The phone rang.
Owen glanced at the clock. 10:44pm. Who the heck is calling at the office at this hour?
"Hello?", he said into the phone.
"Owen. Thank God I got the correct number."
"Who is this?"
"It's Amy. I found Alice. She's at the Central Hospital in St. Johns."
Alerted, Owen sat straight in his chair. The exhaustion he felt ten seconds ago from the long hours at work disappeared at the mentioning of Alice.
"What? What happened?" He couldn't hide the anticipation in his voice.
"I don't know. A nurse who used to work here recognized her and called me but didn't say much expect that they just got her in."
"I'm going there. I'll call when I get something."
And he hung up. Worry, concern and relief washed over his face.
Nineteen months! Nineteen months and no word from her. He had been so consumed in getting the company back on its feet that for a while he had forgotten about Alice's departure from Lily Valley.
Owen pushed back his chair, snitched his coat from the hanger and strode out.
* * * *
Indecisive, Owen paced outside the hospital room where the nurse informed him Alice lied in a bed. He's been going back and forth on along the same tiles for half hour. All the way to St. John's, he wondered what he expected to find. The doctors had told him she was found at the bottom of a staircase in a bar. Most likely she only tumbled a few flights because even if she hit her head she had no injures except for small light bruises. But beyond her little accident, he was still uneasy about facing her. What happened to her? Why did she leave?
He had so many questions. So he did the one thing he could to answer them and opened the door.
"Oh goodness", came the female voice from the bed. "What are you doing here?"
Owen stopped at the door and took in what was in front of him. Did he get the wrong room? This wasn't Alice he last saw at Ethan's funeral. Alice had natural dark brown shoulder length hair. The woman before him had ashy blonde long hair. Alice had green eyes. Then so did the woman. She had Alice's pouty mouth and small nose as well. She even had lice's slender build. But somehow she didn't seem like Alice.
"So?", said the woman with annoyance in her tone. "Did you come all this way to stand there and stay mute?"
Owen steps closer to her bed. Yes, those eyes were definitely Alice's. The same eyes Ethan had.
"Alice. How are you?", he inquired gently.
"How do I look? I look fine, right?" The sarcasm and cynicism she spoke with took Owen by surprise. Alice he knew was always nice in her conversations.
"You're in a hospital. I don't know. Are you fine?"
"I am fine", she assured him definitely.
He was told she was unconscious for hours. She seemed pretty much awake then. And the foreign venom in her voice was definitely working fine.
"Whatever happened to you?" He had to ask. He never saw Alice angry, much less this worked up and annoyed.
"What happened to me?"
"Are you going to keep answering me with a question?"
Alice huffed out a long breathe. "If you came here to lecture me, visitor's hours for you is over."
"I'm not here to lecture you. I'm here to make sure you're okay and take you back home."
"I already told you I'm fine and now I'm telling you I ain't coming back. Goodbye."
Owen gaped at her flabbergasted. "Are you really sending me away?"
"Yes", she replied bluntly.
Owen could only stare at her. In the minutes he spent outside her door wondering what to expect, he surely didn't imagine Alice sending him away before two minutes passed.
"You've changed Alice." Owen shook his head. "And I really don't like who you became."
"Good. More the reason to leave then."
She was starting to get on his nerve. Where did she get that venom from?
"I'll leave." Owen turned to leave but stopped. "But before I leave answer me this. Is this what you figured out to do with your life? Messing with alcohol and drugs?"
"So much for patient privacy. Let me guess. You told the doctor you were the only relative or so I have left."
His brief silence confirmed her speculation. "Are you going to answer me or you want me to stay now?" he replied instead.
"What about you telling me about the company's bad debt, huh? The same company my brother helped you build."
Owen paused. How did she know that? Ethan swore he didn't and wouldn't tell her.
"It's not the time for that talk." He walked away to the window, his back at her. It really wasn't the time. He didn't want to think about that, not when he had already enough on his head. Mainly her. So he let her win and ended the conversation. "Your doc said you'll be released in a couple days." He turned back to her. "I told him to inform me of that..."
