Saving the Villain

"Bye."

Maxen waved Cosette from the front door, watching it speed away. A deep sigh slipped past his lips.

"She's so stubborn," he murmured, shoving his hand inside his pocket. "And cruel. Can't she just let me drop her off?"

Before the breakfast ended, Maxen kept insisting on dropping off Cosette to the school. However, she adamantly refused. It would be strange if it was others, but this was Cosette. At this point, he had grown used to how uselessly stubborn she could be at times.

Maxen shook his head mildly as he went back inside. Stopping by the door, he looked around the mess in the house.

"I want to stay with her all morning, so I cleared my morning schedule..." he grumbled, dragging his feet away back to the kitchen. He was planning to drop her off and perhaps tour the school she would be working in while he wait for lunchtime so they could have lunch together. But that plan was absolved even before it could start.

Knowing there was nothing to do, Maxen went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. He knew Cosette would wash it once she comes home. Hence, he already did so she could just rest a bit. Hiring a house cleaner wouldn't be a problem, but she adamantly wanted the two of them to decorate the house to their liking.

"I guess the perfect time to clean this house is weekends," he told himself, knowing Cosette wouldn't have to go to school during weekends.

Maxen already planned his week in his head, moving his schedule for today a lot earlier since his plan A failed. Once he finished washing the dishes, he felt a little thirsty.

Wiping his hands, he made his way to the fridge to get something to drink. But as he drank a glassful of water, he caught something from the corner of his eyes. His eyes slid to the corner, furrowing his brows.

"Hmm?" Maxen reached for the item in the egg storage, only to pick up a phone. Opening it, he instantly recognized it was Cosette's because the wallpaper was their wedding picture.

"Did she forget it here?" he wondered. "That's strange."

It was a strange place for a person to forget an essential item. However, Maxen blamed the fact that Cosette had been nervous days before her first day of school. She had myriads of what ifs such as 'what if they didn't like her?' and things like that.

"I guess she really was nervous." Maxen chuckled, gripping the phone to put it in a safe place. But just as he took a step, he halted. His eyes suddenly lit up as an idea suddenly crossed his mind.

"How would I contact her if she doesn't have her phone?" he asked himself dramatically, raising the phone before him. "I should bring this to her, right?"

The corner of his lips stretched from ear to ear until his teeth were showing. Mischief shone in his eyes before he excitedly marched away to deliver his wife's phone because that was what a good husband does.

******

Meanwhile...

Tak.

Tak.

Tak.

The repetitive sound of tapping, thumping, and other noises filled Cosette's ears. Each of these noises increased her anxiety, but she stayed still. Cosette took a deep breath, closing her eyes momentarily to keep herself calm.

Her reasoning to Maxen of why she didn't want to drop her off was because her destination wasn't the school. It was true that it was the first day of her work. However, she received a memo the other night, telling her she should come a bit later than she was supposed to.

'Please...' she prayed in her heart. '... give me good news.'

It had been seven years since Cosette returned in time. Around this time in her original life, she was already showing signs of her illnesses. So far, aside from the constant nose bleeding, Cosette didn't think she had other problems. Therefore, she scheduled a general checkup on a day no one would expect.

So while getting an MRI scan, Cosette prayed and prayed to hear good news. Although she wasn't putting her hopes up too much. All she prayed for was that it wasn't as worse as she thought it would be.

Cosette went through different check-ups without complaining, following the procedure perfectly. After the endless tests, she waited and waited until the nurse called her to see the doctor.

Sitting in front of the doctor's office, Cosette looked at the doctor with anticipation.

"About the result..." her quiet voice broke the silence while the doctor was checking the result of her MRI scan. "... how was it?"

The doctor slowly shifted his eyes back to her, putting down the results on the desk.

"Missus Cloven..."

*

*

*

Cosette sat quietly in the driver's seat of the car. Her hands were fixed on the steering wheel while her eyes were blank.

"Missus Cloven, I saw your CT scan and I'm afraid we need to conduct more tests..." were the doctor's words. When she heard those words from the doctor, her heart instantly sank because of how familiar those words were when she first heard the doctor's words in her first life.

"... we need to make sure... because you might have an early on-set dementia... but we cannot tell for sure because it might also be a different disease..." She could barely make up for what the doctor was saying as his voice sounded distant.

Cosette didn't need to listen to everything, though. She already knew what he would say, what tests needed to be done, and everything after that. Hence, she didn't take the time to listen to everything. Her mind just drifted, and she couldn't even remember how she got out of the doctor's office or how she drove to work.

"Why... are you disappointed, Cosette?" she asked herself listlessly. "It's not like you don't know this might happen. Although... it was a little early."

The corner of her lips curled up bitterly, forcing herself to smile. But alas, tears just rolled down her cheek, even if she sported a brave front.

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