3. Aftershock

His footsteps echoed in his ears. Walking down the corridor, which was still busy that afternoon, filled with patients, doctors, nurses, janitors, and relatives who visited with their respective activities. The surroundings are crowded, but his brain is not like that. The man couldn't digest the situation, he didn't even have time to speculate why he was the one who was contacted to visit this place. Everything felt empty, only his body moved according to instincts that came from nowhere.

That moment was exactly the 23 minutes since Diaz received a call from the hospital where he is now. That second, right where he was standing in front of the ward of someone who had brought him here, staring blankly as he finally stopped and came face to face with the ward of someone he was supposed to meet soon. But as soon as he saw a familiar name written on the information board attached to the door to the infirmary, Diaz's hasty steps stopped, Diaz, froze for a few seconds that passed until someone approached him with a faint smile—if you don't want to be called a sad smile—rebuked him to death. The man came back from his daydream.

"Mr. Diaz? I am Elise, who called Mr. Diaz using Ms. Claire's cellphone."

Diaz gulped, nodding stiffly in response. He didn't know what to do. His relationship with Claire couldn't even be explained, so why was he in this place? It was the words that had been circling in his mind ever since.

“Can you come with me for a moment? Let the doctor explain how Ms. Claire is now."

And for the umpteenth time, Diaz just nodded in response, following the steps of the woman in front of him without making sure whether the Claire she meant was the Claire he knew or not.

***

Diaz's brain felt full, too full of so much new information he received. The man had just come out of the doctor's office, listening to a long explanation of why he was expected to come to the hospital and how Claire was now.

Confusing indeed, even after hearing all the explanations Diaz still can't understand why he? This question will never get tired of asking Diaz. Why? That's all Diaz wants to find for now, with a complicated situation that makes him not understand why he has to be involved. Even though both the doctor and Elise—who sat beside him when facing the doctor—had repeatedly tried to explain, the explanation that Diaz received was not enough for him to understand why he had to be in this position. It feels like too many threads are broken in this storyline, so even if Diaz tries to connect it, he still can't connect.

"Mr. Diaz…" The confusion in Diaz's brain had to be put to an end for a moment because Elise again asked him to talk after leaving the doctor's office, they chose to be silent in a thousand languages.

The two of them are now sitting on the waiting chairs available at the nurse station instead of going into Claire's treatment room, who knows what's going on in there? Are you aware? Or are you still in the sleep phase?

"As dr. Adam said this is not the first time Ms. Claire ended up here." Elise knows, Diaz may be confused by the situation he is suddenly in, so when the man decided to sit there after leaving the doctor's room, the woman could only follow, giving pause for a moment for the man to adapt to the current situation.

Diaz was about to open his mouth to answer, but Elise added first, "And as before, none of her family was willing to quickly come to be Ms. Claire's guardian."

"As I said on the phone, I am indeed her assistant. But because of the job that Ms. Claire left under these circumstances, I can't always be by her side."

The sentence ended with a small commotion which was then heard approaching them. As if she already knew who had caused it, Elise only let out a short breath when a husband and wife came to her with grumbling that sounded incessant. "Where? Where is she? Where's the kid? Can't he sometimes make our lives calmer?!”

Although reluctant, Elise was forced to stand up from her seat. Welcoming the two people who always behaved the same if a similar incident happened to Claire.

"Ms. Claire over here..." Elise showed the inpatient room where Claire was.

Whether realizing Diaz's presence or not, the two of them just walked away, leaving Diaz and Elise who exchanged glances. Elise wants to show her smile, but it seems her lips are already stiff if only to make Diaz breathe a sigh of relief at the presence of the two people.

"There is a reason why Mr. Diaz that I asked to come to this place, there are several reasons that maybe after this Mr. Diaz will understand. Please don't go yet, at least try to stay here until Ms. Claire wakes up..." Elise gave Diaz a signal to get closer to the hospital room where Claire was staying, following her who was already there.

The two of them didn't go in right away, choosing to remain outside the room with the voices they could still hear from inside. Grumblings, nagging, cursing, until curses were heard by Diaz as he got closer to the room. What made Diaz even more silenced, the few words and sentences that were not appropriate to be heard then allowed Diaz to guess the situation, along with the conversation that was going on in there without the intention of eavesdropping—because their voices were too loud for people who should be talking about good family matters. Well—the people there were Claire's uncle and aunt. They were the women's guardians, who were supposed to protect and not hurt Claire with their words.

"Unlucky children, they usually make it difficult for us to go back and forth to the hospital, so people gossip because they think we are taking care of an insane nephew who usually cuts his hands and hurts other parts of his body." The figure of the old man made a sound after his partner finished throwing all the swear words.

His partner sighed tiredly as if all the weight was on his shoulders at the moment. The middle-aged woman hugged herself without wanting to come any closer, preferring to take a safe distance from the figure lying unconscious there, “We can't go on like this, David. We have to force her to marry so that our duties and the title of a guardian are separated from our family. I can't stand her anymore, I don't want to deal with her again for the rest of my life!”

Now her husband, who was breathing heavily, glanced at his partner, trying to exchange their thoughts through their eyes. It wasn't long before he spoke again. "Even without waiting for her to get married, we can be free from her, Emma. Claire is an adult woman, she can already take responsibility for herself."

“It should be like that, but what will the big family say if we let her go with her condition like this? Your mother? Are you sure she will let us who no longer want to be in charge of this child? Your mother definitely won't pass that inheritance to us if we just let Claire go! Not to mention, everyone knows that Claire's late parents gave us custody of Claire. At first, I thought it wouldn't be a problem, but if she continues like this…”

"It's just a matter of waiting for her to hurt us, right? Not just hurting herself anymore."

Hearing that made Diaz's head spin quickly to find the answer in Elise's eyes, to which the woman, unfortunately, replied with a sad look.