Begin Again novel Chapter 219

The day after his surgery, Liam regained consciousness but very briefly, though. And after a few hours of intense observation, his doctors' felt comfortable enough to move him to a private room in the recovery unit, where he continued to be monitored closely.

But for days after, it was touch and go as he lingered at death's door, slipping in and out of consciousness regularly.

And for days, Eden stayed with him and prayed feverishly for his recovery as she kept vigil by his bedside, returning home only to shower, snatch a few hours of sleep and spend time with Aiden.

When she was too tired to go home, Brenda would bring her son in for a few minutes during visiting hours to see his father, and they would sit on the bed and read The Boy Who Chased The Moon over and over to him.

Every time Aiden had to return home without her, he'd kick up a fuss and scream for his 'Dad', breaking Eden's heart a little more.

She was torn.

On the one hand, she'd hoped bringing Aiden to see him would push Liam to fight a little harder to come back to them.

But, on the other hand, seeing the confusion swimming in her son's eyes at the sight of his father tied to all these tubes and machines made Eden question her choices.

She often wished Liam could send her a sign to tell her she's doing the right thing and having Aiden close to him helps.

But he remained unresponsive. Nothing she said or did, worked, and the longer his condition stayed the same, the harder it became to remain hopeful.

Eden had so many questions.

She didn't understand at all why Liam hadn't regained consciousness fully if the surgery was a success.

But as Dr Knight, the Physician Anesthesiologist in charge of Liam's recovery post-surgery, explained—when she finally plucked up the courage to seek answers—it wasn't the gunshot wound she should be worrying about. After all, the bullet had only grazed his left kidney and miraculously missed all the major arteries and vital organs.

It's the internal trauma Liam had suffered from his fight with Aleksei that was of significant concern to his medical team.

Because of the massive swelling and bruising to his liver and spleen, they'd had to sedate him to allow the organs to repair themselves. But if that didn't work, then they'd have to resort to extreme measures like invasive surgery.

Clarke and Lois didn't like the doctors' wait and see stance. They wanted them to do something fast and do it now.

Eden, too, would have preferred a little more action and some sense of urgency. But as Erica pointed out when she stopped by to offer her support and prayers, Dr Knight has a medical degree and many years of experience to back up his decisions, and she didn't.

With no experience and no medical degree, Eden had no choice but to trust that Liam's medical team had his best interest at heart and knew what they were doing.

So while she waited for a miracle, she decided to get her life in order.

She finished the painting she'd started the day Liam found out about Aiden.

She also completed her first draft of The Boy Who Chased The Moon and sent it off to an indie publishing house for editing and proofreading.

On day #3 of her limbo, Dr Emily Waylon called while Eden nodded off to sleep in her chair.

She dashed out of the room, startled to find the hallway teeming with Liam's friends and colleagues. They weren't allowed to see him yet, but that didn't stop them from coming over to offer their support, drop off their fruit baskets and flowers and pray for him.

Eden smiled briefly at everyone, exchanged a few polite words and scrambled off to find a quiet corner. But her phone stopped ringing before she could pick it up.

She paced for thirty seconds or so, thinking the doctor would call back. But two minutes later, when she still hadn't, Eden returned her call.

After waiting for what felt like a long time and only because of their shitty hold music, the haughty receptionist transferred her to the doctor's line.

They were both polite, like strangers usually are, as they went through the standard niceties expected with all check-ins.

The doctor went through her checklist, asking all the right questions about her health, stress levels, blood pressure and mental wellbeing.

And Eden ticked all the right boxes and passed the assessment with flying colours. She assured her she was not under any stress, and she was sleeping like a baby. Her morning sickness, which seemed to happen at all hours, wasn't bad at all, and her anxiety was a thing of the past now.

Pleased Eden was following all her orders and well on her way to a healthy pregnancy, Dr Emily got down to the real reason for the call—The results had come back.

Like they'd already suspected, there were no traces of the birth control hormone in her bloodstream. She was never on any form of birth control.

