Anne with an e- a new version of the story

Chapter 83 - The price of love

ANNE

Outside, the rain was falling as hard and cold as Anne could feel it in her heart. She looked into the brown eyes she knew so well, and saw no light of recognition in them, he had forgotten her and of all the things she had imagined in the days she had been confined to her hospital room, that had never crossed her mind.

Gilbert's face was still turned towards her, but his eyes remained empty, absent of any emotion or feeling, and Anne once again felt her heart being crushed by pain.

- Who are you? Do I know you from somewhere? - Gilbert asked again, and just as Anne was about to answer him, Sebastian and Mary came in and, seeing him awake, rushed over to talk to him:

- Gilbert, thank God you're awake. What a fright you gave us, boy. - Sebastian smiled as he patted Gilbert on the shoulder.

- Hi, Bash. Can you tell me what I'm doing here in this hospital room?

- Don't you remember? - Bash asked and looked at Anne who shook her head sadly.

- Well, you were shot. - Bash explained.

- Shot? How did that happen? - Gilbert asked, intrigued by what his friend would tell him.

- I think we'd better leave that for later. We'll have plenty of time to talk about it. How are you feeling, darling? - Mary asked, lightly touching Gilbert's cheek.

- You're Mary, aren't you? Sebastian's wife? - Mary found the question strange and looked at Anne again, who just shook her head and looked to her feet, feeling worse and worse. Her throat was dry and her stomach was as heavy as if she had swallowed stones.

- It's me. Do you feel any pain? - Mary said, looking out of the corner of her eye at Anne who seemed as static as if she'd been struck by lightning.

- A bit in the head. - Gilbert replied.

- I think we'd better get the doctor to take a look at you. - Sebastian said.

- No, wait. Before you arrived, I was talking to this girl. - he looked in the direction of Anne, who wanted to hide in any corner of the room but to look into Gilbert's cold eyes. - Who did you say you were?

- Darling, she's your....

- School friend. - Anne interrupted Mary, who looked at her with distress.

- We studied together, then. - Gilbert squeezed his eyes shut, and Anne hoped that Gilbert would remember something, but he didn't say anything, and her hope died instantly.

- Don't you remember that you have a fiancée, Blythe? - Sebastian asked, not believing that Gilbert didn't remember Anne.

- Yes, I remember. Her name is Sabrina, isn't it? - Hearing that, Anne felt her whole world come crashing down. It couldn't be true that he remembered everyone, even the girl who had ruined their engagement, and didn't even have a memory of her who was his fiancée and to whom he had promised eternal love. The air went out of her and she thought she would suffocate. She had to get out of there or she would die of anguish

- Excuse me - she said in a muffled voice, walking out of the door without looking back. She wanted to get away from there, she needed a place that would give her some peace, but she suspected that no place would have the power to give her back everything she had lost in a second of human stupidity.

She ran as far as she could, her vision blurred by the tears that fell like a storm, only stopping when she was so out of breath and with a pain in her belly that reminded her of the effort she shouldn't have made, and which prevented her from continuing. Anne sat down on a bench outside the hospital where there was a rose garden, and she remembered the countless times Gilbert had left her a rose on her pillow after a night of lovemaking, or even for no apparent reason, just because he knew she liked it, and the sobs came as hard as if she were being hit by a knife that pierced her heart and soul without mercy.