Everlastingly Loving You - Chapter 55

Julia came bursting in, with Nicholas right next to her.

Sophia glanced at Louis, who mouthed, ‘Best of luck.’

Despite Julia’s usual tough front, she’d been dead worried. Her granddaughter had been unconscious for multiple weeks, who wouldn’t be?

Had she been allowed in the palace dungeons, she would’ve smote him herself.

Yet, it was thanks to Nicholas’ reasoning she hadn’t done so already.

Although Julia could’ve sworn Nicholas seemed just as furious if not more furious than her. Not that she had anything against his sentiment, of course.

Julia rushed to Sophia’s bedside.

“Move,” she said as she gently shoved Louis aside in order to see her granddaughter.

“You alright, dear?” She asked Sophia concernedly.

Sophia smiled reassuringly, “I’m perfectly fine, grandmere.”

“I’ve no inkling as to what happened, ‘is all,” Sophia admitted.

She was then filled in; she was told she’d been unconscious for two entire weeks, an effect of the poisonous bullet she’d been shot with.

The bulletproof vest she had worn under her gown had kept the bullet from piercing her skin entirely and injuring her further… but it was a mere bullet graze that’d been located where the thin material didn’t overlap her skin had given the poison a free entry to her system, hence her in a coma.

“Ah,” Sophia answered, pursing her lips.

“So it’s been two entire weeks,” Sophia said, nodding slowly.

“And I’ve been lying on this hospital bed,” she said timidly.

“I just wasted two whole weeks,” Sophia murmured.

“I should’ve stayed abroad,” she said, wanting to facepalm before she realized she had tubes attached to her right hand which were used to give her fluids and medicine.

“None of this would’ve happened,” she bit her lip, wondering when she’d be free.

She felt queasy by looking at the tubes alone. She gagged at a thought that popped in her mind.

She’d always resented going to the hospital, especially staying there. From the stench of disinfectant, to the IV bags and the metallic tang from stainless steel in the open air.

It was quite the relief for Sophia, being able to smell the light whiff of Nicholas’ musky cologne, even if it was from afar. That, compared to the horrid stenches that roamed the hospital.

She asked curiously, “When’s the earliest till I’m discharged from here?”

Nicholas answered, “Not anytime soon.”

Sophia blinked.

She then requested, “Grandmere, Louis, could I be left alone with Prince Nicholas?” She asked.

Louis and Julia didn’t see why not. They left briefly, that was, after Louis shot Nicholas a dirty look before leaving both him and his sister on their own in the suite.

“So,” Nicholas said uneasily.

“So,” Sophia retorted, her tone softer than usual.

“You alright?” Sophia asked, rendering Nicholas speechless and slightly confused.

Why was it her asking him that question?

“I should be asking you that,” he quipped in return.

Sophia said quietly, “And, thanks for the flowers.”

Nicholas nodded gravely. It was the least she deserved.

In fact, he desperately wanted to apologize to her; he was why she was in a medical institution in the first place, it was only fitting he did so.

And yet, it wasn’t him who apologized first.

“And… I’m sorry,” she apologized.

“For nearly getting you killed,” she said, taking sudden interest in the suite floor.

She had set aside her ego to give Nicholas the apology he deserved, one that’d been long due.

Nicholas didn’t comprehend what exactly Sophia was apologizing for. She’d done nothing that needed apologizing for.

“What’s there to apologize for?” Nicholas asked.

He seemed furious. He then insisted there was simply nothing to apologize for.

Sophia remained silent. In her eyes, there was.

She was being too hard on herself, as she always had been.

She held herself responsible for nearly getting Nicholas shot.

Perhaps if she hadn’t asked to take a stroll in the palace gardens…

Perhaps if she hadn’t decided to join him in Sanguis…

Or, if she hadn’t met Nicholas in the first place…

She wouldn’t be burdened with guilt, nor would she feel what she was currently feeling.

Sophia Windsor didn’t deal with guilt well, she never did.

What she didn’t anticipate though, was Nicholas’ reaction.

She thought he would’ve basked in the splendor of being apologized to by Sophia, or respond with a witty quip, yet that wasn’t the case.

Be that as it may, she blinked in confusion.

Nicholas had taken a seat on a chair located at one of the suite’s corners.

“You’ve no need to apologize,” he said, insisting once more.

“But-” Sophia began, protesting.

“No,” Nicholas interrupted.

“It wasn’t your fault,” he insisted, his voice emotionless and distant.

He seemed colder. Something had changed.

“Don’t apologize,” Nicholas insisted one last time, looking preoccupied, like something was bothering him.

Sophia raised both her eyebrows. She looked as beautiful as always, even whilst she was stuck in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown.

“Alright,” Sophia exhaled deeply, it was pointless anyway.

She laid on the bed miserably.

“I’m assuming you brought me here,” she told Nicholas.

Nicholas nodded grimly. Memories of what had happened that night flashed in his eyes.

He didn’t seem pleased to reminisce about them.

Sophia watched him from afar, he looked at her. None of them spoke, nor said a single word.

Were they sharing a moment, or were they both at a loss for words… it was something they couldn’t determine.

Nicholas broke eye contact. He cleared his throat.

He mumbled, “I’m just glad you’re alright, Windsor.”

Sophia resisted the temptation to ask him to repeat his sentence.

‘What was that?’ She nearly asked had the words not got stuck in her throat.

He’d brought her here, she wouldn’t have been alive had he not. Even if she despised being at the hospital, it was far better than dying on the pavement when she still had an entire life to live ahead of her, thanks to Nicholas.

“Same goes for you, Ambrose,” Sophia mumbled in response instead.