4: Chance Encounter

Ivan||

My eyes widened in shock as the woman in front of my car disappeared from my vision. It could only mean that I had hit her.

The rain was pouring so heavily, that I was already struggling with visibility when she had just appeared from nowhere. Where the hell was, she going under this heavy torrent?

“Holy Shit!” I hissed as I rushed out of the car.

As my eyes landed on her body, my heart froze. It wasn’t the blood or the bashed state of her face, it was the fact that I recognized her. She was the strange, enchanting woman at the bar!

My legs instantly lowered to the ground as panic and fear seeped through me. I have spent days searching for her, only for the universe to bring her to me in this state.

“Please don’t die,” I murmured as I searched for her pulse.

When I finally felt it, hope washed down into my rain-soaked and bloodied clothes. I quickly picked her off the road and gently placed in her my car. I reversed my car and drove right back to the hospital.

I couldn’t lose her. Not after she started that flame deep inside of me and left without even telling me her name.

“Doctor Ivan?” The nurses gasped as they saw my bloodied state rushing into the hospital.

Instantly, they called the emergency department and before I could even get through to the receiving corridors, a bed was brought, and she was transferred to the bed.

“What happened? Where did you find her?” Mike, my friend and colleague asked as we all rushed into the theatre.

“It was an accident… I hit her.”

“Oh, shit…” His attention returned to the nurses working on her and he started dropping instructions. “Attach the blood bag. We need those stitches.”

“Doctor Ivan, can you please fill out this form so we can call her family and proceed with the treatment?” Sarah said, handing me the long document. “And we are going to need you to step outside, you seem a little shaken.”

True to her words, everything suddenly felt surreal. I have seen so many patients bleed, I have seen worse accident cases, yet with her, it felt different. It felt like it was my skin that was bleeding…

Sarah gently pushed me outside and I ran my fingers through my hair as I stared at the document, she had given me. I didn’t even know who the lady was, and I knew that she had already lost too much blood, calling the police and declaring her a Jane Doe was going to take a longer time.

Or maybe it was something else, but my fingers got a mind of its own and I began to fill the document. Once I was done, I handed it back to Sarah.

One look at it and her head cocked to the side. “She is your fiancée?” she whispered in disbelief. “You have a fiancée?”

“Yes, Sarah. She is… now please go assist Mike in there!” I hissed.

Sarah gave me a knowing smile before she went on to help Mike as I had instructed. They walked on her for minutes longer than I thought. I couldn’t go home, I remained there, checking my watch, and signing consent forms as her surgeries kept increasing.

When Mike suggested a face reconstruction, I had no choice but to agree to it, since a great portion of her face was badly bashed in. Fixing it alone would leave her with a nasty scar. Not having anyone else I could ask; I took the responsibility and gave them the go-ahead.

By the time the surgery was over, I took care of her, like my life depended on it. And in the real sense, it did because I have spent all my life searching for the right one, yet she had always been around. I couldn’t lose her now that I just found her.

I was sprawled in the hospital chair in her ward a couple of weeks later when my grandmother’s excited squeals jerked me upright.

“Sarah was right, after all! You have a girl!” she exclaimed as she got in the room, and I had to quickly usher her out of the room so as not to disturb my sleeping angel.

 “Grandmother, what are you doing here?” I hissed, watching back at the window to make sure I didn’t awaken her.

But my grandmother’s hands, pulled my face back to her as she flashed me a smile. “How could you keep this from me? I have been begging you to get a girlfriend all these while and you have refused… all because you already had someone…” She moved her eyes to the room, and I saw the twinkle in her eyes. “She is perfect!”

Her words suddenly washed away the panic that had crawled through my body. If she was approving, then there was no point telling her the truth.

“I think you should marry her!” She added and the bubble I had fallen into burst open instantly.

“Grandmother!” I whispered and yelled. “She is still unconscious! Look at her—” The words hung in my throat as I turned and found her moving.

Quickly I ran into the room and took her hands. “Hello… can you hear me?”

The bandages had already been taken off her face and it should have been easy for her to move her muscles, but it still took a few moments before her beautiful eyes fluttered open.

She blinked several times before her eyes seemed to focus on me.

My heart skipped a beat as we stared into each other eyes. She was truly perfect.

Maybe this was not the right time or place to be having feelings like this, but I couldn’t help it. “How do you feel?” I managed to ask.

Her eyes moved off my face and when they returned, she frowned. It was almost as if she had recognized me. “You…” she whispered before pulling her hand out of my hold. “Why am I here?”

Her action caused my heart to shift in its position, but I pushed away my emotions and tried to be professional. “You were in an accident, and I brought you here for treatment. How do you feel?”

Her eyes watered but she sniffed and turned away from me. “You should have let me die… what is left to live for?”

Her voice carried the same pain it had the first time we met. And just like that time, I was moved by this beautiful woman.

“There is so much to live for… I don’t know what you might have gone through but consider this to be a second chance. With a new face, there is so much you can explore—”

“A new face?” She turned to me; her brows raised in surprise.

“Yes.” I got up and brought a mirror for her to see the changes we had made on her face. “You had received a lot of cuts and bashes on your face… we thought it would be better to give you a full reconstruction than just ordinary stitches.”

Her fingers moved on her face as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She did look different from before, but the base of her features was still there. She was just as beautiful.

“What’s your name?” I whispered.

Her eyes now wet, turned to me. I could feel the weight of her pain in that little moment, and I wished she could tell me what it was. Who broke her like this?

“I used to be Tiana… but they destroyed me.” Her eyes returned to the mirror, “Now, it’s my turn to destroy them.”