Departed With A Belly {1}

Pretending to Look Loving

Victoria immediately denied it. "No." Then, she questioned, "Who told you that?"

Alaric narrowed his almond-shaped eyes. "Since you said you didn't look for me, why would you care who told me about it?" She replied without care, "Oh, I just wanted to see who's the gossip queen.

West Finn? Or Norwood Oaks? That's right. Norwood called me, saying you
were drunk, and he wanted me to head over. I wanted to say no, but he hung up on me first."

He frowned at her unbothered reply.
She continued, "I had wanted to get the butler to pick you up, but I didn't
want to wake up an elderly man in the middle of the night. Since West and
Norwood were both there, I figured they'd look after you. Even if you were drunk, nothing would happen to you."

"And?"

Victoria's explanation was logical and acceptable. She responded, "After I reached that conclusion, I went to bed."
After she finished her reply, she stared at him, asking, "So, who told you I went to look for you? I'd have to thank them for taking care of my image."

Alaric was quiet, but Victoria did not stop there. "By the way, are your friends still unaware of the transactional nature of our relationship? Was that why they had to make up stories on my behalf so that we wouldn't fight?"

He tightened his grip on her hand with a strength that almost crushed it. She endured the pain and chuckled. "Tell them about it if you have a chance to. I'd rather not get their calls whenever you're drunk. You know I sleep early, but the calls always come late. If I am woken up-"

Before she could finish her sentence, he had flung her hand in disdain and left with a sour face.

When she was alone, she looked at her hand that was held by him. A long silence later, she ultimately did not go to the restroom to wash her hands again.

It's fine.

Since their relationship was transactional, she had to always keep her guard up, especially when they had to visit his grandma every week. It would be unimaginable to keep washing her hands every time they feigned affection. After regaining her composure, she left as well.

"Old Mrs. Cadogan is recovering faster than we expected! If she keeps up the good job, we can bring forth the surgery."

Victoria overheard the doctor speaking to Alaric when she arrived in front of the doctor's office. "How soon?" Alaric asked. She didn't enter and chose to stand with her back against the wall. "It depends on the circumstances. We can bring forth the surgery by a fortnight if she continues making good progress."

"Thank you."

"Mr. Cadogan, you're most welcome.
We're honored to have your trust." There was nothing more to eavesdrop on at this point, and Victoria proceeded to Griselda's room. When she was almost there, she ran into the nurse from the morning.

"Mrs. Cadogan, you're finally here! I got the data and was about to look for you."

She didn't forget about that and nodded at the nurse. "How's it?"

"Mrs. Cadogan, follow me."

Victoria paused for a brief moment but soon followed the nurse into another room. The nurse was honest with her. "Since we have been keeping track of Old Mrs. Cadogan's diet and sleep, I checked with  the nurses from the morning shifts, and they told me that these minor changes were within normal range.

That's why we didn't pay extra
attention to these statistics." Victoria bent down to check out the data on the computer screen. Griselda's diet and sleeping habits were meticulously recorded on the computer because the nurses couldn't memorize all the details about every single patient due to the sheer number of patients they had to handle.

To deal with that issue, the nursing home would record the patient's condition digitally.

After checking carefully, she realized the nurse was right in that the changes were so minor that they could be ignored. The nurses had a range for each indicator, and any changes that did not exceed the maximum limit would be considered normal.

She pursed her lips and fell into deep thought. I might have been overthinking it.

She could sense a slight change in Griselda's mood, and it was not in a
positive way.

"Mrs. Cadogan, I understand your concern. But you might have felt distressed because you were overly concerned." Victoria did not argue and even concurred, "Yes, I might be distressed because I care about her too much."

As Victoria was sensible, the nurse did not say much after hearing that. Victoria smiled at her. "Can I trouble you to print the recent data for me?"The nurse was a little surprised by the request, but she nodded. "Of course."

"Thank you."

"Mrs. Cadogan, you're welcome."

Although the nurse found Victoria's behavior rather odd, she went ahead
and completed the simple printing task right away. Victoria watched on but was suddenly reminded of something else. She said, "I'II come to take the printed documents before I leave. Please keep it with you for now."

"Sure, Mrs. Cadogan."

With that, Victoria went to visit Griselda. When she arrived, she found Alaric sitting across from his grandma as he spoke with her. He sat there with a light smile and warm eyes. Victoria always knew that he was a loving grandson.

"Victoria, you're back."

"Grandma!" She joined their conversation.

The smile vanished from Alaric's eyes, but he quickly pulled himself together. Then, they seemed to have put aside their disagreement from before and pretended to look loving like a pair of newlyweds in front of Griselda.

They chatted with her until dusk fell.
"Alright, it's late. Why don't you hurry home now?"

Something occurred to Victoria, and she shook her head. "Grandma, it's still early. I'd like to hang around for a bit."

"How is it still early? You'll need time to travel home. It will be late after you wash up and go to bed."

"It's fine, Grandma. I took annual leave for a few days, so I'm pretty free now."

"You took leave?"

"Yes." Victoria nodded. "That's why I will be visiting you for the next few days. I hope you don't find me annoying."

Griselda was excited when she heard that Victoria would be visiting daily, but her excitement died down soon enough as she lamented, "It's fine. Don't visit me daily. There's nothing but patients here. It's not good for you to stay around for too long."

Victoria was taken aback by the comment. Alaric quickly said, "What are you talking about? You're not a patient! The doctor said you're in good condition, and the surgery can be brought forward by a fortnight! After the surgery, you won't need to stay at the nursing home anymore."
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Published on: November 12, 2023
Time: 8:01
Word count: 1158 words