Nathaniel
"I got her," I yelled at the people behind me.
Serena had finally collapsed in my arms as the sedative running through her veins had took full effect making her body go limp.
I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. It felt like I had ran a marathon. From a far, Chyna and I were both looking at Aaron being transported and that was when she saw someone causing chaos it took me time to register that it was Serena.
I had went in for a sprint in order to catch her before she reached Serilda. My lungs were screaming in pain besides my legs aching. Serena had still been able to scratch me at her best. The way she had gone frantic as I had grabbed her had only left me wounded and bleeding.
"Bring me the stretcher," I instructed. Serena was sick I could see it. She was not the woman I once knew.
"Where are her parents or the doctor on duty?" Chyna questioned angrily. I turned around and saw her raging at a set of hospital staff. Two men came running with a stretcher and helped me lay Serena down on it.
"Take her inside and keep her safe in her room for now. Don't let anyone in beside her authorized doctors. Not even her parents," both the men nodded to me and a nurse went with them inside.
"How could you let something like this happen!" Chyna was raging at a staff.
"You can go," I butted in. "I will handle it over from here," I added making Chyna turn toward me.
"Let her go," I told her as she looked at me angrily. The woman staff she was madly raging on saw her opening and got away.
"Don't interfere with my work," she yelled at me and I just nodded. "Do you know that woman was the one who informed her where Aaron was? She even told him that he was being moved on all because she thought he was her husband. If Serena wouldn't be caught at the right moment then we would have been handling a lot more of a mess right now."
"I understand that," I sighed looking at my hand with squinting eyes. Serena had scratched my hand and her nails though small but still caused enough scratches to make me bleed.
"But you were already prepared for it, weren't you?" I asked her with a raised brow. "You were carrying a safe sedative in your pocket for her already. You handed that to me as soon as you saw me running after her because you knew I would catch up to her and do everything possible to stop her from reaching Serilda and Aaron," I stated in an accusing way. She just looked at me before moving her eyes in the direction where the ambulance had just taken off.
"Because deep down I knew something like this would happen. Whenever Serilda has happiness in her life grey clouds aren't far away." I looked at her skeptically at the answer she gave me. I stared into her eyes until she averted them and rolled her eyes at me.
"Serena had been awake for a while and had been asking about Aaron ever since she woke up. With her history, I was sure something like this would happen and I think Amelia had the wind about Aaron's whereabouts. Deep down in my gut, I had a feeling that wherever Amelia, Serena, and Serilda were nothing could go as possible," she chuckled the last part. That answer was believable. Something was always happening around when those three were under one roof or when Serena and Serilda were nearby. Was it Amelia's doing or God's doing no one could answer that clearly off.
"And for the part why I gave you the sedative was because I knew you would do everything to safeguard her," I looked at her confusingly as she looked at me smugly. "Anyone would have failed to catch Serena and calm her down but not you."
"Because I'm me and not anyone else," I laughed at my own words but Chyna's face turned serious.
"No," she took a step towards me looking right into my eyes and pointing a finger towards my chest. "Because you still love her," I stilled at her words.
"You would do everything for her, everything in your power to keep her safe and happy even when she isn't yours, even when she is married to another man. Deep down you are still the same man who has loved her selflessly and nothing will ever change for you in that respect," her finger stabbed my chest twice but I didn't budge.
"This heart still has got a lot of love for her. I bet on my everything that even after she had turned old and had a dozen kids you would still love her with your everything, and will do anything to make her happy. You have got her in here and you will never let her go even if you had your own kids and wife. Serilda will always be your first, until the end," she dug her finger where my heart was. I looked away from her because I knew she was right. Serilda was the only woman I had loved with my everything and still did. The sad part was I didn't find anything wrong with it. I didn't demand anything from Serilda, didn't ask her for anything, or even stalked her. I loved her from afar even if she wasn't around me.
I was sufficed with what I had and yes Serilda was always going to be my first because there was no control of mine over my heart and what had already happened. She had been there first and nothing could erase that.
"I still don't understand though," Chyna spoke loudly. "You are a psychiatrist and a good one but how did you end up in this all first love."
"No wait let me reframe that I don't understand how could you fall in love at first sight because that shit is always in the movies or books. How can you fall in love with a person just from looking at her?" she questioned me. "You got the brains, you are a doctor and yet you fell in love with someone just at first sight. She had not even known about your existence, Nathaniel, or who you were."
