Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 258: Death

Chapter 258: Death

As night fell, the sun slipped below the horizon, painting the sky with hues of orange and pink before fading to darkness. The moon emerged, casting a silvery glow that illuminated the city and the grounds of Silverbrook Hospital. The hospital’s windows shimmered softly, and the surrounding streets were bathed in the gentle light.

Inside the hospital, the nurses made arrangements for the Wayner twins to be taken to the ICU to see their mother as Neil had requested.

He wheeled them into the room in neonatal transport incubators. They’d been fed a moment ago and, true to the nurses’ words, his children were super active for babies born prematurely. He’d watched them eagerly suck on the rubber nipples used to feed them milk, their tiny fists flying eagerly in the air. He could almost hear them purr in delight as they drank.

James and Liam had left him in their room earlier as they had things to attend to, but Neil had stayed there until night, when he could finally take the babies to Mia. She always opened her eyes at the sight of the moon pouring in from the window every night, and he hoped when she did tonight, she would be happy to see their little ones. He knew it; he could feel it. He smiled faintly as he wheeled them inside the ICU, where his men standing protectively at the door bowed down slightly and opened the door for him and the nurse to pass.

Just like every night, the glass window curtains were drawn apart for the moonlight to pour in through the glass. The pale moonlight illuminated Mia’s face, making her appear even paler than she was. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was so faint one could hardly see her chest rise and fall unless you looked closely without blinking. Neil had already become accustomed to her state, so he left the incubator with the nurse and approached her first.

Mia laid on the bed, her frail form barely a shadow of the vibrant woman she once was. Her cheeks were sunken, her collarbones sharply defined, and her breasts looked almost non-existent for a woman who’d given birth, making Neil doubt she’d have milk for their babies when she recovered. He dismissed the thought and called her name softly, his fingertips brushing her shrunken cheeks with so much care and tenderness it hurt to watch her in the state.

"Mia," he whispered, his voice cracking as he caressed her face. "It’s me, Neil."

Instantly, her eyes flew open, staring at him with the same blankness that always broke his heart. He missed the warmth and love in those eyes. He knew she probably didn’t know what she was doing, but he wished he’d see a glimpse of life in them. She stared at him without blinking, and his heart tightened.

"Hi, love," he greeted as he leaned down and pressed a feathery kiss on her forehead, but deep down, he was hurting. His heart was wounded by the fact that she couldn’t reply to him or show him her real emotions. She could only stare at him. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he stroked her hair and massaged the bandage around her head where the doctor had done a last-minute surgery a month ago when they discovered a brain disorder that had occurred recently after her brain was forced to regain her past memories that were wiped off by the doctor years ago.

It was after the surgery that she fell into a vegetative state. He wished he could help her or that he had done something to stop all the things she’d been through in her childhood that had led to this. He hadn’t been able to help and had worsened her condition when he’d refused to see their children. Still stroking her hair, he looked down at her.

"I’m sorry it took me this long to see our babies," he said, forcing a smile despite the pain in his heart. "I was stupid for ignoring their existence, but I’m ready to do right now. Noah and Nolan are the most beautiful beings in the entire world. You should have seen how identical and active they are. They have such fragile fingers that amaze and scare the shit out of me. Noah already knows how to smile."

He spoke with such fondness that even the nurse standing at the side couldn’t help her tears as she watched him talk to his wife like she could understand. Neil continued, "They look just like you did when you were young, but they have my eyes. They suck the milk like they’d been taught before. I wish you were there to see how Nolan kept gripping my finger. You can tell he is going to be a tough one."

As if Mia was listening, her blank eyes slowly began to show emotions. Neil noticed the tear welling in her eyes and broke out in a disbelief filled laugh. He looked back at the nurse, then at Mia. "Did you see that? Mia is shedding tears. She can hear me!"

He cupped her cheeks delicately. "Would you like to see the babies?" Though she didn’t react to his question, the tears continued to roll down her cheeks. Neil gestured for the nurse to bring the babies forward. He moved back and carefully lifted each baby, one at a time, to show them to her.

He angled the first baby in a way that Mia could see his face. The baby, who had been sleeping when he picked him up, woke up and rubbed his fists against his face. Mia’s eyes filled with another ball of tears. Neil watched in astonishment as Mia’s hand flinched and then moved as if she wanted to reach out to touch the baby but couldn’t. He quickly bent down and raised her hand, placing it on the baby, who looked at her without blinking as if he knew who she was.

At that moment, her heart monitor began to change, the rhythmic beeping speeding up. Neil’s heart slammed against his ribs as he hurriedly jerked the baby back, yelling to the nurse, "Call the doctor!"

