House of Thorns – Episode 50

HOUSE OF THORNS

Episode 50

Tales by Eve

 

Elsewhere, Leonard was talking with Valerie about how fantastic and successful their engagement party had been. His mother had even attended! He knew the paparazzi were going to be everywhere, they were already more like a celebrity pair, but he never expected his mother to show up.

She had been skeptical about his new relationship with Valerie, and had been complaining about her superficial lifestyle, and how having being so spoilt as a last child in a super rich family, she may not be able to make a good wife.

According to her, she was imagining he was just being with her to get over his hurt and disappointment with Vivian’s departure, but when he told her he was going to make the big move, she totally objected. An excuse so flimsy that Leonard didn’t make his head bother about her for a moment

After he went ahead to make the proposal, his mother found out about it on social media. And even though she still wanted to object, she could see her son was bent on going into the forever journey with her.

The last thing she wanted to do was strain the relationship between herself and her first son, so she had to quickly align with the soon to be couple. And indeed, the engagement party was an awesome one, one that would be talked about for a long time to come

It wasn’t just one of those engagement.parties where people show off wealth, it was an extravagantly organized party quite alright, but the love between the two pairs could be sensed all over the large hall used for the event

Valerie was all smiles as they talked about how their wedding would be holding just a few days later. She was super thrilled that not only had she and her only sister gotten engaged on the same day, they were set to wed on the same day too.

Her relationship with Leonard had so blossomed that she could tell even Tricia and Vince’s relationship was a step behind them. They had come to understand each other so well that they could tell each other’s next move by just looking at their facial expressions.

The communication flow between them was second to none. Leonard was truly not ready to allow a communication gap ruin this happiness he eventually found.

The church where they were set to wed, required them to undergo some medical examinations, and even though they knew they would never go their separate ways no matter what the medical reports held, they had to still visit the hospital to get the mandatory tests done.

“What if the results don’t come out favourably for us? What if there’s something that’d make us have to go our separate ways?” Valerie asked, her heart muddled in fear and panic, as they walked into the hospital.

“Don’t be ridiculous babe. What on earth do you think will be able to make us go our separate ways? The worst case scenario is that your genotype turns out an AS, when I’m also AS, but even at that, we won’t be going our separate ways. Not now, not ever!” Leonard declared.

Valerie looked up at him, not being as positive as he was. For all they know, there could be something that would make their union experience a drastic U-turn, and she could feel it.

He gave her another reassuring smile, held her hand firmly in his and walked into the doctor’s office. They were warmly welcomed by the doctor who was already expecting them.

According to the church’s laws, the couple were required to visit any hospital the church assigns to them when the time approached. It was to enable the church get an independent medical personnel give them an uninfluenced report.

“Welcome Mr. Leonard and Miss Valerie, the Lab technicians will soon arrive to take your samples and get the tests done as quickly as possible. Be rest assured that we won’t make you spend a second more than you should” the doctor told them in a very friendly tone.

“I can’t believe everything turned out so perfectly. I should be very happy now, you know, but something keeps tugging my heart, I don’t know why I can still feel something is wrong somewhere” Valerie told Leonard as they walked out of the doctor’s office.

Even though they were not handed the medical reports, the doctor had congratulated them as he mailed the reports to the church office. Their genotype was compatible, every other tests also showed they were good to go, and most importantly, Valerie wasn’t pregnant.

She had insisted there was no need for the pregnancy test since she had never really gone all the way, but it was a routine test, and they had to get it done.

Leonard kept reassuring her that everything was okay, and she was just being paranoid. They walked on, hand in hand and were about to exit the hospital when they heard a loud commotion.

Ordinarily, they should have moved on to catch up with the other appointments they had for the day, but something kept telling Valerie she needed to see what the commotion was about.

Leonard was in the middle of pulling her out of the hospital because he was practically getting upset with her strange behaviours that day when he saw a familiar figure jumping and screaming frantically.

“Allow me take a look at what’s going on there darling, something tells me we should see how we can help” Valerie was arguing.

“This is a hospital babe. I’m sure whatever it is, the patient would get help from the appropriate people, the doctors, and that’s why he or she was brought here” Leonard was saying before he recognized the woman that was wailing sorrowfully, a baby strapped on her back.

He froze in his path, as his head put bits of information together. Vivian was about a month pregnant when she left him over a year ago, and that child should be about the age of the baby on Mrs Bradford’s back.

Mrs Bradford was screaming about a woman leaving a child for her in her old age. Could that woman be Vivian? No! He hoped not. “It just.cant be” he told himself, as he turned around to get back to the hospital ward.

Even though things had gone the way it did between him and Vivian, the thought of her being talked about in the past tense was making get the chills.

He raced towards the hospital ward and true to his imagination, Vivian lay on the bed, motionless, while a man was screaming at the doctor to do something about her.

From the way the man behaved, he could tell he wasn’t just an unrelated person to Vivian, but that deepened his confusion.

Vivian had left him to be with Jeremy, and the last he knew of her was that she was married and living with him. Who was this other man? And what happened to Vivian?

Valerie stood with her hand over mouth, trying to suppress the screen that was building up in her heart, as she heard them talk about Vivian more like a non living thing.

“I’m sorry Mr. Pascal, but I don’t think there’s much we can do at the moment. Her condition has retrogressed so shockingly, and that’s largely because, in her subconsciousness, she’s unwilling to find a reason to regain consciousness. She’s afraid of something so deep. So even though we’ve been doing our best, even though her vital organs escaped the blow from that knife, she’s clearly unwilling to live. And as it stands now, her body is turning cold because, the lasts breaths are forcing their way to escape her lungs” the doctor explained.

To be continued