"I don't have the answer to that Chyna," I sighed. "I got no answer for any of your questions. Not any answer that would suffice you but I saw her and I was drawn to her. Before I could make any move or ask her out she had already been gone. I had tried to find her but it was of no use. She wasn't anywhere, to begin with, and then seeing her as a bride hit me hard that I still had feelings for her." I smiled sadly looking at her.
"I wasn't with Serena for Serena, I was there for Serilda. Deep down I knew it purely that my whole relationship with Serena was only because of Serilda because I wanted to be close to her somehow and there I was," I paused remembering the first time Serilda met me at a baseball game. She had lied about everything and yet I just didn't care. There was no use for me to care about something like that because all I could think about was that I was closer to her.
"She was a fool when she was trying to make me fall in love with her acting out as Evelyn because she had no idea that I had already been head over heels for her," Chyna rolled her eyes at me.
"All she wanted to do was get me away from Serena while all I wanted was to get Serena out of her life," I wanted to laugh at the irony in those words. We both were working against each other but still in the same direction in some way.
"Those few days were in some way, got to be the best I got. I was selfish and I didn't care at all that she was lying because, in the end, it was worth it. I got to know what it felt to be on her loving side, what it was to hold her to love her. Those few days I had really forgotten with her sometimes what my main goal was because I basking in the lie of love she was giving me and I was still content with that." It hurt saying all this because as much as I loved having that I hated that it all ended. Yet there was nothing I could do about the situation. Serilda was content in her life and I have always made peace with that.
"When was the last time you got laid," Chyna's words made me close my eyes with frustration.
"It's not always about sex, Chyna. You can't weigh relationships and love on the scales of sex. Every relationship doesn't require that. It is not the base of any relationship and if it is somehow then I feel like it's wrong.
"One day one will get bored of it and then what would be left of the relationship?" I asked her.
"Then I will find another one to shag up with," for a few seconds I just looked at her before breaking out in big laughter. There was nothing I could expect from her. Talking to her about this was like flogging a dead horse. She was never going to get it.
"Are you sure you are not a psycho?" she asked concerned as I kept on laughing.
"I'm surely not, but I now understand why mom is always mad at you. You need to get a filter on your mouth Chyna," I said with an arm around her shoulders. "Let's go inside and work."
"You really don't take me seriously at all," she complained.
"One day when you get to my level of maturity I assure you that I and mom will both take you seriously," I told her but I was sure that it would take a long time for her to get there.
"Do you think Amelia did something?" she asked as we walked inside the hospital.
"Well, she has done everything until this point. I'm sure that she is behind everything," I shared my opinion with her. "However how Aaron got dragged into all of this is still a mystery."
"That's something worth wondering. I'm sure Serilda hasn't got any idea about this and it's better if she doesn't much. Her health can go critical and she had already suffered a lot."
"That's true but Aaron might have gone to some great lengths to not let anyone get a hint about what was going on. I will talk to Erik to look into it. For now, they both would be safe in San Francisco."
"Only until Serena and Amelia are here," she added. I agreed with her but for how long can we keep them here? Amelia had got her claws in Aaron once and I knew deep down that she would do everything to destroy Serilda but I could never understand the reasoning behind it. Until Amelia wasn't her daughter.
"What are you thinking?" Chyna asked as we entered the elevator.
"What if Serilda is not Amelia's daughter?" She looked at me confusingly. "Amelia's main concern has been to destroy Serilda and that kind of hatred, in this case, would only stem from the fact if Serilda wasn't her daughter. No mother would try to hurt her daughter."
"There is a possibility that Serilda might not be her daughter but you are forgetting she is harming Serena too. If we go by your theory then we must assume that none of them are her daughters which is highly impossible. There has to be more to it than that." I nodded to her as we got out of the elevator.
"I still can't believe that three years later they all are back in our life," she mumbled. "Do we call this kismet?" I had no answers for that. If it was kismet then it wasn't fair at all. It was all kinds of fucked up then. As we entered the room I saw Serena lying in her bed peacefully but there was a doctor who was practically fuming.
"First of all you pull me off from one of my patients to look at one of your friends then you have the audacity to inject my patient with something. Who do you think are to interfere with my patients," she fumed at Chyna while I just turned to my sister. She stood there unfazed and shrugged which only made the other doctor walk towards her until they were in each other personal space.
"Because nurses were incapable of handling her and I think I just did a favor in saving your patient. So I think you should be thankful to me for that," Chyna wasn't really helping in the situation and I saw the doctor's anger raise a few notches up.
"You injected her with a drug without my authorization and you think it's normal. I did you one favor and you put the health of my pregnant patient at risk," she raged on. "I swear to god if anything happens to her or her guards make any complain I'm going to take this up with the board."
