Chapter 143: Heartbreak
On the way back to the ward, Brad was all quiet, and I felt this heavy weight in my chest.
I’d heard about depression before; it’s like a mental thing. People get triggered by stuff, and bam, they’re in a bad episode. Sometimes, it gets so bad they might think about offing themselves or getting violent.
Back in college, a buddy’s sister had postpartum depression and ended up jumping off a building, leaving her newborn behind.
What if Daniel went down that road? I didn’t even wanna think about it.
"Brad, chill, maybe it’s not that. The doc hasn’t said anything for sure yet. Maybe by tomorrow morning, Daniel will be back to his old self, right?"
Brad patted my head, then pulled me in close, whispering, "You’re so sweet."
The next afternoon, I brought the dinner Helen had made to the ward.
The door was kinda open, and there was Daniel, sitting up in bed, looking all blank.
Brad was on this tiny stool in front of him, having a serious talk.
"Daniel, everyone knows how Jane treated you back then. You ditched her and made her go off to college alone. If anyone owes anything, it’s you, it’s our Pitt family that owes her. Daniel, I hope you get it, you and Jane are done. Now she’s my girl. To be blunt, you made your bed. Don’t drag her into this, got it?"
Daniel was messing with his fingers. "Bro, I regret it. I want her back."
Brad’s back went stiff, and his hand on the bed rail clenched tight. Even from outside, I could feel his tension and anger.
"Daniel, don’t you get it? She’s a person with her own feelings and thoughts. She has the right to choose her life. She can’t just wait around for you forever. It’s not gonna happen, Daniel. No one stands still forever.
And you were the one who hurt her first. Do you think you still have the right to regret? Listen up, Daniel, she’s my everything. I won’t let anyone make her sad, not even you. Get over Zoe; it's not the end of the world; you’ll find your own happiness eventually.
Don’t make things hard for Jane. She’s still young, soft-hearted, and kind. I can’t stand seeing her sad or troubled."
"But that’s just your opinion," Daniel said stubbornly.
The stuff in my hands was heavy, and I accidentally pushed the door open. Brad and Daniel both looked at me, shocked.
Clearly, neither of them wanted me to hear this convo.
But I’d already heard it.
"Daniel, I think I made it clear last time. You and I never had anything real. The person I love now is Brad, and I’m gonna stay with him, for the rest of my life."
Daniel didn’t say anything more, just looked down at his fingers.
Clearly, this talk was a bust.
That night, I couldn’t sleep for ages, constantly seeing Daniel’s face.
He gave me this weird feeling, like relief mixed with despair.
Just past five in the morning, I was out cold when the phone suddenly rang, jolting me awake. I calmed myself down and answered the call.
It was Brad.
I heard his shaky voice. "Jane, Daniel fell into the lake and drowned. He's in bad shape, and they're trying to bring him back."
Before the call even ended, someone was pounding on my door, and I could hear Emma crying through it.
Wasn't he too sick to walk? How did he get out? And he knew how to swim; he even won awards. How could he drown in a lake? And where the heck was there a lake at the hospital?
It was just one night. How did this happen?
My mind was a total mess.
For the next two days and nights, Daniel stayed unconscious, only kept alive by IV drips.
Brad and Ronan talked to the doctors a bunch of times, and the results were always the same: physically, he was fine. The docs thought he’s got some serious psychological issues. Maybe he was avoiding reality by staying asleep.
The doc said we need to figure out what’s messing with his head and deal with it. Then he’d wake up on his own.
We were all stuck in this nightmare, hanging around the hospital, hoping for a miracle.
Four days passed, and Daniel was still out cold. Sometimes he’d mumble my name, asking me not to leave, but he didn’t respond to anything else.
Since his injury, he’d lost a ton of weight. Now, lying there quietly, he looked like Sleeping Beauty from a fairy tale.
Brad stayed by his side day and night, his eyes sunken, his already sharp features even more pronounced.
I was going back and forth between home and the hospital every day. Helen, worried, said I’d lost a lot of weight, my chin getting sharper.
Everyone was busting their butts for Daniel’s health, except for him, who was stuck in his fake dreams, refusing to come back.
Every time Daniel called out my name, Brad’s eyes got darker, and my anxiety grew.
Watching Brad get more silent and thin with worry each day, my heart ached.
But besides being with him, there was nothing more I could do.
In the past two days, I went over everything that had happened in the past six months. I thought I knew what’s eating at Daniel, but I didn’t know how to make him open his eyes willingly.
Zoe’s betrayal and leaving him must’ve hurt him bad. He couldn’t handle the pain and despair, so he forced himself to go back to the past, to the time before he met Zoe.
What he said that day wasn’t for me, but for the eighteen-year-old Jane and the nineteen-year-old Daniel.
Back then, he was young and carefree, with me always following him. Maybe he thought of the old me, who was all about him, to fill the hole Zoe left.
In other words, he subconsciously wanted to use me to heal his emotional wounds.
I got it, and I thought Brad did too. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so tormented every day.
These days, Brad smoked a lot, one cigarette after another, like without them, he had no hope or support.
I felt sorry for Brad, not wanting him to suffer every day, but I also didn’t want to get tangled up in this mess anymore.
But when it came to life, a lot of things weren’t up to me.
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