Imprisoned to Love You [Edited]

♦⊱ Chapter 26 - Home ⊰♦

Ruka pov:

I groaned, awaking at the sound of an annoying beeping in the background. My body felt heavy, my mind muddled. It was a few minutes before I opened my eyes, squinting at the sharp light I was greeted by. My vision was hazy but cleared out soon enough. Above me was a clean white ceiling.

It took me a few minutes to gather enough energy to sit up and view my surroundings. I tensed at the sight of a clean hospital room. An IV tube was strapped to my hand and a heart-rate monitoring system was beeping with a constant update of my pulse and blood pressure. The thin curtains of the window on one of the walls fluttered in the light breeze.

I clenched my fists and the beating of my heart noticeably quickened as I recalled what had happened before I passed out. I had just married Kichiro sama and we were out on a walk in the strolling gardens before Tomoki and his men attacked. A thunderstorm had begun and there was a flash of lightning and then...oh my goodness.

Could I have returned to my time because of the lightning? That had to be it...there was no other explanation for my situation!

Or...had I been dreaming all this time? Were all the memories I had of being with Lady Kana and Tomoki and Kichiro sama all mere hallucinations?

I shook my head. They couldn't be hallucinations, not when I remembered them so clearly! I remembered every single detail including the pain I had felt when I had been punished by Kichiro sama for running away from him. The whole two years I had been in the past couldn't possibly be a dream!

I chewed on my bottom lip, brooding. My gaze was fixated on the thin sheet that covered my legs – I was in a way happy that had returned to my world because I would be able to see my family and friends but the thought of never seeing Kichiro sama again made my heart ache. If I had returned, surely there would be no way for me to go back to the past, right? I had come home...for good.

I nearly jumped out of my skin as my thoughts were interrupted by the hospital room door sliding open. I sucked in a sharp breath, my body tensing and my eyes prickling when I saw none other than my mother at the door. She had frozen too, watching me with wide eyes. Tears welled in her eyes before she dropped the cover she was holding and ran over to me. She threw her arms around me to embrace me tightly, her body trembling as she cried.

"Oh, Ruka! My dear Ruka!" she wailed, tightening her hold on me.

Tears welling in my eyes as well and I wrapped my arms around her in return. I closed my eyes, mumbling into her shoulder, "Mother."

She let go of me soon, only to cup my cheeks and place a kiss on my forehead. A few more tears fell from my closed eyes as I relished her affection, realizing just how much I had missed it. She then embraced me again and we stayed like that for several minutes.

"How do you feel?" she asked when she let go of me and we had calmed down a bit.

"Alright, for the most part. I'm a little sore though," I answered, sighing at the ache I felt in my body. "What happened to me?"

"That's what we have to ask you!" she responded in a scolding tone. "You suddenly disappeared and you were gone two years, Ruka! Do you know how worried we were? How heartbroken we were when we couldn't find you even though we looked so much for you? Your father was so depressed and...we thought we had lost you forever."

"I-I...I don't..." I stuttered, unable to form a coherent sentence.

"The police found you unconscious in alley a week ago and you were unconscious this whole time. Ruka...what happened to you?"

"I...I don't remember," I said softly.

What else could I tell her? Surely, no one would believe me if I said that I had traveled four hundred years into the past and I was living there with the then emperor and married him and...it sounded crazy even to me even though I was sure that every moment I remembered of it had been real.