The baby was startled by his alarmed shouting and began to cry. The baby wailed and kicked his fists. Neil quickly moved back, but the other baby also began to cry at the same time. Mia’s heart monitor was failing, and her chest was rising in a way that made her seem like she was struggling to breathe, her eyes widening as she stared at the babies and Neil as if trying to tell them something.

Neil panicked, anxiety flooding through him as he realized he might have messed things up again by bringing the babies and talking to her about them when all he wanted was to help. The doctors rushed in just as he was placing the baby back in its incubator. He rushed back to Mia’s side, but before he could reach her, the male nurses pulled him and dragged him outside. He tried to free himself, but the door was slammed shut, and he hurried to the glass windows that gave him a view of the room and his wife.

Inside, he watched as the doctors tried to save her, performing CPR and using a defibrillator to shock her heart back to life. Neil’s vision blurred with tears as he watched the scene unfold, his heart breaking anew.

He closed his eyes and began to pray, his heart pounding in his chest like it would burst out of his ribs. He began to pray in every language he knew, calling out to any God that might be listening to him and save his wife. His thoughts raced, his desperation palpable.

"Please," he whispered in French. "S’il vous plaît, aidez-la." In Spanish, he pleaded, "Por favor, Dios, sálvala." He switched to German, then to the snippets of Italian, Mandarin, and Hindi he knew. Each word was a fragment of his desperate heart, a plea for more time.

He’d give anything, he thought desperately, his mind racing, to have just a few more months with her. No, not months. A year. No, that’s too little. Half of his life. He’d give half of his life if it meant he could have her for as long as the sun rises and falls. He was willing to stop being a short-tempered bastard; he would never raise his voice at anyone or hit people when annoyed.

His emotions churned, a tumult of hope and fear. The buzzing in the hospital hallway grew distant as he focused solely on his prayers. Tears streamed down his face, his breath catching in his throat. He was a man undone, clinging to a thread of hope in a sea of despair. He didn’t care how pathetic he looked to his men who were looking at him with pity, he didn’t care that he was bargaining with a God he didn’t know was listening or was mocking him for the lives he’d taken in the past.

His uncle was right: everyone he cared about always ended up dead, abandoning him. But he didn’t want Mia to be just a memory; he didn’t want to lose her out of everyone. He had always known he had a curse on him and some bad luck that followed him around and killed every person he cared for. He had known a day would come when he would suffer for the lives he’d taken in the past, but he’d thought being in prison for five damned years was enough punishment for his sins. But it seemed that wasn’t enough; he was bound to suffer even more. No God would listen to a sinner like him.

But for goodness sake, Mia was a lovely woman who deserved better. He would trade his life for hers if he could; he would give his damned life to keep her alive. Please, save her this once, if not for him, then for the children. "Please..."

Finally, after making all his conjoined prayers, he opened his eyes and looked through the window. But his heart seemed to momentarily stop beating at the sight before him. Slowly, shakily, he began to back away in disbelief at what he saw through the glass.

The heart monitor lines had stopped, flattening completely. The doctors stood around Mia’s bed, their faces masks of resignation. She lay still, pale and lifeless.

"No," Neil whispered, shaking his head. "No, no, no. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. I begged you to save her..."

He refused to accept it. His legs felt like they might give out as he stood there, disbelief and despair coursing through him. He was too broken to hear whatever the other nurses exiting the ICU were saying, too consumed by despair to hear or feel the mood around him as all he could see was his wife lying still. He didn’t even realize when a doctor approached him until he patted his shoulder in a consoling manner.

"We are sorry to..." the doctor began, but everything else he said was a blur to Neil. The words faded into the background, drowned out by the roaring silence in his mind. Darkness, cold and chilling seemed to slowly take over his surroundings.

The darkness he had feared.

She was the only light in his pale, colorless world.

If her heart stopped....his would too.

David Wayner had once said; ’Your Galverra blood makes you a monster, you cannot love and you cannot be loved, all you’ll bring is darkness to this world.’

That darkness like the blackest heart of a demon surfaced within him in the moment he stared at Mia’s heart monitor fading into a flat line.

It was over!

Everything was pointless now!

His grey eyes turned vicious and frightening, seared by the flames of an unbearable pain in his heart.

Destruction rose in him like a tidal wave.

But if he could snap out of his despair and listen, he would have heard what the doctor was saying before he acted instinctively and began to destroy whatever he came in contact with.

However, whatever the doctor said changed the course of Neil’s life completely when he finally registered it in his brain. That day marked a moment no one would ever forget, a day seared into his soul and heart.