My Bratty Wife
Chapter 236 - Two Hundred And Thirty Six

Chapter 236: Chapter Two Hundred And Thirty Six

Darkness.

A profound darkness that was not frightening, but strangely... peaceful. Then, a pinprick of light, growing, expanding, until Suzy found herself standing, not on the cold cobblestones of Aldridge Port, but in a place that was achingly, terrifyingly familiar.

She was in a hospital room. Bright, sterile, filled with the quiet hum and beep of medical equipment. And in the bed, pale and still, lay a young woman with familiar brown hair spread across the pillow. Her own face. Her real self.

Her parents, her dear mother and father, sat hunched by the bedside, their faces etched with a grief that tore at Suzy’s heart. Her mother was holding the still hand of the figure in the bed, murmuring soft, loving words. A doctor, a kind-faced man in a white coat, stood nearby, his expression somber.

"I’m so sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Evans," the doctor said, his voice gentle but firm. "There’s been no change. Miss Susan is still in a deep coma. We’re doing everything we can, but we don’t know..." He trailed off, the unspoken prognosis hanging heavy in the air.

"No!" Suzy cried out, her voice echoing strangely in this space that felt both real and unreal. "Wait! I’m still here! Mum! Dad! I’m here!" She tried to move towards them, to touch them, to break through the veil of their sorrow, but an unseen force, a gentle but firm presence, held her back.

She turned, startled, and found herself facing another young woman, her form translucent, shimmering faintly. It was Cassandra,her expression soft and understanding. But this was Cassandra as she might have been before the hardships, before the fear.

"Cassandra?" Suzy asked, her voice trembling with confusion. "What’s happening? Where are we? Why can I see... myself?"

Cassandra offered a sad, gentle smile. "This is where my soul has resided, Suzy, since that day... that day we both fell into the old well on the edge of the Blackwood estate." Her voice was a soft echo, like wind chimes. "When we fell, when darkness took us both, something... shifted. Our souls exchanged places. My soul found refuge in your body, here, in this time. And your soul, it found its way into mine, into my life as the soon to be Duchess of Carleton."

Suzy stared, speechless, as the impossible truth settled upon her. "So... my body... I have been in a coma all these while?" she whispered, gesturing towards the still figure in the hospital bed.

Cassandra nodded, her ethereal form flickering slightly. "Yes. And I... I have been a silent observer, aware of your parents’ love, their constant vigil."

A wave of conflicting emotions washed over Suzy. Her parents... they were grieving for a daughter who was, in a way, still with them, just... occupied. "Don’t you want to come back, Cassandra?" Suzy asked, her voice filled with a sudden, intense empathy for the woman who had lost her life, her world. "To your own body? To your own time?"

Cassandra shook her head, a profound sadness in her shimmering eyes, yet also a strange peace. "No, Suzy, forgive me for being selfish but..."she said softly. "Even if I can’t move or speak in your body, even if I remain... stuck in that bed, I am not alone here. There are people who care, truly care. Your parents... oh, Suzy, they love you so very much. And through their love for you, I have felt a warmth, a devotion I never knew in my own life. My own parents were... the situation was complicated. If I were to go back, truly back to my old life before you arrived, I would be utterly alone once more, with only the abuse and fear of not being wanted by anyone."

Suzy thought about it, her heart aching for Cassandra’s past loneliness and her present, strange contentment. "She’s right," Suzy realized with a pang.

Cassandra had found a measure of love, even as a silent observer in another’s life. And Suzy... Suzy had Ryan. She had found a love so profound, so all-encompassing, in Cassandra’s world. She had people who loved her there, a life that was now hers.

"Giving her my parents, their love... it wouldn’t be such a bad thing," she conceded, the thought bringing both a tear to her eye and a strange sense of rightness.

"If... if you eventually make it out of this hospital, Cassandra," Suzy said, her voice thick with emotion, "if you wake up in my body... promise me you’ll take care of them. Love them for me. For yourself."

A radiant smile, the first truly joyful expression Suzy had seen on her, illuminated Cassandra’s translucent face. "Oh, I promise, Suzy," she breathed. "With all my heart, I will take care of them. I’ll cherish them like the parents I never had, the parents I always dreamed of."

Impulsively, they reached for each other, their ethereal forms merging in a hug that was surprisingly solid, filled with a profound, shared understanding.

"Thank you, Suzy," Cassandra whispered against her shoulder. "Thank you for giving me another chance to truly know what selfless love feels like, even if it is through their love for you."

"And thank you, Cassandra," Suzy replied, tears streaming down her own spiritual face. "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to start a new life and finding the meaning to it."

They drew apart slowly. Before Cassandra’s form could fade completely, Suzy remembered something Doris told her before she died. "Cassandra, wait," she said urgently. "Doris... she told me she was the one who pushed you down the well that day. She said it was on someone’s order."

Cassandra’s smile was tinged with an old sorrow, but no bitterness. "Yes, I know it was Doris," she said quietly. "Poor Doris. She was terrified. I hold nothing against her. She was but a pawn."

"She also said you stumbled upon a terrible secret," Suzy pressed, needing to understand the roots of the danger that still clung to her new life. "Do you remember who the person was? The one who gave the order? Your memory, when you were... me... has always been hazy in that particular aspect."

Cassandra frowned slightly, as if trying to peer through a mist. "That’s because I never truly saw the person who gave the order, not clearly," she replied. "I was hidden in the hedge, looking round the garden. I only heard them. Two voices, two men, though one of their voices was disguised, muffled. They were planning... planning on how they would kill Duke Charles."

"Duke Charles?" Suzy echoed. Ryan’s father.

Cassandra nodded. "Yes. He was unwell at the time, but not gravely so. They spoke of making his decline seem natural, of ensuring their plan went... a certain way." She paused, her ethereal form flickering more noticeably now. "I have no face for you, Suzy. But their voices... their coldness... it must have been one of his own family members. Someone close. Someone who stood to gain."

The revelation hung in the air, another dark piece of a puzzle Suzy was only beginning to comprehend. "Thank you, Cassandra," she said softly. "Thank you for everything."

They hugged one last time, a farewell filled with gratitude, sorrow, and a strange, unbreakable bond forged across time and circumstance. Then, Cassandra’s form dissolved, fading into the light, leaving Suzy with a sense of peace and an even deeper resolve.

The sterile white of the hospital room receded, the beeping of the machines grew distant, and the oppressive darkness from the kidnappers’ storage room enveloped her once more, but only for an instant. Then, a new light, soft and warm, filtered through her eyelids. She heard voices, hushed and concerned. One was Ryan’s, his tone laced with anxiety. The other was deeper, calmer – Dr. Abernathy, the Carleton family physician.

With a monumental effort, Suzy’s eyelids fluttered, then slowly, heavily, opened. The first thing she saw was Ryan’s beloved face, pale and drawn, his eyes red-rimmed from weeping, but now wide with a dawning, incredulous hope as he looked down at her. He was by her bedside, holding her hand tightly. Dr. Abernathy stood on the other side.

She tried to speak, but her throat was too dry. She managed a faint smile. Ryan’s grip on her hand tightened, his thumb stroking her knuckles.

She could only pick up a few words of what Dr. Abernathy was saying to Ryan, his voice a low murmur. But one phrase, clear and distinct, cut through the haze of her returning consciousness, a phrase that sent a shockwave of disbelief and a sudden, overwhelming surge of emotion through her entire being:

"...remarkable, Your Grace, truly remarkable, considering the ordeal... but the Duchess is strong. And Her Grace is with child."