BOUND BY ONE NIGHT

Chapter23

Lavender’s POV

The world returned to me slowly like wading up from the bottom of dark, heavy water. At first, there was only a humming in my ears, steady and rhythmic. A beeping sound followed. Crisp sheets under my fingertips. A cold hand of air drifting across my skin.

Then light too bright, stabbing.

I blinked. Once. Twice.

The ceiling above me was white. Sterile. Unfamiliar.

A hospital ceiling.

I inhaled sharply and pain bloomed in my chest, not physical but emotional, like waking up meant stepping back into everything I’d tried to outrun.

The engagement announcement.

Alex.

The way my heart had cracked open so violently I couldn’t breathe.

I closed my eyes again, wishing darkness could swallow me whole.

“Lavender?” A voice, a woman’s gentle but firm. “Can you hear me?”

I forced my eyes open. A doctor stood beside the bed, wearing a calm, practiced expression. Her eyes were kind, but also too searching, too knowing for my comfort.

My aunt Tracy, sat on a chair in the corner, her face etched with worry. Seeing her there my chaotic, outspoken, black-sheep aunt, made something in me loosen just a little.

“Aunty?” My voice came out hoarse, scraped thin.

She hurried to my side, taking my hand. “I’m here, Lavy. You scared me. You collapsed right in front of the TV. I thought” Her voice broke and she pressed her lips together, trying not to cry. “I thought I lost you.”

Tears pricked my eyes. “I… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” she snapped, though her voice remained soft. “Just breathe. You’re okay. You’re safe.”

Safe. A word I hadn’t felt in months.

The doctor waited until I was steady before clearing her throat. “Lavender, before I explain anything, I need to ask, how are you feeling right now?”

How was I feeling?

I didn’t even know how to begin describing the mess inside me.

“Confused,” I whispered. “Tired. And… embarrassed.”

My aunt squeezed my hand harder. “Nothing to be embarrassed about.”

The doctor nodded sympathetically. “You collapsed due to extreme stress and fatigue. But during your tests, we discovered something else, something important.”

She paused.

My heart stuttered.

Her next words fell like a stone in a silent room.

“Lavender… you’re pregnant.”

Silence.

A long, slow silence where I forgot to breathe entirely.

Pregnant.

The word didn’t feel real. It felt foreign, detached from my life, like it belonged to someone else, some other girl in some other story.

I shook my head slowly. “No… that can’t there must be a mistake.”

The doctor was gentle. “We ran the tests twice. There’s no mistake.”

Pregnant.

Alex.

The night in the cabin, fiery, impulsive, overwhelming.

My breath broke in half. The room felt too small. Too sharp. Too real.

I pressed my hand to my chest, struggling for air. “I… I didn’t even notice anything. I thought I was just stressed…”

“You have been under immense emotional strain,” the doctor said softly. “It’s common not to recognize early symptoms. Your body has been trying to keep up, but it reached a breaking point.”

My aunt leaned closer, voice trembling. “Lavy, breathe. In and out. Slowly.”

I tried. I failed. The tears came anyway hot, humiliating, uncontrollable. My aunt pulled me into a careful hug, letting me cry against her shoulder.

“I can’t” My voice cracked. “A baby? I can’t even take care of myself. I don’t have a job. I don’t have a home. Mum threw me out without even asking what really happened.”

My aunt stiffened, anger flashing in her eyes. “Your mother lost her mind, Lavender. She should never have done that. You did nothing wrong.”

I shook my head violently. “I ruined everything. I ruined my job, my reputation, my relationship with my mum…”

“And he ruined you too,” she cut in, firm. “And he gets to sleep peacefully in his mansion while you’re here trying to hold yourself together.”

The truth stung.

The truth always did.

I whispered, “He’s getting engaged, Aunty. Tonight. It was on TV.”

Her face softened with heartbreak. “I know. That must have hurt in ways I can’t even imagine.”

It did.

It still did.

It felt like something inside me had torn so deeply it would never heal.

The doctor spoke again quietly. “Lavender, I understand this is overwhelming. But right now, my main concern is your health. You’re dehydrated, malnourished, and showing signs of severe stress. I strongly advise that you remain admitted for observation.”

Admitted.

I felt small and fragile and lost.

My aunt touched my cheek. “Stay, Lavy. Let them take care of you. Let someone take care of you for once.”

I closed my eyes.

I didn’t know what to do about the pregnancy.

I didn’t know what to do about my life.

I didn’t know how to face any of it.

But I knew one thing:

I was too exhausted to run anymore.

“…Okay,” I whispered. “I’ll stay.”

My aunt kissed my forehead. “Good girl.”

The doctor gave a relieved nod. “Thank you. We’ll move you to a private recovery wing where it’s quieter. I’ll send a nurse to assist you.”

I swallowed hard and nodded.

A few minutes later, a nurse arrived with a wheelchair. I didn’t even protest. I was too drained, physically and emotionally, to argue. My aunt gathered my small bag of belongings, the clothes I’d left her house in when I fainted, and followed close behind.

The hallways were silent, lit by warm yellow lights that somehow made everything feel softer, gentler. I watched ceiling tiles pass above me like drifting clouds.

We turned a corner.

Rolled past a nurses’ station.

Stopped outside a room door marked 217B.

“This will be your room,” the nurse said.

But as she pushed the door open, something caught my attention:

The room next to mine, 217A, had its door slightly ajar.

Inside, a flurry of doctors and nurses moved urgently around a patient.

And through the gap, I saw a glimpse of silver hair.

An old woman.

Pale.

Still.

My blood ran cold.

It was Margaret.

Alex’s grandmother.

My chest tightened painfully.

“What… what happened to her?” I whispered without thinking.

My aunt glanced too. “Poor woman. Looks serious.”

The nurse sighed softly. “She collapsed at an event tonight. They brought her in just before you.”

My heart sank.

Alex.

He must be here.

Somewhere nearby.

Maybe in the same hallway.

Maybe right outside that door.

Fear,or grief, shot through me, sharp and confusing.

Before I could think too deeply, my nurse wheeled me into my own room. My aunt helped me onto the bed, adjusting the pillows.

But I couldn’t stop staring at the wall separating me from Margaret.

So close.

Too close.

Two worlds colliding in a hospital corridor neither of us chose.

I pressed my palm to my belly for the first time, trembling.

Pregnant.

Still alone.

Still invisible to him.

But fate… fate seemed to be weaving a pattern I didn’t understand yet.

The chapter ended with the quiet hum of machines and the weight of two lives hanging in the balance, mine and Margaret’s separated only by a thin wall.