I woke up and I heard voices. I tried to open my eyes but, I couldn't. I tried again but, it was useless. So I decided to listen to the voices I was able to hear.
"How is she?" I heard a voice ask. It sounded so familiar. It made my chest feel warm.
"Obviously not great considering she is in the hospital!" I heard another voice say. That was familiar too.
"Seriously Shut up!" The first voice said angrily.
"Really? I hope you know she is here because of you." The second voice answered with the same tone. I was trying to figure out the voices.
"I said Shut up or I swear to god I will bash your head in!" The first voice said clearly filled with agitation and anger. I let the voice echo in my head. It sounded worried even in though it sounded angry.
"Gentlemen I would suggest you keep your voices down and avoid any activity of violence that cause a commotion to be thrown out the hospital unless you two want to disturb Mrs. Black from her recovery." A third new voice said. That was completely new.
"I'm sorry!" The second voice said.
"Is she is going to be alright?" The first voice said with this hard tone and I felt as if this person talking was looking right at me. My body felt slight warmth. I tried to think who made me feel like this and there was only one pair of eyes recently made me feel like that. Stefan!
"Stefan." I said.
"Diana?" I heard Stefan's voice call.
"Diana!" the second voice called out with such concern and softness like Damon's whenever I was sick as a child.
"Mrs. Black?" The unknown voice also called out. It sounded soft.
Suddenly, I heard movement and someone touching my right hand. The touch shot electricity through my body at such a high speed. I wanted to look at him and I tried to opened my eyes. They felt weak but, I slowly blinked them open and I adjusted to white light shining and the slight blur and finally after blinking a little more I was finally able to adjust to Stefan's gaze on me. It felt warm and comforting. I held onto his hand and I felt his entire arm stiffen.
"Stefan. I don't feel so good. I think I heard Damon. How can I hear him when he is New York? I think I am going crazy." I confessed. He held a blank expression.
"Damon's here." He said curtly. I furrowed my eyebrows and Stefan looked to something in front of him. I turned to my right and saw Damon standing next me with a worried expression.
"Damie?" I asked with a small smile.
"I am here Diana." He smiled at me.
"I missed you." I said.
"I missed you too." He said.
"You are such an idiot!" I heard Stefan say. I furrowed my eyebrows and as he glared at me.
"Wha--" He didn't let me complete as he walked off. That is when I saw a lady in a white coat standing there with a clipboard. I looked at her confused.
"I am glad you are awake Mrs. Black. I am Doctor Pine." She said as she smile at me warmly.
"I am Diana." I said as I smiled at her softly.
"Well, Diana. You haven't been eating for a few days now have you?" She asked.
I sucked in a breath realising I was caught. I just nodded sadly. Damon got up and faced the wall in front of him.
"You were so weak and dehydrated that you fainted. Do you remember that?" She asked.
Then I remembered how everything was spinning in the corridor, it turned white, my knees gave out, my back against the wall and I felt sleepy. Just before sleeping I saw a blurry figure in a grey suit came next to me. I don't remember who was wearing a grey suit but, against the light I felt like my eyes made it seem grey instead of black.
"Yeah. I fell asleep on the floor I think." I said.
"Actually, all your energy gave out and caused you to faint." She said.
"Oh." I said as I looked down at my lap.
"Well, it a good thing you were brought in. We put you on an iv treatment allowing you to get all the vitamins and minerals you have not been having to get back in your system. I also believe yesterday you threw up your breakfast?" She asked. I turned my head to her in a really quick moment. How did she know that?
"How did you know that?" I asked confused.
"I was informed about it." She answered simply.
"No one knew. How? Why did it happen?" I asked.
"Your body was not adjusted to food after not having for such long time that you will have to ease into eating food again. Besides pancakes with chocolate and maple syrup is a lot of sugar intake your body couldn't handle." She told me. I breathed in deeply as I tried to pant a little. How dd she know all this? Some one must have told her. Who knew so much about me?
"We will begin treatment and the nurse will come in every few minutes to change the iv and then give you something to eat." She said.
"Thank you." I said as I nodded. After she left I turned my head to Damon.
"She knew so much. How?" I asked Damon.
"Why didn't you eat? Was it because of Stefan?" he asked ignoring my question.
"No. Stefan had nothing to do with it. I was feeling sad and gloomy and I just didn't feel like eating." I said.
