Blessing in Disguise

Chapter 24: The past: James

James looked out of the window.

It hadn't been more than two days since he woke up in hospital, but the confusion hadn't settled yet. He didn't go to his apartment, but went to his mother's house to stay for a few days until he got used to the changes around him. There were so many things he didn't know.

A lot can happen in one year, let alone four.

He still felt the same. It's just that everything else had changed. It felt as if he had been trapped inside a cage while the rest of the world went on with their life, but he remained trapped in that cage. And now that he managed to escape, everything around him had changed.

It was the wrong season, the wrong month, the wrong year... The wrong him...

There were so many things he couldn't understand. How did all of this happen? Why him?

He was told that his car was found overturned, and he had crawled his way out of the car before fainting. Some passers-bys had found him and called the ambulance. His phone broke, and there was almost nothing to identify him with. It was a police officer who actually managed to identify him, apparently a co-worker of James.

That's all he knew. All everyone could tell him. No one could tell him where he was going or why the car overturned. The police said that it must have been the heavy rain's fault.

Everything felt so surreal.

It even felt like everyone was playing a cruel joke on him. As if it was all a prank, but the scar on his head and the headaches that felt as if someone was stabbing his skull with a sword told him another story. It was real... but how could he have just forgotten so much of his life?

So many things had changed...

His mother and brother hadn't told him everything yet because the doctor had told him to take it easy with him. Too much information at once could overwhelm him, but James already felt overwhelmed as he was.

He didn't recognize so many people that knew him. They were all unfamiliar faces...

Like the woman talking to his mother in the front yard right now...

The woman was someone he had never seen in his life. Judging by her clothes, she must be rich. Her hair was carefully gathered in a bun, there were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked tired, which only made the angry expression on her face unsightlier.

What was such a woman doing in his mother's house?

Even though James couldn't listen to what his mother and this woman were talking about, it was obvious that they were arguing. The more they talked, the uglier the woman's face became. His mother had her back turned to him, but judging by her body language, James could tell that his mother was fuming.

The woman said one last thing before turning around and leaving. She got inside a luxurious white car and drove away, leaving his mother behind. The old woman had her shoulders slumped and looked tired. Her hand raised to her face, but James couldn't tell if she was just rubbing her forehead or wiping her tears.

It wasn't until she turned around to get inside the house that James subconsciously relaxed when he saw that Pam wasn't crying. He moved away from the window and walked away from the window and walked to the front door just in time to see his mother close the door behind her.

These past few days Pam had been through a whole rollercoaster of emotions. As a widow raising two children, she had learned to stay strong throughout the years for the sake of her boys. But now Pam felt like she had gotten older in just these three days, yet her problems seemed to never come to an end. Her little boy almost died. He remained unconscious for a whole day, and now that he was awake, he couldn't remember the past few years. And as if this wasn't enough, that vile woman...

Pam sighed deeply.

When she saw her child's face looking at her with concern written all over his face, she felt even more pained. Pam knew that Nyx's mother didn't like her son at all, but she also knew that the couple loved each other deeply. There had been so many occasions where James would come to visit her and talk about the young lady with twinkling eyes. She remembered the way James cried when he told her about Nyx needing a heart transplant and the big smile on his face when he told her about how they were considering getting married in a few years...

Pam liked Nyx a lot too, and she could tell that Nyx loved her son sincerely, which was why she found it weird that she didn't pick up her phone when Pam repeatedly called her from the hospital. It turned out that Nyx didn't answer the phone because she couldn't.

When Elinor came to her house, Pam knew that things weren't going to end good. The girl just woke up from a surgery yesterday, but Elinor came to her door to threaten her, telling her not to let her son come anywhere near her daughter, that she would never let the two of them marry each other...

Pam couldn't even remember all the threats that woman told her. In those moments she just pitied her daughter. Such a control freak...

Now facing James, Pam was scared. What if that monster came after her son to hurt him? He hadn't been himself since he woke up. If that woman started making things difficult for him... what would happen to her son?

"Who was she?" James asked.

Pam was unable to answer right away. She wanted to tell him the truth so much, but James couldn't even remember Nyx. Would she just make him hurt more if she told him about her, and then Elinor came for him?

"Mom?" James said when his mother didn't say anything but kept staring at him.

"It's nothing, sweetie."

It was in that moment that Pam decided to protect her son, to erase everything related to Nyx from his life.

It was also that moment that haunted Pam for years.

At first, she was able to convince herself that perhaps she made the right decision, but it didn't take too long for her to regret it. She regretted it when she saw her son fall into depression because he couldn't keep up with the world that had left him behind. Pam kept wondering "what if" whenever she saw James like that.

What if she didn't lie to him?

What if Nyx was here for him now?

What if...

She cursed herself when James got together with that Darcy lady. Every time Pam saw that woman, she couldn't help herself but compare her with Nyx. The woman would never love her son like Nyx did. She could tell.

She regretted it when James got divorced after two years of marriage. She blamed herself for her son's marriage failing.

Regretted it whenever James looked tired, sad, lonely...

So many regrets that Pam piled up in her chest and never talked to anyone else about them... so many regrets, but the more time passed, the more impossible it was to reverse things.

She wondered if her trying to protect her son only hurt him more.

But in the end, all Pam could do was to hope that things would eventually get better for James.

A.N.: I told you that this chapter would be short. But look at the bright sight. Now we can get to the good part of the story. And thank God for that because it was getting annoying to write all this drama.

EXTRA:

Neil: So Nyx is the bad guy?
Pam: ...
Pam: For the hundredth time, no. It's her mother.
Neil: ...
Neil: Nyx ✎ is ✎ the ✎ bad guy ✎ Got it.
Pam: (－‸ლ)
Pam: Just shut your hole.