The Stranger In Me

Chapter 14: When Memories Begin to Bleed

Marie's Point of View

•••

The hospital room fell into a strange silence after Sir Kelvin ended the phone call.

Not the peaceful kind of silence.This one felt heavy,sharp,like broken glass suspended in the air waiting for someone to move too quickly.

Outside, rain battered endlessly against the large hospital windows, casting trembling reflections across the polished floor. The dim evening sky wrapped Manila in cold grey shadows while distant thunder rolled lazily across the city.

Marie sat quietly against the hospital bed pillows, trying to steady her breathing.

Mia remained curled beside her protectively, tiny fingers wrapped around her wrist as though afraid she might disappear again if she let go.

The child's warmth comforted her but,her mind felt like a room filled with locked doors.

Fragments of things floated around her thoughts endlessly.Facesvoices,pain,tears.

Yet every time she tried reaching for clarity, it slipped away.

She slowly lifted her gaze toward Sir Kelvin.

He stood near the window now, one hand tucked into his trouser pocket while the other loosened the knot of his expensive tie impatiently.

Even from a distance, she could feel tension radiating from him.His broad shoulders were stif,his jaw tight,his eyes darkened by something heavier than anger.Worry,though he tried hard to hide it.

Marie studied him carefully.Then softly,

"Is something wrong?"

Kelvin didn't respond immediately.

His reflection stared back at him through the rain-covered glass before he finally spoke.

"It's nothing you should concern yourself with."

Cold,dismissive, yet strangely tired.

David, who had been seated silently on the couch scrolling through his phone, suddenly sighed heavily.

"It's already everywhere online anyway."

Kelvin's sharp eyes snapped toward him immediately.

"David."

The warning in his voice was dangerous,but David looked frustrated too.

"What?" he muttered. "She deserves to know."

Marie frowned slightly.

"Know what?"

Nobody answered.

That alone made anxiety creep slowly into her chest.

David hesitated briefly before standing up and walking toward her bed.

Kelvin's voice darkened instantly.

"Don't."

But David ignored him.He handed the phone toward Marie carefully.The moment her eyes landed on the screen.

Her heartbeat stumbled violently.It was a picture of her inside this hospital.Holding Sir Kelvin's hand.Her fingers trembled slightly as she stared at the image.

But that wasn't the worst part.The headline beneath it made her chest tighten painfully.

A&K Airlines CEO Secretly Living with His Late Wife's Replacement?

Marie's breath caught.Slowly, she scrolled further.Another picture appeared,Mia hugging her tightly outside the hospital hallway.

Mystery Woman Already Accepted by Billionaire's Children.

Another.Sir Kelvin entering the hospital late at night.

Is Alberto Kelvin Finally Moving On Four Years After Wife's Death?

Marie's face slowly drained of color.

"This..." she whispered shakily. "This isn't true..."

The comments beneath the articles were worse.

Gold digger.

She trapped him through his daughter.

Another maid trying to replace a dead woman.

Poor Maya must be turning in her grave.

Marie immediately looked away from the phone.Her chest hurt,her throat tightened painfully.Mia noticed her discomfort instantly and quickly hugged her arm tighter.

Sir Kelvin finally stepped away from the window.

"I'll handle it," he said flatly.

Marie looked up at him slowly.

"How?"

Kelvin's expression remained unreadable.

"The same way people like me always do."Money,influence,power.

Marie lowered the phone carefully onto the blanket.For some reason, guilt flooded her chest.People were insulting his late wife because of her.

A woman she couldn't even remember,a woman who seemed deeply loved.

"People are talking because of me..." she whispered weakly.

"No."

Kelvin's voice came immediately this time.Cold,firm,but honest.

"They're talking because of me."

Their eyes met and suddenly,Marie's heartbeat became strangely uneven again.

Why did his eyes feel familiar?Why did his voice settle inside her chest so strangely? Before she could understand the feeling,the hospital room door opened again.

Dr. Rafael entered holding several medical files beneath his arm.

But the expression on his face immediately changed the atmosphere.

Nanny Ann stood up first.

"Doctor?"

