The Unexpected Visitor

~Isabelle~

I stared at my phone for a couple of seconds, surprised that Jason had called me; of all people, my brother, after all this time, and I could not really explain how it made me feel. I was still struggling with calling Jason back or simply waiting to see if he would call back when Sasha came back.

“Hope I didn’t stay long,” Sasha said as she slid into the chair close to my bed.

She had some food in a food pack and soft drinks with her.

“No, you didn’t,” I answered, but my mind was somewhere else.

“Is everything okay?” Sasha asked. “You look a little pale,” she added. When I wasn’t responding, Sasha began to bring out the food from the food pack. “I got you some food to cheer you up, and don’t worry; the doctor assured me that you could have them,” Sasha said, feeling fulfilled with herself.

“Jason called me,” I blurted out.

Sasha knew everything about leaving my family and marrying Victor. She was aware that I had been estranged from my family for years now; I hadn’t spoken to any of them or seen them at all. 

Sasha stopped what she was doing when she heard what I said, and she slowly turned to me. “Belle, are you serious? Are you sure it was Jason?” Sasha asked and I nodded. “It has been four years now,” Sasha reminded me.

“I know,” I said, my heart beating faster than usual.

“Do you think it was a mistake?” Sasha asked.

“A mistake would be once, Sash, but he called me five times,” I told Sasha.

“Belle!” Sasha exclaimed, making me feel more uneasy. “I don’t know what this is, or what to say,” she admitted.

Well, that makes two of us.

“I am just worried, Sasha. It has been so long, and calling me out of the blue like this is worrisome,” I confessed to Sasha.

She was the only person I could confide in about everything, and I felt glad that I did not cut her off when I married Victor Walters, because by now, I would have had no one by my side. Sasha was the one who made torturous years with Victor and his family less excruciating, as she always provided me with listening ears and a shoulder to cry on.

“Maybe you should call him back to see what he wants?” Sasha suggested, but she was skeptical about it.

Just then, the door opened slowly and a nurse; the one assigned to attending to me popped her head into the room. “Mrs. Walters?” she called.

I winced at the sound of that name, because being called Mrs. Walters reminded me of the hell I went through bearing that name, and also how Victor’s family continued to antagonize me simply because I had taken on their name. 

“What is it?” Sasha answered instead.

“She has a visitor,” the nurse informed Sasha since it was Sasha who answered her.

I instantly thought that it was Victor who had come to see me, so I began to shake my head to decline, because right now, I could not even stand the sight of him.

“He says his name is Jason Geralt,” the nurse announced before I could even finish shaking my head.

Both Sasha and I looked at each other as our eyes became wide open in shock; she wasn’t also expecting my visitor to be Jason.

“Do I ask him to come in? You still have about thirty minutes to your visiting hours,” she asked and explained at the same time.

I was too conflicted about what I wanted that I could not give an exact response to the nurse. Instead, I just stared at Sasha, totally dazed.

“Let him come in,” Sasha answered the nurse; apparently, she got over the shock faster than I.

I looked at Sasha, widening my eyes more in shock and dread. “Sash! You didn’t ask me first,” I said, my voice shaking slightly with fear.

“He came all the way here to see you, Isabelle, and we don’t even know how he got to know that you are here, so it’s best to talk to him,” Sasha told me.

“What if it doesn’t turn out well?” I asked, saying the unspoken words, and thankful at the same time that Sasha knew and understood me so well that I did not need to say all that I was thinking before she knew.

“I am certain that he didn’t come all that way for that, so relax,” Sasha said just in time.

The door opened and Jason stood right there. 

In that moment, it was as though the world had frozen in time. We both stared at each other as though we were seeing each other for the very first time, but actually, Jason looked somewhat different in my eyes. He looked more mature and highly built now; different from the lanky young man I had known before.

“I will give you both some time to talk,” Sasha said as she got up and left the ward in a blink of an eye.

Her words brought us back to reality as Jason cleared his throat and walked up to my bed. Contrary to what I had feared, I felt at ease.

“Isabelle,” Jason simply said, calling gently with rasped breath, as though he could not also believe that it was I he was seeing.

“Jason,” I called equally.

“I was worried that you might not want to see me,” Jason said calmly, and it dawned on me that I had definitely misjudged the situation.

I instantly felt bad for thinking and feeling the way I did earlier.

“How did you find me here?” I asked Jason.

There were thousands of questions running through my head to ask, and I knew that Jason had tons of things to say as well. It was as though time would not be enough for the both of us.

“I will tell you all about that,” Jason said, then he looked around. “I don’t see the man you left everything for by your bedside,” Jason observed.

I looked away and said, “I am divorcing him, Jason, and I need a lawyer.”