were able to get out the woman but she is still unconscious," he explained. Maybe it was the fault of that woman to have hit Aaron's car up. I knew my brother wasn't a careless driver. At least she was alive.
"Let me know when you get to know anything else," I looked at my watch. "Have a car at the airstrip I would be landing down in another half an hour."
"I already have a car waiting for you there. Your father called me to let me know that he would be reaching here within the next hour." He informed me.
"Thanks, I will call you when I land." I ended the call.
I just hoped with my everything that Aaron was alright.
"Aaron," I heard his name on her lips as she stirred in her seat. I moved out of my seat towards her, opening her seat belt.
"Aaron," she called him again.
"Serilda," I patted her cheek as she woke up from unconsciousness. His name was on her lips while my hand was on her cheek. I won't lie that it pinched me somewhere deep inside but she was a fleeting thought that would pass.
In her haze, she held my hand. Her fingers entwining with mine but his name was all I could hear. I felt my heart constrict thinking that this was what she suffered with me. It made me hate myself from the inside thinking about how I didn't remember the sin I had committed. Sometimes I thought it was a blessing that I didn't remember but some days it made me want to rip myself apart from that I didn't remember anything while she did. The pain and agony she burned in can never be matched.
"It's me Erik, Serilda," I removed my hand from her cheek. Standing up I picked up the bottle from the table. I sprinkled few drops of water over her eyelids having her eyes open slightly.
"Serilda, are you alright?" I asked as her eyes stared at me. "Please say something."
"Where is Aaron?" She asked as worry took over her face. Sitting straight she looked at her surroundings.
"Where are we going? Why are we on a plane? Aaron was-," she was hyperventilating.
"Calm down Serilda," I whispered calmly to her as I bend down on my knees with a hand over her head.
"He is going to be alright," I gave her my hope.
"No, no, the hospital said," she shook her head as her hands covered her face.
"He is in surgery and he is going to be alright. He had decided to go by car and he met with an accident. Nothing else is wrong, Serilda," I paused as her shaking stopped.
"We are going to land soon and head to the hospital. You will see him and there isn't anything to worry about." I tell her my hopes to have her calm down.
"Where are we going?" She asked her words barely a whisper as she looked at me with wet eyes.
"Back home, Las Vegas," I saw her face turn towards the window as she looked out. Her hand reaching for the glass.
"Because your home is wherever he is," I added because the truth is always going to be that she was his for life now and he was hers.
I was just a passerby in her life. I could love her from afar and want her but she will never be mine. There was a limit I would never cross to hurt any one of them any longer. Even if I would never love anyone for the rest of my life I would never go beyond the limits to get what I had already lost.
She was what I had already lost.
I was her past and he was her present and future.
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Love is never lost even after years.
It leaves its residue deep down in our hearts.
Once you start loving someone you can never stop.
One wouldn't cross the limits but silently would love from afar.
Erik loves his brother and he knows his brother's love for Serilda.
Would he fall victim again this time?
How far along will he go to keep Serilda safe.
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