Chapter 431 No, You Can't!
“Where are you hurt?” Roger asked, looking at the clear hand mark on Natalie’s face and the blood in her mouth, not wanting to imagine any other injuries on her body.
Natalie struggled to raise her hand to wipe the blood from her lips. Her whole demeanor was so calm that it bordered on indifference, an indifference that didn't seem to fit with the horror she had just experienced.
"The blood in my mouth isn't mine. My leg might be broken."
In that instant, Natalie saw a murderous intent flash across Roger's face.
"Don't do anything rash." Natalie grabbed his arm. "Don't do anything dangerous."
Roger looked at the hand grabbing his sleeve. It barely had any strength, yet it clung to him desperately. Those who had hurt her like this deserved to be torn into pieces, but Natalie said not to do anything dangerous.
"All right, if my Natalie doesn't want me to act, then I won't." Roger nodded.
Natalie was numb all over, or else she would have noticed the change in Roger. "My Natalie," a term of endearment he had never used in her presence before.
It should be mentioned that, currently, he goes by the name of Nathan.
On the way to the hospital, Natalie slipped in and out of consciousness. The after-effects of the drug and the pain overwhelmed her for the entire night.
When she woke up, she heard the pitter-patter of rain outside.
Today's weather was overcast, turning to light rain, with no chance of sunshine. It looked gloomy enough to depress anyone's mood.
"Natalie, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?" Nathan had been by Natalie's side. He noticed immediately that she had awoken.
Natalie shifted instinctively, and pain shot through her body, especially in her right shin and abdomen. She took a deep breath and winced in pain.
"Don't move!" Nathan pressed down on Natalie, adjusting the angle of her hospital bed. "Besides the injury on your face, you also have three fractures in your right shin and bruises in your abdomen. You can't move."
Natalie glanced at the clock in the ward; it was twenty minutes past nine in the morning.
"Oliver... Did he contact you?"
"Is that the first thing you should ask?" A flicker of coldness crossed Nathan's eyes, but he quickly reined it in. He spoke as if lecturing an unruly little sister. "Natalie, you should be more concerned about your condition."
Natalie silently waited for him to respond to her question.
"No." After a pause, Nathan answered her reluctantly. "Did he... do you know if he... returned to the country?"
"He did, yesterday." Nathan's reply was terse. Natalie closed her eyes and tilted her head back with a laugh that was thick with irony.
"Are you not asking any more questions?" Nathan was taken aback by her reaction.
"No."
What good would asking more do for her? It would only bring more heartache. She had asked him yesterday if he had returned to the country, and he had lied, saying he hadn't.
Natalie took several deep breaths and, when she opened her eyes again, the sorrowful emotions had been suppressed. She inquired, "Roger, my leg..."
"The bruises in your abdomen will heal with rest. Currently, your leg is in a cast, but the doctors suggest that surgery would ensure a speedy recovery."
"No!" Natalie refused without a second thought. "I'm not having surgery. I can't!"
A leg fracture would leave a scar once it met the surgeon's knife. That would restrict prospects for runway projects and lead to rejections from numerous brands.
"Is it possible not to have surgery?"
Faced with Natalie's hopeful eyes, Nathan found himself unable to utter the word "no." He had thought himself to be a heartless man.
For Natalie's well-being, for her happiness and joy, and even to win her over, he was capable of going to extreme lengths. He was even ready to conceal the news that Oliver was searching for her.
A man like Oliver didn't deserve to have Natalie by his side!
Even the thought of Natalie's leg bearing a long, ugly scar after surgery, reminding her of Oliver's betrayal and his rescues when necessary, couldn't bring Nathan to say "no."
To live with an hideous scar and to be reminded of the catwalks she could no longer walk gracefully and that would fill her with pain and sorrow...
Nathan bowed his waist, disguising the grip over his heart as he felt it twinge in bouts of searing pain. Was Roger, that coward, the one impeding him? Was it the remnants of his conscience?
"Roger?" Natalie waited but received no reply.
"You can manage." Nathan's mouth twisted into a self-mocking smile as he leaned forward to tuck Natalie snugly in her blanket. "Without surgery, you'll need a cast for two months, which will limit your mobility and cause muscle atrophy, and after your leg heals, you might even need to relearn how to walk."
Two months was enough for the muscles to forget the rhythm of walking. Many people, due to insufficient follow-ups, would still limp even after their legs had healed.
"Then I'll go with the cast." Natalie clutched the blanket and turned her head towards the window. "Roger, could you please inform the doctor?"
Once Nathan left, Natalie looked around but couldn't find her mobile phone, so she resigned herself to using the hospital's landline on her bedside table to make a call.
Nathan returned with the doctor and nurses.
Half an hour after getting the cast, Natalie looked at her heavily wrapped leg and felt quite unaccustomed to it.
"Natalie, do you believe in a second personality?" Nathan sat next to the bed; his eyes fixed on Natalie's.
"Huh?" Natalie almost thought she heard wrong and asked uncertainly, "You mean, dissociative identity disorder?"
"Yes."
"I certainly do," After all, it was a well-documented psychological disorder.
Nathan's gaze deepened. Natalie felt as if his look was one of adoration. His eyes were imbued with an emotion akin to reverence.
Natalie was sure she must have seen it wrong.
"What if I told you that I have a second personality?" Nathan said.
Natalie's eyes widened in shock, and it took a long while before she found her voice. "You... Are you serious?"
Nathan nodded, leaning back in his chair with ease, "He first emerged when I was seven, during a time of refuge. My family sent me to live with strangers, and it was not easy. A little girl often came to aid and comfort me."
Even though that affection was unrelated to romance.
"Then he appeared," Nathan continued, his tone as distant as if narrating a story about someone else, "but after I returned home, he went dormant. He awoke again recently."
"Who is he?" Natalie had an answer in her heart.
He was that second personality.
Nathan looked at Natalie, "Nathan."
"Nathan..." As Natalie murmured the name thoughtfully, she failed to notice the wild joy that flickered through Nathan's eyes upon hearing his name voiced by her.
"Does he have a large influence on you?"
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