Fallen for Romeo #wattys2016

Chapter 37 - The Hospital

Kara......

Kara shoot up from her bed as if someone had been calling her and her mind went straight to Stefan.

What was that?

"Stefan?" she called softly, looking around her bedroom expecting to see him standing there somewhere, of course she saw no one....

Missing him that much could cause a hallucination she thought.

Slowly she gulped a glass of water from her bedside and checked her clock, quarter pass three in the morning.

She knew she kept dreaming about him day and night and every time she exhaled his name from her mouth she would cry.

Her short meeting with him two days ago had made her miss him even more.

He was clearly glad that the marriage was over. He was so cold toward her that night, he didn't smile much and he refused to dance with her. Everything was just an act she now realised. His kindness, protections and affections to her was just an act.

She somehow knew it all along but he was so believable that she started to put her guard down. But when the time had come, he was back to the cold and angry Stefan. His warmth was gone and his lips breathed only short sentences, showing his reluctance to talk to her.

A tear run down her cheek.

She wanted so much to talk to him, maybe sit down with him over coffee. She wanted to get the answer but when he barely looked at her in the eyes, she knew he wouldn't want to do it.

Her phone rung, disturbing her trail of thought. Who called at three in the morning? She reached on her bedside and checked her screen, frowned at the caller ID.

"Stefan?" she answered her phone hesitantly. Why did he call her at three in the morning?

"Hello, uumm..... this is Louise. I found your number as his emergency contact. He's in a car crash......" Came a girl voice and it startled Kara to the core.

"Who are you? What's going on? Where's Stefan, Is he okay??" Kara asked frantically. All her misery and self-pity went away as soon as she heard the bad news.

"I don't know, his car flipped before my eyes in the highway and he was unconscious when I checked on him. He's in the ambulance now, they said they will take him to Prince Alfred hospital." Replied the girl called Louise. "I have to go, police are here. I have to speak to them. I'll meet you at the hospital okay?"

***

It's been three days since the accident but Stefan hadn't opened his eyes yet.

Kara stared at the man she loved who laid helplessly on the hospital bed with fractured ribs and a broken leg. His face was full of scars and his head was wrapped in bandage. He was considered lucky according to doctor and she believed so. She saw it on the news, his car found upside down on the highway. Initially there was speculation that he was drink driving as the highway was quiet during the hour but Kara didn't believe it for a bit. Stefan was a very responsible man and he wouldn't do such thing, he wouldn't even drive if he was too tired.

It turned Kara was right, the hospital confirmed that he wasn't drinking or taking some drugs. Now it left only two things, he was asleep on the wheel or there was something wrong with the car. But how could that happened? His Jaguar was new and he got it checked regularly and she got it checked before she returned it to him.

She clasped her mouth and held her tears, she wished she didn't return the car.

But if she didn't, it would be her on the hospital bed right now. She probably died from the accident but she would feel so much better knowing that he was fine.

He told her to get out from his life, being so cold to her, pushing her away whenever she wanted to talk to him and she never expected that he would lay here in the hospital bed and hadn't opened his eyes yet. His wounds weren't that bad, but he had head injury and that what caused him for not waking up till today.

Kara didn't stop crying from that night when Stefan left, and those days when he didn't answer her calls and his rejection when she asked him to dance.....

She was hurt again and again by the same man but watching him lying there helplessly made her forgot about her broken heart and only wished that he would wake up and talk to her.

She now understood the meaning of letting go.

She promised she would leave as soon as he regained his consciousness. If he hated her that much, she would disappear from his life for good. If he loved Katherine or whoever he met after he left her, she would let him. His happiness was more important than hers and she would make sure it stayed that way.

She wrapped his hand in hers, carefully avoiding the drip needle that attached into his wrist.

Watching his pale face she listened to the weak heartbeats of his from the machine. "Stefan..... Please wake up..." she said softly.

Never in her life she felt so much love flooded her heart since the day she met Stefan.

"Kara...." Someone at the door and when she turned her head around she saw her grandpa, Joseph.

"Grandpa? What are you doing here?"

"How is he Sweetie?" the old man squished her shoulders lightly and dropped a kiss on her head.

"He hasn't wake up yet Grandpa..." her eyes suddenly went wet. She remembered when she was a little she used to run to him if she had a problem. He would dismiss her and tell her to tough it out. Wasn't ideal approach but she needed it right now. She needed someone to yell at her so she could find her fighting spirit back, but Joseph didn't say anything. His eyes were gentle and he smiled at her in understanding instead of growling.

"Oh Sweetie...." He tapped her hand, "give him time. He will wake up." His grey eyes gazed at Kara's face and he sighed. What had been happening here? He saw something that brought his memory back when his only son, Marco, Kara's father cried over his first wife leaving him twenty years ago.

Marco had so much sorrow in his eyes that he was somehow lost in her own mind for months even now Joseph was still seeing that blank look in his face whenever he thought no one was watching.

And now Kara had the same look.

He would never believe that his granddaughter would fall for an Angelopoulos. He thought of her marrying Stefan was just to piss him off because deep down inside he knew he hadn't been fair to her. He thought she would get sick of him and left him somehow but she stayed that long that he had to do something about it.

He hated Angelopoulos that much that he didn't realise he had sacrificed Kara's heart for it.

His eyes now travelled toward Stefan's pale face. He hated this young man before, hated him for his blood, for his guts and for his brilliant mind that triggered envy in his heart.

And his eyes..... It reminded him so much of his grandmother Alice. If only she hadn't chosen Theodore.....

That bastard stole Joseph's girl and didn't want to admit it. Theodore had stolen his research too. Angelopoulos were liars and cheater and they were bunch of arrogant pricks.

Never Joseph thought that an Angelopoulos would crawl to him begging for mercy but Stefan had done it when he asked Joseph to reconsider their agreement about the divorce.

Joseph thought by winning over this matter he would be satisfied by it but he didn't. Now he regretted his stubbornness when he saw Stefan lying helplessly on this very bed and Kara sobbed next to him. Every drop of her tear broke his heart.

Kara must have loved this man, who was he to separate them?

***