"Be my guest I assure you I would win when it comes to proving that I did nothing wrong at all."
"Did nothing wrong? well the other staff also didn't do anything wrong at all. The nurse told me that she just gave the info that was asked for,"
"And who gave her the right to give the info about another patient to her? You put the confidentiality of one of my patients at risk and tell me that I did something wrong. I was looking for the well-being of my patient rather than yours," I was sure my sister was lying. She was a surgeon but Aaron wasn't her patient in the first place.
"He wasn't your patient," she snapped at her, and I had to look toward Serena just to check whether she was still sleeping with the whole catfight happening. Though she was under sedative I wasn't sure about it with the two of them fighting.
"He is my patient because my resident operated on him," Chyna replied smugly making the other doctor go quiet.
"Who are you?" she snapped turning towards me.
"I'm Nathaniel."
"He's a psychiatrist, also her ex-husband, ex-guardian, ex-doctor and yes also my brother," The last one made her eyes snap shut. I saw her taking in a deep breath and suddenly she looked at me with a dazzling smile.
"Hello, I'm Natasha, a Senior obstetrician and a very good friend of Chyna. It's nice to meet you," I saw her whole personality change in front of me and I stared at my sister who just blew air bubbles. I wasn't sure at all about was my sister right in her mind or even this Natasha was.
"Nice to meet you too," I greeted her with the best-confused look I could give her.
"Can we talk about the patient?" Chyna mumbled picking up the reports where Natasha had left them.
"You should have told me he was your brother," Natasha whispered getting close to her.
"Some other time," Chyna replied and I was sure that ticked Natasha off.
"Is she healthy?" I asked before another fight could start between the two.
"No," she gave a curt reply snatching the file away from Chyna's hand who just rolled her eyes.
"I'm only discussing this with you because you are a psychiatrist and were her previous doctor." I just nodded to her as she flipped the pages until stopping on one.
"Her blood pressure hasn't been normal at all. There are irregularities in her hormones level and also she hasn't got enough iron and folic acid in her body. She is also lacking a multitude of vitamins which is concerning enough to raise red flags." she told me pointing at different indicators.
"I did an ultrasound earlier and for now the growth of the child is fine, not good. The fetus looks a bit smaller than it should at her stage of pregnancy."
"What month is she at?" I asked looking at Serena. Was this pregnancy forced on her in some way?
"She is five months along. However the most concerning part are this," she showed me.
"We checked her blood for drugs and we found traces of antidepressants and more.
"She has got bipolar disorder," I informed her but she was still looking at the reports.
"But that doesn't explain why she is being given anti-psychotic drugs and even CNS depressants, which I might add aren't available that easily to get,' she stated.
"Until a written prescription is there,' Chyna added as she walked towards Serena. Picking her arm she checked her nerves.
"She isn't injecting anything herself so she has been taking them orally. However, you are saying she is lacking nutrients but she is a bit overweight from what I see, isn't she?" Chyna asked.
"That she is but it is usually normal. My bet is on the fact that she is eating nothing nutritional but too much fat and carbs. It makes me wonder if she even knows if she is pregnant?"
"How far along was Serilda?" I questioned Chyna.
"Three months, though she is in perfect health," Natasha informed.
"That means she got pregnant after Serena did. Could be something along the lines of her stealing Aaron's sperm?" Chyna guessed.
"Wait they are pregnant from the same person?" Natasha seemed really confused and slightly disgusted by the thought.
"We are not sure but this could be it. Or this could all be a big lie," I was hoping for the latter.
"But I'm sure he wouldn't have cheated on Serilda. He too had suffered because of her. Believing that he had an affair with her is like a person eating his or her own puke."
"Ew that's disgusting and seriously it can happen only if a person is just too drunk,"
"Nothing adds up though. Serena doesn't care about her child by the way she had gone frantic, almost crazy knowing Aaron was gone. I don't think she cares about the child altogether." It was all I could think. This all was going all over my head and I needed to know more from Aaron himself.
"All she wants is Aaron," Chyna informed. It's like the same thing happening again. Last time it was Erik and now Aaron. The aim was to hurt Serilda.
Amelia wanted to hurt Serilda at all costs and by now I was sure that she wasn't her daughter. Before I could say more the door opened
"What are you all doing here?" Think of the monster and it will appear. There she was—the manipulator, who wanted to hurt his daughter using the other.
Writer's Note
Hello everyone.
I got my fingers crossed to know how you feel about the chapter.
I have written this after a long time and I would love to get a feedback.
Thank you for reading and love you all.