As if she's somehow responsible for the negligence of one nurse some odd 500 kilometres away, Dr Emily apologised. "I'm sorry. In such instances, you have the right to log a complaint with the Health Ombud. A malpractice suit is also—"

"Thank you," Eden cut her off. She was so exhausted from everything. There were far more important things she could use her time on. Fighting with a nurse—who likely didn't even remember her—for failing to do her job wasn't one of them. She had to conserve all her energy for Liam's recovery.

She thanked the doctor for her time and hung up after assuring her, yet again, everything in her life is going swimmingly.

The estate agent called as she was about to slip back inside the ward, and Eden half-listened as she watched another wave of Anderson Logistics crew touch down in the hallway with more flowers and more bananas.

They waved at her while she agreed to meet Beverly at her place in thirty minutes so she can take photos of the house.

With the appointment now in her calendar and nothing else to talk about with Bev, she reluctantly hung up and approached her colleagues. Pretending she and Liam were not a thing stopped being an option the first day they came to check on him.

They hugged her, said all the right things and asked all the wrong questions, and she nodded and smiled and assured them Liam was hanging in there, and he'd be out of the hospital in no time, ready to terrorise them all.

She managed to make her narrow escape when Lois and Clarke arrived, and the congregation turned all their support on them.

Eden stepped inside the ward and leaned on the door, grateful for the moment of silence amidst the beeping monitors.

"I think I've got enough!" Beverly cried a little while later as she flipped through the photos of the house on her camera roll. "I'll be in touch soon with the write-up for the listing."

"Thank you," Eden said as she shook her hand once more. "If we can, I'd like to push the sale through as quickly as possible."

"Of course," Beverly smiled and nodded, "You chose the right time to sell. It's the seller's market. We shouldn't have any trouble at all taking this baby off your hands."

"Great!" Eden saw her out and watched her drive off, waving at Jace and Aaron, now smoking on the curb. She was so tempted to join them. And if she wasn't pregnant, she would have. The stress of the past few days was finally getting to her.

Sighing loudly, she turned back to the house to face the mammoth task of packing away her life. If she knew four months ago what she knew now, she wouldn't have bothered settling in.

She rummaged through her closet and pulled out her trusty luggage bags, stuffing all her clothes in the larger one and Aiden's in the smaller suitcase.

Since she didn't know what to pack for Brenda, she settled on a medium-sized overnight bag and threw in as much stuff as she could. They'd have to come back one of the days anyway to box up everything and send it to storage.

Ten minutes later, Eden was done and ready to go. But she couldn't bring herself to leave. So she lingered for some time and spent a few minutes in each room, remembering drunken conversations that had played out within these walls, moments of utter joy and complete devastation and nights of great food, good music and easy company.

She sat on the edge of her clawfoot tub and sighed wistfully, wishing she'd made time to use it. Liam had an even bigger one. But hers would always hold a special place in her heart because she'd bought it with her first-ever paycheck in two years, and it was probably the third adult thing she'd ever done.

She'd had so many dreams for her tub and her house in general, and now—now she was letting go of all those dreams.

Her phone buzzed in her hand, and she quickly wiped her tears away before she answered it.

It was Erica, and she was outraged yet again about why Lois had to be the first one to find out she's expecting.

Eden had had enough of her bullshit. She gently reminded her they were not close, hadn't been in years, and she had no reason to share every little detail of her life with her.

"I'm your mother," Erica ranted.

"You can't be a mother when it suits you," Eden reminded her. "And please, Liam is fighting for his life right now. For once, can you not make everything about you?"

"But Edie—" She cried.

Eden wouldn't entertain her, though. She cut the call and didn't feel bad at all.

She rustled up the bags and her art supplies and locked up the house.

"Ma'am, let me help you with that." Jace rushed to her side when he saw her struggling with the luggage and her easel. "I thought you're only moving in much later?"

"That was the plan, but I don't want to waste another second."