"I lost you twice Diana. I didn't plan on losing you again." Damon said sadly.
"What do you mean?" I asked confused, "How did you lose me twice?" there was a time it was once.
"The devil bought you. Forced you into marriage took you away from us. I lost the one thing that kept me stable through my dark days. If you had starved yourself further and had actually would have died you would have been dead and I would never be able to reach you again. It already hurts that you are not at home but, gone forever?" Damon asked as he shook his head and looked down at his lap.
"I am sorry. I know it is hard. I found it hard and I remember how death wouldn't have mattered to me after I was gone but, it would left everyone around me broken. Dad, Mom, Bill, you, Mia, Cami, Kira. I am sorry I didn't think about keeping myself alive." I said.
"Well, I am glad you learnt your lesson. Because trust me everyone would have been broken no doubt. Except Stefan of course." Damon said.
"Yeah." I said sadly. Why did I feel bad about it? I mean remember it quite clearly how he kissed Kylie right in front of me. How he was seeming in love because he was still seeing her. If he loved her why didn't he marry her. Why me? If he was coming to see Kylie in New York when he also was visiting me to make the wedding plans. Why? Didn't it break her heart seeing him get married to me? What if they were already married and I was his second marriage. What if Kylie knew that he was using me as leverage to take your Bill's company. What if she knew his plans to ruin us because we couldn't pay our debt? What is she knew our marriage was indeed a joke to him? What if our marriage was entirely fake? Was it really officially done or did he trick us into thinking it was real until he gets his money and then make me go through all the pain because he knew all of it was not real? Was the ceremony done by an unregistered Pastor? Why did come after me after kissing her? Why did he pull me close? He was so confusing it made me want to cry out of frustration.
"Diana? Diana? Diana! Are you okay?" I snapped out my daze as I looked at a slightly panicked Damon.
"What happened?" I asked confused.
"You zoned out. You were not blinking. I was worried I thought something happened." Damon said.
"I am fine. Sorry to worry you." I said.
"I think she should get some rest Damon." I looked up to see Stefan standing there. How long was he there? Why should I care when I know he doesn't care about me one bit. He must really angry that he has to miss work and miss seeing Kylie because I am in the hospital and it would look bad if he is seen outside. Actually he wouldn't. No one knows about our marriage any which ways. So why is here? If Kylie has kept the secret of our marriage assuming she knows, she would be the only person to think something about his presence or lack thereof.
"Rest well Diana." Damon said as he kissed my forehead and walked out the door not before sending a glare Stefan's way and whispering something harshly in his ear. Stefan just stared at me unbothered. After Damon left he stared at for little longer with the most impassive and emotionless look on his face. He turned around to go.
"You don't have to sit here. You can go to work and not be bothered about me. It is okay. I am sure you have a lot of work to do and people to meet. You are not under any obligation to wait here." I said just before he was leaving. He stopped in his tracks to listen to me. I got down on the bed and pulled blanket over me. Stefan hadn't moved. I decided I should not be bothered by anything so I closed my eyes. I heard slap against a hard object and the then slamming of a door. I opened my eyes to Stefan had gone. I look at the wall next to the door and it had a crack in it and there was chipped paint on the ground below it. Was it always there? I shrugged the thought and went to sleep.
When I woke up the sunlight was streaming through the tiny slit in the blinds. There was a nurse in the corner of the room.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Oh Mrs. Black you are awake. It is nine in the morning. You will be brought some porridge to eat. Also who would you like to see first?" She asked. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.
"I-I- I don't know what you mean." I told her.
"Would you like to see your husband or your brother?" She asked.
"They can come and see me at the same time." I said confused.
"I am afraid that is not possible." She said with worried look.
"Is everything alright?" I asked worried.
"Yes. Uhm, would you like to see your brother?" she asked again. I was still confused but, I just nodded my head.
She nodded her head and walked out. Soon, Damon walked in. As soon as I saw him I furrowed my eyebrows in worry. He had a bruise red bruise on his cheek.
"Where did you get that? What happened?" I asked.
"Your husband." He simply answered. I felt my blood boil as the thought of Stefan punching my brother in the face came to my mind.
"Why?" I asked.