Dr. Rafael adjusted his glasses quietly.

"We've received the latest results from Marie's neurological scans."

Kelvin crossed his arms stiffly.

"And?"

The doctor exhaled softly.

"There are complications."

Marie's stomach tightened instantly.

"What kind of complications?" David asked.

The doctor walked slowly toward the foot of Marie's bed.

"Miss Marie's memory loss is becoming psychologically unstable."

Marie frowned weakly.

"I don't understand..."

Dr. Rafael nodded calmly.

"Traumatic memory loss sometimes causes the brain to create emotional substitutions."

David blinked.

"English, please."

The doctor sighed softly.

"She's unconsciously replacing emotional gaps with emotionally comforting assumptions."

The room fell silent.Marie looked confused.

Kelvin's expression hardened.

"So what exactly does that mean?"

The doctor looked carefully toward Marie before answering.

"It means she may begin confusing emotional attachment with reality."

Marie swallowed slowly.

"Confusing... how?"

Dr. Rafael hesitated briefly.

"For example... believing relationships exist that may not actually exist."

Silence,heavy silence.Marie's fingers tightened around the blanket immediately.Her gaze slowly shifted toward Kelvin then,toward Mia.

Fear began crawling beneath her skin.

"You mean..." her voice trembled faintly, "...I could be imagining all this?"

Mia immediately shook her head aggressively and hugged her tighter.

Tears gathered inside the child's eyes.

Dr. Rafael quickly intervened.

"No, not everything is false," he clarified gently. "Your emotional connections are real. But your mind is reconstructing missing memories emotionally instead of factually."

Marie's breathing became uneven again.

"So I may never remember who I truly am?"

Nobody answered immediately and somehow,that silence terrified her more than words.

Nanny Ann slowly reached for her hand.

"You will recover, dear."

But Marie could hear uncertainty hidden inside her voice too.

Then Dr. Rafael spoke again.

"There's another concern."

Everyone looked toward him immediately.The doctor glanced briefly at Kelvin before opening another medical file.

"During examination," he continued carefully, "we discovered repeated bruising patterns across different stages of healing."

David frowned deeply.

"What kind of bruises?"

The doctor's expression darkened slightly.

"Physical abuse indicators."

The room froze instantly.Marie blinked slowly.

Physical abuse?

Nanny Ann gasped softly.Mia looked confused.David's eyes immediately shifted toward his father. And Kelvin,

Kelvin suddenly felt like all the oxygen had vanished from the room.

Dr. Rafael continued professionally.

"The bruises on her cheek, shoulder, wrist, and upper back were not caused by one incident."

Marie stared blankly at the doctor then slowly,images flashed violently through her mind.

A slap,rain,fear,a harsh voice shouting.Her breathing quickened.She pressed trembling fingers against her temple again.

"Marie?" Nanny Ann asked worriedly.

But Marie barely heard her, because now all eyes in the room had shifted toward one person.

Alberto Kelvin.

David's jaw tightened visibly.

"You hit her?"

Kelvin remained silent and that silence alone became an answer.

Nanny Ann looked heartbroken.

"Kelvin..."

Mia looked toward her father in confusion,then slowly toward Marie's bruised cheek.

The little girl's eyes widened painfully.

"No..." Marie whispered faintly.

Her chest tightened,her thoughts spun violently then finally,she looked directly at Kelvin.

His face remained unreadable,but his eyes...

His eyes looked haunted and suddenly, in a trembling voice filled with confusion, fear, and heartbreak,Marie whispered the question that shattered the room completely.

"...Did you hurt me?"

Sir Kelvin's Point of View

•••

"...Did you hurt me?"

The moment Marie asked me that question, I felt my chest cave inward.

The hospital room suddenly became too small,too hot,too accusing.

I could feel every pair of eyes slowly turning toward me David's furious glare, Nanny Ann's heartbreak, the doctor's quiet judgment, even Mia's confused little eyes searching my face for answers.

And the worst part?Nobody needed to accuse me,because I already knew the truth.

I did hurt her.The bruise on her cheek was mine,he fear hidden beneath her silence was mine too.

