Between Love and Sacrifice

CHAPTER FOUR: THE ESCAPE

As he spoke, his breath reeked of alcohol, and he kept belching, each one releasing the same foul smell. He started rambling nonsense and began to grip my dress, caressing me. I struggled, but he was too strong for me to handle. Suddenly, he started to vomit, splattering my dress and the bed. I seized the opportunity to stand up and moved to the corner of the room, watching the chaotic scene unfold. He continued to vomit until he finally collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.

*********

I sat on the tiles of the room, waiting for morning. When I noticed the first light shining, I saw he was still deep asleep. I gently picked up the key that had fallen from his hand when he was vomiting and grabbed my phone from the glass table. Quietly, I opened the door with the key and dashed out.

At the entrance, I was relieved to find the key still in the lock. I quietly opened the door from the back and stepped into the compound. I knocked on Mr. Robin's apartment door and asked him to unlock the gate for me, pretending that Mr. Alexander had sent me on an errand to the market.

What I appreciated most about Mr. Alexander's workers was their ability to stay out of each other's business. Mr. Robin woke up and opened the gate, trusting my story.

As soon as I escaped the compound, I ran without looking back. I knew he was still asleep when I left, but that didn’t matter, I felt like he could catch up with me at any moment. If he did, my life would be even more hellish than it already was. I was still on his street and looked back countless times.

“My goodness!”

“What have I done?”

I glanced down, my feet were blistered by now. I didn’t want to stop, but I had to. I placed my hands on my knees, panting like a dog after a marathon. I looked around, adjusted my jeans, pulled them up to my waist, and took off my shoes, holding them in my hands as I started running again. I would run a bit, rest, and then run again until I reached the end of his street, where there was a bus stop. But the cab and bus hadn’t started running yet; it was still just after six. I waited at the bus stop my mind was racing at the same time thinking of my brother health

“God let me meet Andrew alive!”

I switched on my phone to call the doctor, but when I realised, it was too early, he might not be in the hospital, he might be with his own family , so I quickly released my hand from his name in the contact log. I waited in the bus stop until some cab resumed work. The first cab man that first resumed was the first I boarded straight to the hospital. I still looked back occasionally at the back glass when I was in the car, prompting the cab man to look at me occasionally from the upper front mirror but I ignored him.

*********

I felt relieved when I got down; I was so dirty I didn’t care. Andrew’s life mattered more to me than that. When I reached the hospital entrance, I sighed and opened the door, my heart raced with my body shaking.

I quickly ran to the secretary's desk.

“Good morning, ma'am,” I greeted, my voice shaking.

The secretary looked up and replied cheerfully, “Good morning, ma'am.”

“My name is Thompson Amelia. I’m here for Thompson Andrew, who was admitted a week ago and was placed on oxygen a few hours ago.” The words rushed out of my mouth as my body trembled.

“Thompson Andrew?” The secretary asked for confirmation.

She started sifting through the piles of files on her desk, which seemed to number in the hundreds, scanning each one carefully. My legs were already shaking, and sweat ran down my chin despite the cold morning air. When she noticed my hand trembling on her desk, she told me to take a seat, but I insisted I was okay. It took her about twenty minutes to find Andrew’s file.

“Mistress Amelia, I’m coming,” I couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Excuse me, ma’am, is he still alive?”

The secretary turned, already heading toward the patient room, confusion on her face.

“Who?” she asked.

“Thompson Andrew,” I replied.

“It’s not my job to treat patients; I just assist people and search for the needed files,” she answered politely.

I felt like I was losing myself, constantly standing up, sitting down, and spinning like a top. My vision blurred, and I was on the verge of tears. The more sighted nurses rushing around intensified the chaos, the more my heart raced as if it were running a marathon.

“I told you to be patient. I’ll get back to you shortly,” she added before walking away.

I was short of words, I started crying.