“What’s wrong? Do you have something to tell me?” Finnick commented, noticing Vivian’s burning gaze.
After some thought, Vivian decided not to reveal her guess. Instead, she would tell him once she confirmed the truth behind it and had evidence for it.
“Nope. I was thinking about how lucky I was for Benedict to save me in time. Otherwise, I would not be here in one piece,” she made up an excuse.
“Lucky?” This time, Finnick was confused by her choice of words.
“Of course. Wasn’t it fortunate?” Vivian did not understand Finnick’s confusion. “Luckily, Benedict showed up in time to save me. Otherwise…”
She paused. Thinking about the incident in the warehouse, she burst into tears again. She lowered her head, and her tears fell on the blanket. Gritting her teeth, she took a deep breath before she muttered, “Otherwise, those people would have succeeded.”
It made Finnick more baffled. Did she mean that those men did not touch her?
That’s odd. Evelyn told me that she saw Vivian being raped by them. The doctor also did a test and confirmed that she was sexually abused. What is going on? Does she not remember anything?
Although many questions filled Finnick’s head, he did not want to question her any further. Looking at the crying figure before him, he did not want to upset her.
He tried to push away his thoughts. Using his thumb to wipe away the tears on Vivian’s face, he said, “Don’t cry anymore. Let’s not think about what happened. You should take a good rest instead.”
Vivian silently nodded, closing her eyes and holding back her tears.
Cautiously, Finnick lowered Vivian down to a lying position and dried her tears with a tissue. “Get some sleep. When you wake up, everything would be okay.”
After crying so much, Vivian was exhausted. It did not take long before she drifted off to sleep while clinging onto Finnick’s hand.
Finnick slowly pried his numb hands away from hers and rubbed them together when she finally slept. Looking at the sleeping figure, he supported himself with the bed rails and planted a kiss on her cheek. Then, he whispered, “No matter what happened, I love you.”
He lifted his head to stare at her angelic face for a while longer before straightening her blanket and turning to leave the ward.
The moment he stepped out, he saw Noah standing outside.
Noah had been there for a long time. However, when he saw Finnick in Vivian’s ward, he did not want to disturb them. Thus, he politely waited outside. When he saw his boss coming out, he rushed over. “Mr. Norton, the board of directors…”
“Before that, let’s find the doctor first,” Finnick cut Noah off before the latter could finish. With Noah struggling to keep up behind him, Finnick briskly walked towards the doctors’ office.
There, Finnick looked for the doctor who came by earlier. After briefly explaining the situation, he anxiously asked, “Doctor, what happened to my wife? Why can’t she seem to recall what happened?”
Initially, the doctor was slightly flustered to see Finnick approaching him, thinking that the man saw through his lie. However, after hearing his question, the doctor felt relieved. Finnick still believed his words.
“Maybe the patient is unable to accept the fact and chose to forget that part of her memory. The upsetting experience could be another reason. Perhaps, she is too embarrassed to tell you about it, so she pretended that she has forgotten,” the doctor tried to make up excuses for the situation.
Nonetheless, his words did not sound ridiculous. Generally, these were possible outcomes for women who met such situations. Only this time, Vivian was not one of those women who were sexually abused, so of course, it did not apply to her. Regardless, he could not tell Finnick that.
“In any case, it is best not to ask the patient about what happened. For a female to go through such humiliation must be very pressurising on her. Whether she forgot about it or pretended to do so, it is a coping mechanism for her. If you force her to recall what happened, it may backfire and even cause her to break down,” he added, afraid that Finnick would see through him.
