The Act of Courage

Retry

Chapter 5

            I woke up to the sound of nurses talking to each other after checking my IV. The smell of medicines greeted my nose as I tried to sit myself up, with the help of the nurses. The nurses told me that some psychiatrists hired by my mom are coming to ‘talk’ to me to help me get better. They also told me that the hospital will not release me until some psychiatrist declared that I am sane enough to not commit suicide anymore. One of the nurses kindly turned on the TV and handed me the remote before leaving the room.

I sighed while digesting the information the nurses told me, but immediately smiled to myself as scenes from last night played back. Crying in his arms, he telling me everything will be okay, letting it all out to him just like I used to and falling asleep in his arms. It made me feel so much better that morning, but I felt so lonely. I reached for my phone and tried dialing Jake. No answer.’ He must still be asleep,’ I said to myself.

            I switched my eyes to the TV and continued switching and switching the channels until I found something interesting. A reporter interviewing my successful mom, Jenna Brown.

“R (Reporter): Hello everyone! Here I am with our most successful new artist this month, Jenna Brown! So Jenna, we heard that you are getting married next week with quite a successful businessman, Roger Wight! How does it feel?

J (Jenna): Yes that’s true! It feels amazing, to be honest. I really want to build a good household with my fiancé!

R: Wow, we’re so happy for you, Jenna! But we have a question for you. Ever since you came in to the entertainment world last few months, you had been known as such a closed person. None of your relatives had been seen with you and there were no news of where you came from! Tell me Jenna, have you ever been married before? Because there were rumors that you had a daughter from a man you legally married at 18. How would you respond to that?

J: Um, well when I came in to the entertainment industry, I knew these rumors might show up since I didn’t allow any media to interview me on my background. But to set the record straight, I was never married. And I don’t have any child.

Bubbles of tears started reappearing in my eyes as I heard my own mother deny me in public. The painful scar in my heart that was relieved this morning broke out fresh again causing rain of tears to flow through the hills of my cheeks again. This indescribable pain. I felt weak. I felt useless. I felt sick. I felt unwanted. I felt the need to disappear again.

And no one’s going to make me fail this one.