"What?"
"...and a car will be waiting for you then."
"I'm not coming with you. I'm not going back to that town." She was resolute about that. Lily Valley was her past.
Owen walked to her bed, leaned close to her. "Why did you run? Why did you mess up your life?"
"I realized I needed a change", she responded without letting his closeness waver her.
"And is this what you had in mind? Getting doped and being treated at a hospital rather than you treating people and telling them not to mess themselves?"
"Maybe."
Owen's brows rose and his eyes bulged out. "Seriously? You're mad."
"Well then, you should go back to your office and deal with your over-dues and leave me go mad by myself."
"I really, really should go because I'm starting to ask myself what am I doing here. I'll see you at home, Alice." And he left with a loud bang of the door.
The nerve. How dare he? He drove for hours from Lily Valley to St. John's to dictate to her what to do and what not to. But she won't listen to him. She won't go back to that town.
* * * *
"What do you mean I can't leave?"
"Mrs Tanner, Mr Stanley was clear about not letting you return home by yourself. He's concerned for your wellbeing. He kept his word and sent a car for you. It's already outside."
God damn him. Well, she had no choice did she? Owen seemed to have bought this male nurse with his words or maybe even with money so she doubted her argues will lead anywhere.
Alice picked up the pen with a huff and signed the release papers. The nurse then took her arm as if he didn't trust she'll go peacefully and led her way out.
She didn't need to ask which car was it. One look at the sleek black Mercedes with a chauffeur at the door told her so.
The middle-aged chauffeur opened the door for her and she stepped in without a look back at the nurse. He wasn't really a friendly face at the moment.
When the driver got in the car and turned on the ignition she stuck her head between the seats.
"Where did he tell you to take me?"
"Home. Your bags are in the boot so we don't have to stop anywhere." He cleared his throat. "Not even for a nature call. Strict orders."
"Ugh."
* * * *
Home? This is home?
She was being escorted up the elevator to Owen's condo. She was really starting to hate this man.
On the way here, they passed from the streets to her former apartment but the car never stopped. When she asked the chauffeur, he said "The address I got isn't here, miss."
Okay, maybe she couldn't expect him to take her to her apartment because it isn't her apartment anymore. It probably got rented out to new tenants the next day she left town.
But he really shouldn't have brought her here.
This wasn't home. This was home of her memories, alright. Memories of Ethan. Memories she wanted to bury away and keep on with her life.
Even standing in the elevator reminded her. Her finger even moved by itself to press the button to Ethan's floor below Owen's but she stopped herself short. So many times she visited her brother here. That last time being to wish him a safe trip and good luck for the business meeting.
Bing! Even the bell...
Stop. She couldn't keep on reminiscing with everything she saw. She would set things straight with Owen that she won't be living here. Well, expect maybe tonight. Until she could get somewhere else tomorrow.
She already knew that if she took off again, Owen would be on her tail before she knew it. Plus she had some talk on a very serious subject to do with him.
Slowly, she trudged the small corridor to his door with her mind forced shut not to let the familiar surroundings affect her. Before her both feet stopped moving, the door opened.
"Alice. You look better. Come on in", Owen greeted her pleasantly.
Owen moved aside and Alice stepped inside trailed by the chauffeur with her two bags of stuff. She was relieved to find the place much different than Ethan's. Owen's was much daintier in a bachelor's way. Except for the furniture, very little decoration was around. Not even picture frames or trophies from football tournament.
The door closed and she was alone with Owen.
Owen stared at her for a moment. She looked even more different today. The revealing blue slinky dress and high heels she wore made her look like a woman from Rodeo Drive. Her sleek straight hair was like a doll's. And her face? Her face was masked with makeup he could almost question himself if he was looking at Alice or someone else. The Alice he knew was all natural and barely ever wore skirts. He could swear this is the first time he saw her bare milky legs.
"So. You got a clean bill of health?"
