Marry me

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓗𝓸𝓼𝓹𝓲𝓽𝓪𝓵

I opened my eyes to see Ella speaking to the doctor. She changed from her sweatpants and t-shirt to a tight red dress, it makes my heart jump. I just had a heart attack, and I might have another.

 She looks pale like she saw a ghost. I'm hoping that ghost isn't me. She thanks the doctor and turns back to me. Her eyes widen when she sees I'm awake, like she wasn't expecting me to be here, alive.

"What's going on?" I can barely talk but I manage to spit something out. Her lips part, she looks at the floor then sits in the chair next to my hospital bed. 

"Aaron, we need to talk." She's twiddling her thumbs while she's talking. She only does that when she has bad news, I try to sit up but I don't have enough strength.

"Yes love?"

"You had a heart attack, Aaron." I swallow a metaphorical rock in my throat. Doctors in the past told me anxiety would someday lead me to one. Ella hasn't changed her pale blank expression this whole time. I-

wait

I see a thin gold ring on her middle finger that I haven't given her. My heart drops only for a second, it must be a ring she bought. But why wouldn't she tell me?

"You almost died." I shoot back up to her, I forgot what she was talking about.

"I wouldn't have died -"

"The doctor said it was a fifty percent chance you could've died." I roll my eyes, even though I am almost always the one in our relationship to go to the doctor even when nothing is wrong. I worry about my health, is that so wrong?

"All that matters is I'm fine now Love." She twists the ring around her finger. Switching it to different fingers, I don't know why I care so much about this ring. 

"Love? Are your nails painted?"  I don't think I've seen Ella's nails painted once. It's a crimson red and shiny, a little messy around the cuticles.

 I used to paint my mothers nails. She was too weak to paint them herself so I did for her. We would hide in my walk-in closet. My father forbid me from painting her nails. Mainly because he wanted to see her weak. He knew hat made me weak.

"Oh, I guess so. I don't really like the color though."  She doesn't seem like herself, like possesed. Somethings off, I can't feel her emotions, but I feel someone. There is a third person here.

My father.

"Oh but darling, I love that color." He walks in the room, wearing his usual black and grey suit he always does. He walks over to Ella, grabbing her arm pulling her up our of her chair. She stumbles next to him, my father still grasping her arm as he directs his gaze to me. It phisically hurts to see him pull my Ella around like that.

"What are you doing here?" I say gripping the bedspread I'm laying on. God, I wish I could get up. I need to get up.

"Tsk tsk, Aaron do make sure to be polite? I'd like you to meet your new stepmother." He pulls Ella into him aggresively, wrapping his arm around her waist. I am in pure shock, she hasn't changed expression. I raise my hands to my face and I can feel a single tear. I dont feel emotional, I just feel numb. My father looks smitten, he has a evil grin on him and keeps gripping her harder. He knows it tortures me, what has he done to her?

"I thought I'd give you a early birthday present." 

"Better than my last few huh?"