Chapter 305: Chapter 304: She Will Never Wake Up Again
That dream, perhaps, was Alice Lesser’s final farewell to her.
Daisy Ginger sat on the bench, her hands and feet gradually becoming cold.
Flashes of her childhood and Alice’s moments together ran through her mind. Back then, Alice was spoiled and confident, to the extent that her personality as an adult, somewhat leaned towards Alice’s.
Maybe it was long overdue to let her go. Letting her live so humbly, Alice probably was in much pain too.
She closed her eyes, leaned her head against the wall, and gently exhaled a breath of cold air.
*
At two thirty in the morning, the operating room door was opened.
A masked doctor opened the door and came out. Daisy Ginger stood up from the bench instinctively; she didn’t know what was on her mind; she just couldn’t help looking at him.
The male doctor took off his mask and said to Daisy Ginger, "Miss Ginger, my condolences, we did our best."
...
The blood felt as if it froze all of a sudden; Daisy Ginger’s vision went black for a moment, and she staggered slightly.
The nurse, seeing her like this, hurried over to support her, but she pushed her away.
"Can I, see her?"
The tone was calm still, except for a slight tremble.
The doctor nodded, "Five minutes."
Daisy Ginger responded, slowly pushed the nurse in front of her aside, and entered the operating room.
Inside the operating room, the shadowless lamp was still on, and several young nurses were still cleaning up. Seeing her enter, they paused slightly and stepped aside.
Daisy Ginger walked over to have one last look at Alice Lesser.
She was just the same as usual, just as if she was asleep, only with messier hair than usual, her face serene.
Daisy Ginger stood carefully under the shadowless lamp, looking at the woman’s face in front of her, and realized she no longer resembled the vibrant, beautiful woman in her memory.
Sickness had tortured her into looking like a frail fifty-year-old woman. From her pale face, it was no longer possible to see the beauty that once captured the whole city, Alice Lesser.
She always thought, once Alice recovered, she could get better.
But in reality, once Alice went insane, she could never be well again.
She never intended to wake up.
If she hadn’t gone mad, perhaps she would have long ago ended her life in this world.
The most beautiful and most fragile woman, born for love, also died for love.
"I kind of hate you."
She reached out, tidying her disheveled long hair, lowered her eyes, and said.
"You knew how hard I worked for our future, yet you still chose to leave me."
"But, you are also the smartest."
Daisy Ginger sighed lightly.
"You knew long ago that there was no way for us to go back to the past, didn’t you?"
"No matter how hard I try, what’s lost will never come back."
"You knew this long ago, didn’t you?"
Daisy Ginger’s voice trembled slightly.
She choked, speaking softly, "Since you had made your choice long ago, why didn’t you tell me earlier, leaving me all alone, too selfish."
Her tears fell on Alice’s lifeless face.
And then she wiped them away with her hand.
Daisy Ginger shed just one tear, quickly regaining her composure.
The white cloth was pulled up, covering Alice’s silent face.
Daisy Ginger softly said, "Take her away."
The nurse came over and pushed Alice away.
Daisy Ginger stood alone in the operating room for a moment, then took steps to slowly walk out.
By the door, stood a woman.
Daisy Ginger paused her steps slightly, lifted her head to look at the woman.
"Daisy..." The woman’s gentle face was already red from crying; she stood there cautiously, calling her name.
Daisy Ginger said, "What are you doing here?"
Lady Stephens cried, "I just got the news..."
Daisy Ginger: "It’s got nothing to do with you."
"Daisy..."
"Put away your crocodile tears," Daisy Ginger interrupted her, her tone slightly mocking, "You cry for her now, but does she know that her once-best friend deceived her daughter her entire life?"
Lady Stephens turned pale; she must have already known that Daisy had gotten the truth, which is why she had not dared to contact her for so long.
"You and your family ganged up to bully a woman like me." Daisy looked at her, "You still have the face to cry in front of me?"
Lady Stephens cried, "Daisy, I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry..."
Daisy Ginger’s eyes too turned slightly red, "I will not forgive you. Not in this lifetime."
She pressed her lips together tightly, not giving her another glance, and walked out.
Behind her, she heard Lady Stephens wailing in utter breakdown, but Daisy did not look back, leaving the hospital directly.
She returned to her car, sat in a daze for a while. Alice’s death surprisingly didn’t strike her as hard as she imagined; she was more composed than she thought.
She even drove out, ate a meal by herself.
Until the funeral home called, asking when she planned to cremate Alice.
The speed at which one disappears from this world is truly too fast.
Soon, the woman who lay on the hospital bed, would turn into a handful of ashes, to be buried in the cemetery.
Actually, for Alice, whether on the bed or in the grave, there wasn’t much difference.
Her spirit had long perished, death was a form of liberation.
And for her, it was merely that the place to visit Alice had changed.
Yet she didn’t know why she suddenly lost interest in everything in the company, the nearly bankrupt Gingers, the mountain of files piling up on the desk, the plummeting stocks, and the dwindling equities in her hands.
The object for which she worked hard was gone.
She would never wake up again.
She’s dead.
So this was the feeling of Alice being gone.
Daisy Ginger, with eyes closed, leaned back in the car seat, feeling listless, without strength.
Finally, she settled with the funeral home to cremate Alice the next day.
She always thought, Alice probably didn’t want her body to be kept cold like this, she should have longed to completely vanish.
*
The day Alice was cremated, Daisy went alone.
She chose a rather delicate urn to hold Alice’s ashes.
Only a small urn, not even filled completely.
When Daisy wrapped the urn, she suddenly felt Alice was merely staying by her side in another way.
She sat on a bench in the funeral home, holding the not so heavy, even a bit light urn, in a daze.
In the spring where grass and trees grow, even beside the funeral home, there were crisp bird calls.
Alice passed away on such a bright and beautiful spring day, Daisy thought, it was pretty nice, Alice used to love going to the lake to sketch during spring, spring was her favorite season.
She’d find a gravesite by the hills and the water, to bury her there, Alice would like that too.
She had never liked the big city anyway.
Daisy was planning her future in her mind, not noticing a tall figure approaching her slowly.