"Did you really have to bring me here?" She wasn't going to let his gentle talk sway her easy. Not even let his rugged body in the clean cut charcoal suit affect her. Tough he did look good, maybe too good, but she had to keep strong.
"You got any place to go?"
"I do. You should let me go back to St. John's."
"St. John's." He sniffed with a smile. "I figured you escaped to your hometown. Lived in a hole smaller than my bedroom. You didn't even have a kitchen."
"I survived didn't I?"
"Your stubborn determination sure did."
"I'm not staying here for more than a day."
Owen eyes her like he could read her mind. Could he really?
"This place reminds you of him don't it? You can go see Ethan's place if you like."
"Isn't it already rented to some pompous business man and his mistress?"
"It is rented. To me. I thought you wanted to clean it out so I bought you the time."
"You didn't have to do that." She replied with the venom he can't get accustomed to instead of a nice 'Thank you, Owen'. "You could have cleaned his stuff yourself."
"Come on Alice. You know you want to do that yourself." He rests a hand on her shoulder. "But you've already put everything concerning Ethan in the deepest place of your memory to not let it hurt you, didn't you?" His words are too soft for her ears.
She stepped away from his touch. Afraid of the gentleness and intimacy of it all. "You don't know anything about me."
"Now that's the first truth I heard from you since you came back."
"You want to talk truth? What about the debt you have? Why didn't you and Ethan ever talk to me about it?"
There. She dropped the bombshell on him.
"Ethan didn't want to worry you plus the company matters have nothing to do with you plus you barely had time to speak with anyone because you were always working. So now the question is back on you. Why did you stop being that kind smart Dr Alice Tanner?"
"My life matters got nothing to do with you." She retorted using his words.
"You think Ethan would be proud to know you ran away from life because of him, because he left you alone?"
"Stop using Ethan to try and get into me. It's useless." She went to her bags and lifted them on her shoulders.
"So you want to know my life but I can't know yours? That's a bit unfair, isn't it?" She riled him up and made him use sarcasm in his tone.
"Alright." She lowered the bags down again and faced him squarely. "You want to know about me? Want to know why I was so drunk I didn't even know I fell down that stairs? I'll tell you. Johnson Smith came to me."
"Smith?" Owen froze still. She hit the bull's eye of the subject. "What did he want?"
"The money you owe him obviously."
"Ethan too. You're leaving him out."
"Ethan's dead. Stop mentioning him."
"Right. I'll stop reminding you. Or you'll run away. Or load yourself with booze to forget." He says matter-of-factly. "That's what you've done, isn't? To forget?"
She shrugged one shoulder.
"God damn it, Alice-"
"Don't God damn me, Owen. This is my life. You have no right, no obligation to tell me what to do."
Owen stopped. She was right. He was nobody to her.
"What did he tell you? What did Smith tell you?", he said trying his utmost to stay calm and focus on the crucial subject.
Alice took a breath to compose herself. "That you and Ethan owed him a lot of money and that you're late in payments."
"And...?"
"And he gave me - you - a week to pay him back or else you'll pay for my ransom."
Jesus. Owen sat down on the plush sofa and ran a hand in his perfect set short hair. Smith will kidnap Alice if he fails to pay. He knew too well from stories that Smith dealt with easy gentle talks but he kept to his words fully. And Alice, she had the guts to speak so at ease when she got amidst the worst place of the whole mess involuntary.
"Care to tell me about it now that it does matter to me?" Alice asked as she sat beside him.
"What's there to tell? The company was losing money, the bank wouldn't give us, took a load from Smith. End of story."
"The end of story is when you pay him back."
"And you got any ideas how?"
"Nope. Haven't had the chance to think about it."
"Sure."
"Stop it."
Owen raised his hand in surrender. "I'll stop it. Your bed is in there." He stood up and indicated to a room. "Make yourself at home.
And he walks off, picked up his briefcase and exited, leaving Alice alone with her thoughts and the things she just learned.
* * * * * * * *