CHAPTER FIVE: THE QUIET BEFORE
736 Words
The day passed uneventfully, and soon it was morning again.
After a series of routine checkups, afternoon settled slowly around the hospital. Machines hummed softly nearby, nurses passed through the hallways at measured intervals, and sunlight stretched across the blinds in pale rectangles on the floor.
For a moment, everything looked peaceful.
Too peaceful.
I propped myself up against the pillows, staring at the copy of the consent forms I had signed the day before, replaying yesterday’s events in my mind. Each signature lingered like a reverberating echo.
A part of me felt relieved.
Another part of me felt terrified.
What if I don’t make it?
The door opened, and Kylie stepped inside.
She carried a small paper bag—her usual attempt at smuggling something better than hospital food.
“It tastes like foot water,” she always said about the hospital meals.
Today, she held a strawberry smoothie in one hand and passed the paper bag to me with the other.
“Chicken soup,” she announced.
I unwrapped it carefully.
“You made this yourself?”
She raised an eyebrow, brows knitting together.
“Detective much?”
I laughed and took a sip of the soup.
“Thanks, sis.”
She smiled and sank into the chair beside the bed.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
I watched her quietly, unsure what to say.
Kylie had always been expressive—her emotions easy to read, her thoughts practically written across her face. But today something felt different.
Restrained.
“You okay?” I finally asked.
“Of course I am,” she replied, a little too quickly, flashing me a bright smile.
Her fingers twisted together in her lap before she seemed to notice and forced them still.
“You should be resting,” she added softly.
She took the empty soup bowl from my hands.
I’ve been resting for months, I groaned internally.
She laughed faintly, as if she had somehow heard my thoughts. She opened her mouth to say something more when a knock sounded at the door.
Richard stepped in.
His presence changed the atmosphere of the room almost instantly.
“Am I interrupting something?” he asked.
“No,” Kylie answered before I could. “I was leaving soon anyway.”
She stood, smoothing her hands over her jeans before glancing toward him.
“I’ll have to trouble you to look after her for me.”
“It’s no trouble at all,” Richard replied, his gaze shifting toward me.
They chatted lightly for a moment before Kylie turned back to me.
Her expression softened.
“Disha,” she said quietly, “you know I love you, right?”
The sudden seriousness caught me off guard.
“Of course,” I replied. “And I love you too, sis.”
She leaned down and kissed my forehead gently.
“I have a few things to sort out today,” she said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I nodded slowly as she left, watching the door close behind her.
A strange pang tugged at my chest.
I turned toward Richard.
“Is it just me,” I asked slowly, “or was Kylie acting kind of weird?”
He chuckled lightly.
“She’s just worried about you.”
He walked over to the window, the late afternoon light sharpening the already defined lines of his profile.
For a moment, he seemed distant. Almost unreachable.
Then he turned back toward me, his expression calm again.
“You should focus on getting through tomorrow.”
My chest tightened.
So that was it.
“That’s why she was acting strange,” I murmured.
“So it’s already confirmed?” I asked.
“Yes.”
His voice was steady.
My heart flipped in my chest.
Richard held my gaze.
“You don’t have to be nervous,” he said.
But everything suddenly felt real.
I leaned back against the pillows, staring up at the ceiling.
For months, I had been living each day uncertain of how much strength I had left.
Now my future felt like it was sitting just beyond tomorrow.
One surgery away.
I closed my eyes slowly.
A single risk.
Something was about to change—I could feel it.
Everything around me continued as normal.
But deep down, I couldn’t ignore the feeling that something wasn’t quite right.
Something felt out of place.
- Writer