God.What have I become?

I looked at Marie sitting helplessly on that hospital bed, her fragile fingers clutching the blanket while confusion swam inside her innocent eyes. She looked so lost. So vulnerable.

And somehow...She still looked at me like she trusted me.That trust burned me alive.

Before I could even gather my thoughts properly, my phone vibrated aggressively inside my pocket again.

The media.Of course,the scandal had already exploded beyond control.

I stepped away from the room slightly and answered the call coldly.

"What now?"

"Sir, the blogs are getting worse," my assistant said nervously from the other end. "Several news outlets have picked up the story already."

I shut my eyes briefly.Wonderful,just wonderful.

"What are they saying?"There was a pause.

Then carefully,

"They're calling Miss Marie your late wife's replacement."

My jaw tightened instantly.

Replacement?

Maya was not replaceable.Nobody could ever replace her.Not even...I stopped myself immediately.

No.Especially not Marie.

Another article had surfaced barely thirty minutes ago.Someone from the hospital had leaked pictures.

Pictures of Marie holding my hand,pictures of Mia hugging her, pictures res of me visiting repeatedly over the past week.

The headlines were everywhere now.

Cold Billionaire CEO Secretly Nursing New Lover in Hospital.

A&K CEO's Children Already Call Mystery Woman "Mother."

Is Alberto Kelvin Finally Replacing His Late Wife?

The last headline nearly made me smash my phone against the wall.

People knew nothing.Nothing!They didn't know what Maya meant to me,they didn't know I still woke up some nights hearing her voice in my head,they didn't know every room in that mansion still carried traces of her memory and now because of one unfortunate situation, strangers suddenly believed I had moved on?

Moved on?I laughed bitterly inside.

If only they knew.

"Sir?" my assistant called carefully.

"What?"

"The board members are becoming concerned about the company's image."

Of course they were.A grieving billionaire accidentally becoming involved in a scandal with his children's nanny was exactly the kind of entertainment the public loved.

Pathetic.

"Handle the press," I said coldly.

"How, sir?"

I looked back toward the hospital room through the small glass opening on the door.

Marie sat quietly while Mia clung to her side protectively.

Nanny Ann was trying to comfort her.

David looked like he wanted to murder me and somehow,that scene looked more like a family than anything I had seen inside my mansion in years.

The realization unsettled me instantly.

"Deny nothing," I finally muttered.

My assistant sounded shocked.

"Sir?"

"You heard me."

"But wouldn't silence make the rumors worse?"

"Yes."

Another pause.

"Then why-"

"Because," I interrupted sharply, "I'm tired."

Silence.I rubbed my forehead slowly.For years, I had controlled everything.

My business,my reputation,my emotions.

Yet ever since Marie entered my life, things had begun slipping through my fingers one after another.

First Mia became attached to her,then the children slowly started smiling again because of her.

Then suddenly the mansion no longer felt entirely dead and now,the media had turned her into some symbolic replacement for Maya.

The irony was cruel,because the very thing I feared was the exact thing the world now believed.

I ended the call and leaned heavily against the hospital wall.

I should have been furious.Instead,I felt exhausted,deeply exhausted.Maybe because a part of me knew the media wasn't entirely wrong.

No, Marie could never replace Maya,but she had done something far more dangerous.

She had entered spaces inside my children's hearts that grief had locked away for years.

Even mine and that terrified me because, every time Mia smiled at Marie...

Every time Marie defended me despite my cruelty.Every time her voice softened the silence inside that mansion,I felt myself remembering how it felt to be human again.

And I hated it,because loving again felt like betraying Maya.t pushing Marie away now after everything,after the bruises,after the memory loss,after Mia calling her "Mum" with so much innocence made me feel like the villain everyone already believed I was.

I slowly dragged a hand across my face.

For the first time in years, Alberto Kelvin-the feared CEO of A&K Airlines-felt powerless.

Not because of the media,not because of public scandal,but because a woman I once considered insignificant had somehow become the center of every emotional disaster in my life.

And the worst part?

I no longer knew whether I wanted her gone or wanted her to stay.