"Forget it. I got angry at him and told him that you were in hospital because he didn't take care of you. And that conversation lead to all my other thoughts about him not caring, to him caring more about his floozies and he said something we were both angry; it went downhill from there." He explained as he sat on the bed next to me. I held onto his arm and rubbed circles on it to comfort him.
"I am sorry." I said.
"It is quite alright. As long he has not harmed you I am fine." Damon said. He has. I thought to myself. Every single day he ignored me, made it known to me that I meant nothing to him. It hurts when there is no one to take care of you. I sighed.
"He hasn't hurt you has he?" Damon narrowed his eyes to me.
"No. Never. He saved me from Mr. Henderson when we were in New York before we were engaged and when we had gone to gala of his two months ago from some other guy." I said.
"Saved you as in?" He asked.
"As in pulled Henderson away from me and the darkly warned the other gala dude. He made sure to stand in front of me when he was confronting them too." I assured him.
"Guess he is a little nice." Damon muttered and gave me small smile. I smiled back at him. I lied to him about him never hurting me because I remember the very first hours after our wedding he had hurt my wrists so much so that I could not hold the ice pack. Then he held my forearms tightly when I went to the club without telling him or rather asking for his permission. There was slight redness in them but, that was about it.
The entire day until around seven Damon was next to me and we chatted. He said he had meeting tomorrow at company to discuss the dead ends in the kitchen appliances department. I bid him bye and tried to get the tv on. I was trying to make it work. When it didn't work I went to sleep. I heard the door open and close and got up from my sleep. The light near the door was dim. I could see a figure. I knew that must have been Stefan. So, I got up angrily remembering what he did to Damon's cheek. I stalked over to him.
"How dare you hurt my brother like you did?" I shouted. I could his figure that was not moving.
"What now you won't talk? Just great! First you don't care about me and I deal with the fact I will find no comfort around you. I will to succumb to the wounds you have caused by taking me away from my family, friends. Then lock me in the house for two months and then are not at all nice whenever we have to be nice around each other. You are unfaithful and keep on trying to be my master and then are angry when I am sick in the hospital. Now when you are here you fight with my brother who is dear to me. How dare you? You think you are great when in reality you are horrible." I shouted at him.
"I know." He said softly. What?
"I know? That is all you have to say? What is wrong with you? God it is frustrating being around you. I want to be so far away from you. I would have actually been happy if I starved and died." I huffed as I vented out my anger.
"I can't let you die." He said. I frowned at his words.
"Why because I need your permission. You are not God, your are pure evi,l a freaking ruthless, heartless devil." I shouted yet again.
"Because you still... useful." He said simply.
"Useful. All the times I needed to be put in my place by you I was told that I was nothing but, a freaking useless asset. I feel useless because of you. I can't work at my own company. I have to live under your eternal watchful eye like you are Sauron. I have to sacrifice my happiness for my family business!" I told him.
"I never asked you take the deal. I could have taken over your company and maybe instead of asking for a merger you could have asked to still work under my company name and maybe you wouldn't have to be here. I would be lucky to have to deal with your whiny and disobeying bratty attitude." He said as he took a step forward.
"You were heartless it was stressful, tense and when it came to make the deal I had only one thing on the back of mind. That was forced marriage. You succeeded in it. You gave us a deal. You didn't know me yet you married me and it was not my problem. You offered the deal we got what we got. You are facing the consequences of your own actions! And as for the fact I am whiny, disobeying and bratty. I am none of those. I am strong, independent woman. I always have been. I pushed down and the pressure from the top would have crushed my family. I cared for them and I would have done anything to save them. I am glad I took the deal and quite brave to face the consequences of my actions because my family doesn't have to be hurt and harmed by your presence. If you had such a problem with me why don't you let my family pay you back and get rid of me. It will be easier for the both of us!" I spit out the harsh words.
"You think you are hurt and harmed by my presence? Look at what yours did within the first twenty- four hours of being around me." He stepped forward and I gasped. His face was illuminated by the light and I finally saw his face. There was dark purple bruise on his cheek bone. My eyes felt pooled by tears.
"I-I-I don't---" I stuttered looking at his bruise. He eyes were a blaze in anger.
"Next time you should think before speaking so highly of your family." He said through gritted teeth.
"Stefan... I..." I tried to find the words to say something.
"Save it!" he said as he turned around and slammed the door on his way out. I fell to the floor exhausted from the shouting. I felt slight pain in my head. The door opened again and a shadow loomed over me.
