SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Twenty-Eight: All-In
Chapter Twenty-Eight: All In
MAXIMILLIAN BISMARCK never dreaded a day in his life before.
Erin and Maine’s sobs filled the hallway of the surgical wing of Sutton City General Hospital. His face was pale and his fingers trembled while he paced back and forth.
George suffered minor injuries in the car crash. It wasn’t his driver’s fault to encounter a drunk driver, nor was it Hyacinth’s fault for running away.
He blamed himself for that.
Max could hear his sister consoling Erin but his kid wouldn’t stop. Jean Baden-Rodriguez sobbed in her husband’s arms as they waited in the waiting area near the surgical room where Hyacinth currently is.
The hospital reeked of medicine and sickness. The dimmed lighting in the hallway only highlighted the dreadfulness he felt deep in his chest. The feeling crept into his veins like poison and Max didn’t have the energy to fight it. for the first time in his life, he relinquished control of his emotion and let them flow.
Erin is still with them. That means that the baby is fine. Hyacinth would be fine, wouldn’t she?
He struggled to breathe and he loosened his tie for that. As if for an instant, everything felt suffocating. Max began to take a sharp breath, hoping that it would ease the pain and suffocating pressure in his chest, but instead, a tear found its way down his cheeks. He gasped one more time just to feel the well of tears started overflowing from his eyes. He cursed and cursed under his breath as he grabbed a fistful of his hair to at least lessen the misery.
Maine walked towards him and held his hands. “Max, it was not your fault. Haya and George got involved in an accident. They’re in the wrong time and place.”
“If I didn’t push her away, Maine, then none of these wouldn’t have happened.”
“You’re right. It was all your fault.” A baritone voice interrupted the Bismarck siblings’ conversation.
Max turned his head to the familiar voice from the surgical wing’s entrance. It was Philip Mayers.
“You’re a jerk. You knew it was an accident.” Maine started her tirade as she approached the man. “If you’re here to make everything worse than it already is, then get out.”
Philip didn’t budge at Maine’s statement. He just threw a condescending look at the young woman and completely ignored her by averting his gaze to her brother’s.
Maine pulled the man away from Max. “I won’t have you here and blame my brother for something he didn’t do. Get out!” she commanded, her eyes shooting daggers at Philip Mayers.
That somehow earned his respect, for he faced Maine with sincerity this time. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with your brother.” Philip gently tugged Maine’s hands off of his arm. “If you want your brother to emotionally recover, then I need to speak with him.”
Maine assessed his face before nodding with reluctance. She allowed the detective to approach his brother. “May I speak with you, Bismarck?”
Max shook his head. “I’ll wait for Hyacinth. The doctors—they’re doing a procedure. I want to be here.”
Jean noticed the shivering of Max’s body so she implored her boss to go with Philip to the waiting room so that they could talk in private. Jean hoped that Maximillian will found solace in one of Hyacinth’s friends. The man looked terrible with his weary facade and pale skin and he almost looked like he was one step away from insanity.
Hyacinth, how did you manage to destroy Max’s defenses? I’ve never seen him this broken. Your death will be the end of him. Jean wanted to tell her friend that.
Max took a seat on the connecting plastic chairs in the waiting room. Philip casually sat beside him like they were old friends.
“I want to tell you a story about Hyacinth. The day I found her and the day everything didn’t make sense.”
Max stood up immediately. “You’re wasting my time. I need to make sure she’s safe.”
“What can you do, Bismarck? You’re not a doctor. You must accept that, sometimes, things are out of control. You can’t just bend the laws of nature to your will like what you did with people.”
Maximillian didn’t have the energy to argue with the man so he slammed his back on his seat once again.
Philip continued, “Hyacinth hitchhiked when she waved at my car a few years ago. She was starving and homeless, so I let her in.”
Max imagined the boney facade of Hyacinth and the scenario that Philip described. He felt a pang in his chest. She had been struggling after running away from her abusive home and endured the cruelty of the world to fend for herself. She was homeschooled, for crying out loud! What’s worse was that her parents only taught her how to use her ability properly.
Max had recalled that Hyacinth didn’t even finish high school according to her school records he unearthed from Wiltshire—her hometown—so she struggled to make ends meet when she ran away from home.
“Hyacinth hopped into my car and reached for my back like a lunatic. I thought she was mad for doing so, especially if I was a stranger.” Philip scoffed. “I might be a serial killer!”
Max knew that Hyacinth reached for Philip’s back because she needed to know if Philip can be trusted; she can get all the information she needed by touching the detective’s thread.
“And, immediately, she confessed about her abilities and how she could help me with my job if I let her. Of course, I had a hard time believing her but your wife knew that I’ll eventually believe her. I didn’t know she gathered every information about me just to make sure that I can be trusted.”
Maximillian remembered the first day he had met Hyacinth. It was the day he also met his daughter from the future. He vividly recalled how Erin introduced herself to him without reservations, just like how Hyacinth introduced herself to Philip Mayers.
His daughter was right. Erin might be his replica in physical appearance but she thinks and acts exactly like her mother.
“Hyacinth is a fighter, Max. She always has been. Once she gave you all of her trust, she’ll want you to do the same. For gamblers, they call it ‘All in’.” Philip met his gaze. “And I think you had your reservations about her. Maybe you told her about the overwhelming feelings that have been bothering you. She mistook your meaning and probably thought that you didn’t reciprocate her devotion to the marriage.”
“I am devoted to her-”
The detective cut him off before he could finish.“You are devoted, yes, but you’re stopping yourself from completely wanting her like the very air you breathe. Do you think I don’t recognize the look on your face every time Hyacinth is within your vicinity? I was ridiculously in love once, Bismarck. I recognize a fool in love when I see one.”
Philip chuckled and looked ahead of him as if he were seeing the images in his mind right before his eyes. “You practically salivate like a dog whenever she’s near, yet you have this-” Philip emphasized a wall-like structure by waving his hands in the air. “-barrier, almost like a shield against her every time. You were so afraid that she might find a chink in your armor and penetrate it, not knowing that she already did.”
Max hated to admit that he had been a fool but he was talking to a senior detective who spent most of his years noticing tiny details and information he stumbles upon.
“I think you guys argued when you realized the power she held over you. A fool like you attempted to rebuild and reinforce your defenses with hopes that it might not be too late to shield yourself from the overwhelming shits that come with falling in love.” Philip raised his hands as if surrendering, “I did that once and, hey, look how lonely I am. I’m thirty-one and the love of my life married someone else because I was once a fool. It was a different woman, not Hyacinth.”
“How is this supposed to make me feel better?” Max desperately wanted to return outside with his family while waiting for the result of the operation.
His heart died every time he thought that Hyacinth might be fighting for her life on a surgical table.
“The thing is...Hyacinth is a fighter. She’ll never give up her life on that table no matter what. And, if she wakes up, I want you to destroy the fucking barrier you built between the two of you.”
“And do you think I’ll listen?”
Philip stood up. “You’ll lose her forever if you don’t, Bismarck.” The man headed to the door and before he twisted the doorknob, he said, “Trust her with your everything, Max, because Hyacinth already trusted you with hers. She’s the kindest woman I know and the last thing she’ll ever do to you is shatter your heart of glass into pieces.”
Max was uncomfortable with the advice coming from Philip Mayers but he was too tired to complain. He’s not a man that usually agrees with someone but he can’t deny that Philip made an excellent point.
Hyacinth will never hurt someone.
What has entered his mind? Why didn’t he trust her for a little bit?
The thing about regret is that it always comes after you already messed things up.