Marrying my high school bully

Dexter

“What’s wrong with her?” I panicked, my eyes trained on Lorraine who laid unconscious on the bed, her face pale and almost lifeless.

My heart clenched in pain, seeing her helpless and vulnerable.

“She was poisoned by what she might have taken in, and the poison has caused a lot of complications for her. She’ll be awake soon, but we are still checking the amount of damage done in her system.” Doctor Luca explained, his expression as unreadable as usual, but there was a glint of pity in his eyes.

“Wait a minute, Doctor Luca, you just talked about food poisoning. Is it the normal kind of poison because Lorraine is very careful of what she eats?”

He shook his head, taking off his glasses that exposed a little bit of vulnerability from him. He wasn’t just a doctor, he was my family doctor and he had treated a lot of cases that happened to me, so I didn’t expect formality from him.

“Look, Dexter. It wouldn’t have been this fatal if it was mere food poisoning. The symptoms would have been mild as well. But your wife almost lost her life if not for your rapid response. This kind of poison eats slowly into the body then begins to show the symptoms, by then, a lot of damage would have been done.”

I sighed, ruffling my already disheveled hair as fury slammed me hard in my stomach.

Who would have the effrontery to hurt a peaceful woman like Lorraine? I thought.

She never stepped on anyone’s toes and she made sure that no one stepped on hers.

“Doctor,” I croaked, my lips quivering. “Will she truly be alright?” It took me all I had to ask the question because I was scared of what his answer would be.

But I was sure of one thing, I would never let Lorraine go through this alone.

No matter what!

Doctor Luca inclined his head, sighing deeply as he put on his glasses. “I can’t tell for now, Dexter, but what I can assure you is that she’s a strong woman and she’ll be fine.” He patted my arms, threw a final glance at Lorraine then walked away.

I collapsed to the floor, feeling like my world had crumbled. My lips trembled as I broke into silent sobs.

I couldn’t allow her to hear me cry because she was trying to be strong and I was supposed to do the same, but I couldn’t. I just needed a shoulder to cry on and for someone to assure me that everything will be fine.

I crawled to her bedside, entangling her fingers with mine. She was still beautiful even though she just escaped death.

Her luscious pink lips that I was always tempted to kiss had turned slightly yellow, and her chubby cheeks had shrunken in a matter of hours.

The changes didn’t affect the view I had of her because I still loved her. She was still the most beautiful woman in the universe to me.

I kept staring at her, muttering words of affirmation to her though she didn’t respond in any way.

It felt like I was speaking to a lifeless person, but I hoped that she would wake up soon because I wouldn’t be able to continue life without her.

Gradually, mother nature began to call onto me as my eyes became heavy exhaustion. I took a chair and sat beside her.

“I love you, baby. You will come out of this stronger and better.” I whispered under my breath, then leaned towards her forehead and placed a reassuring kiss on it.

***********

A soft voice called out to me persistently, but behind the voice, there was a slight struggle and gentle touch on my palm.

“Dexter!” The voice came more strongly and my eyes snapped open to meet Lorraine sweating profusely.

Relief laced with excitement tore through me as I swooped her in for a hug. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t know you had woken up.”

She groaned, saying nothing else, then I released my hold on her a bit. “Water.” She requested and quickly poured out water from the jog into a glass cup.

While she drank the water, I rang doctor Luca so he would come over. She passed the glass to me and sighed, the paleness disappearing slightly.

“How do you feel right now?” I wiped a smear of water at the corner of her lips and helped her relax on the bed rest properly.

She couldn’t afford to be stressed.

“My head feels heavy and my stomach hurts badly, especially my abdomen. It feels like something is being chopped into nuts within me.” She shut her eyes, her face scrunched up as she touched her abdomen. “It hurts like hell.” She whined, stirring to her side in discomfort.

I quickly rushed to her aid, and put the pillow beside her until she was more comfortable. Seeing the pain she went through made me want to commit murder, but she didn’t need that from me right now.

Then I decided to ask a question that had been bothering me since last night.

“Lorraine, I don’t mean to stress you right now because of your health, but there are certain questions that need to be asked. But if you aren’t ready for them, I’ll allow you to rest and we’ll wait for Doctor Luca to come with the test results.” I informed her gently.

“You can ask me any question. I know that they have to do with my health and I think that I’m in a good place to talk.” She replied with a tinge of enthusiasm that encouraged me.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

I had to ask the questions without making her realise the gravity of the situation. I didn’t want her to panic.

“Before you returned home yesterday, did you stop by any cafe to grab something to eat?” I asked carefully, watching her squint her eyes in thought.

She shook her head. “No, I didn’t. I’d have done that if Emilia hadn’t brought me pizza at the beach.”

My eyes saw red as soon as she spoke about Emilia.

That witch!

How could she accept pizza from her?

“Emilia brought you pizza and you ate it?” I was barely controlling my temper because I didn’t want to be mad at her. Why couldn’t she read the handwriting on the wall?

“I wasn’t the only one who ate it, she ate it with me as well.” She replied. “Why are you asking about what I ate all of a sudden? Is there something you aren’t telling me?”

Damn! I’d shot myself in the foot because I was angry.

If Emilia had eaten the pizza with her then she should be in the same situation as Lorraine. I hadn’t heard from her and I planned to call her later.

“There’s nothing.” I replied in a rush, evading her questioning gaze.

She didn’t give up. “Dexter…” She called my name with a warning tone, just like my mother used to do. “When did you begin to hide things from me?”

There was no way I could hide the truth from her, was there?

“You were poisoned, Lorraine.” I announced and a gasp flew past her lips, her eyes widening. “And Doctor Luca said that it’s not a normal case of food poisoning. I don’t know what is going on right now, but I think someone wants to eliminate you.”

Her lips tightened as she remained silent, processing the news.

“But I was careful about what I ate…” She lowered her voice.

The door pushed open and Doctor Luca came in. I examined his face and it wasn’t looking good.

If he used to wear an unreadable expression before, then this one was worse, because it looked like the world was about to end and we couldn’t do anything about it.

“You’re awake, Lorraine, how do you feel?” He questioned, checking her heartbeat with the stethoscope.

“I’m in pain, Doctor.”

“That’s understandable.” He sighed and hung the stethoscope around his neck. “I’d like to speak with Dexter.”

Lorraine straightened on the bed. “Whatever you want to say to Dexter can be said with me present. He’s my husband, I’ll know at the end of the day.”

“This is hard to say but there’s no better way to paint it.” He paused and passed glances at us.

“Can you stop the suspense and spill it already?” I demanded impatiently and Lorraine quickly grabbed my hand, giving it a gentle massage that helped to calm me down.

“After conducting some tests on you, we discovered that the name of the poison you ingested was Zearalenone. It’s notably toxic to the reproductive system. I’m afraid, whatever you had in the last twenty-four hours contained some amount of the poison, and sadly, it has caused a serious disorder to your system which has affected your ability to have children.” He dropped the bomb and Lorraine retracted her hands from mine.

“What are you trying to say?” My palm became moist as I felt like a million knives were stabbing through my chest.

“We were able to flush out the residue but the damage has already been done. I’m sorry.” He concluded and Lorraine slumped immediately.