"Mrs. Black are you okay?" the nurse asked. I shook my head as whimpered.
"Come on. You shouldn't be out. Let's get up to the bed." The nurse said as she held me up and took me over to the bed.
"In the morning, when I asked you to bring both my brother and husband. You said no. Why didn't you tell me it was because of the fight?" I asked softly.
"I was instructed to not tell you because it cause to worry and you might not eat again. Or do something impulsive, is what I was told." The nurse said. I just nodded my head.
"Who... Who..." I gulped, "Who started the fight?" I asked.
"Your brother. He walked over to Mr. Black and threw a punch. Mr. Black recovered after a few punches and then he punched back. But, after a few of his punches he froze as if something clicked in him and he stopped mid-air. Mr. Martin used that freezing moment and punched Mr. Black again. Mr. Black just fell back on the floor and took the punches. He took it until, one of the doctor's pulled Mr. Martin off him." She said. I let down the tears that were pooling my eyes and cried. The nurse sat on the bed next to me and hugged me close. She patted me in a comforting manner. After I recovered I ate my soup and went straight to sleep.
The next morning I was greeted by flowers in on my nightstand; I smiled. Then I saw Maria in the corner of the room. She was standing there and setting a vase there. I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Maria what are you doing here?" I asked confused.
"That is a lovely welcome Diana." She smiled at me.
"Sorry. Are you going to stay here?" I asked.
"Well, as soon as your brother comes, yes. And I will be back at night." She said.
"I thought Stefan was staying the nights for the last few days." I said.
"He said he needs to start working. And there are some reshoots for the shoot that happened on Friday." She said softly.
"Oh." I said as I looked down at my lap and blinked back the tears. I looked back at her and smiled. She took care of till noon when Damon came. She had helped me work the tv.
"Good Afternoon Diana." Damon said as he smiled at me. I looked away from him and looked at the tv.
"What is wrong?" he asked.
"Okay, Miss since Mr. Damon is here. I will take my leave and see you at 8." She said with a smile. I nodded my head and smiled at her.
"See you at 8." I told her.
"So you are ignoring me? Are you mad about something?" Damon asked.
"I don't know should I be?" I asked.
"No." Damon said.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yes. Why are you acting like this?" Damon asked.
"One simple reason. You lied. You hurt Stefan first. You threw the first punch. He punched you back and you took that moment to overpower him again and punched him until he got a purple bruise. And I can clearly see that your bruise is gone. Whereas if I think about it Stefan will be going to work with purple bruise." I told him. His eyes widened momentarily.
"I can't believe you believe him? Do you like him or something?" Damon asked as narrowed his eyes at me.
"He didn't tell me anything about the fight. He just stood in front of me and heard all the lies about him hurting you really badly and behaving badly when it was you who started the fight! I felt bad for supporting you if my anger towards him was based on a lie!" I told Damon.
"How would know it was lie?" Damon asked.
"Because the nurse told me and the voices down the corridor after I shouted at Stefan last night told me the same. They passed by after he stormed off. And why do you need to deny it? You can be protective and have every right to feel anger. But, you cannot lie to me Damon. We have always been close. We gone through so much together and yet you still lied when we vowed that it won't happen. We made sure to remember that we wouldn't lie to each other right after the bomb of this entire deal was thrown in our faces." I told him.
"I'm sorry." He said.
"You have to say it to him Damie." I sighed.
"I will." Damon said as he sighed.
"Now get in next to me tell me how you flaunting your amazing problem solving skills went down today." I said as I made for him on the bed. He got in and we smiled at each other. He told me it was simple problem that the calculations for many of the products material and weight varied causing the products to fail from working. We spent another day just chatting and me being in his presence. In the evening when I was having my dinner Mom had called us and told us that the price of the debt filled was 30 million pounds. We were 6 pounds away from getting me a divorce and me coming back home. I pretended to be happy knowing that Stefan had told me he would not allow a separation even after the debt has been filled. I didn't know why he would want to keep me around.
At 8 Maria came and Damon left. He said he would meet Stefan right before he had to leave in the afternoon tomorrow and visit me one more time too. As I was falling asleep that night I felt bad that told Stefan all those things about him hurting people around him was true. That is when my phone was dinging. I picked it up and saw a notification. I opened the news app that was there and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.