"What do you mean? Like, you threaten my mum to give her your money?"
"No."
"But...?"
He clasped my hands rather tenderly and said, "Before I answer, I want you to know that I am always here for you."
My eyes rolled. But the man was not even bothered by my childish and petty behaviour. Instead, he shook my hands firmly, trying to make me focus on what he had to say.
"I need you to know that your reaction will be understandable. It happened the first time and it also happened the other two times."
'Yeah yeah,' was what I could sarcastically muttered under my breath. Considering the past days that I have known him, I simply assumed this was another tactic he did to slowly change the topic.
"I also want you to know that you will have a hard time believing me. So take deep breath and prepare to hear the worst, okay?"
"What's worse than worst when my life is already below the rock bottom pits?" Although those words were spouted by my own lips, deep down I know I could never get used to the constantly negative and dramatic changes.
My hands reflexively clenched against his and my feet shook like a mechanical rabbit toy hopping about, not realising my body recognise my nervousness long before I did.
"I threatened her when I realised she had never come to visit and care for you."
"What do you mean?" It was not an answer I was expecting at all. Was he inferring that he did it for my sake? If so, why?
"I paid the compensation money hoping you would be well taken care of."
I heard him the first time. Same meaning, different wording. I just could not understand why. "Do I know you?" I blurted out. That had to be only explanation. Or maybe... "Or you know me?"
"I don't think so. Your name doesn't ring a bell and I have never seen your mum at all."
"So you're saying we are two complete strangers who married each other one month after the accident??"
"Yes."
"But why??? How did it happen?"
"It's normal for feelings to develop after spending too much time together."
Weird... I don't think I fall in love that easily. Wait no! That was not it.
"We are two complete strangers who never met each other before the accident, then according to the marriage certificate, we got married a month after that. Also, I know for a fact that I was in a month-long coma..." I recapped to myself, my eyes once in a while darted in his direction to fish for his reaction. "And you paid compensation to my mum in less than a week. When did you say you found out my mum never visits?"
"Two weeks after," he said without skipping a beat. His answer felt rehearsed yet at the same time, I could understand if it was not. After all, this was his third experience in the situation. His chilled manner made it even harder to gauge if he was telling the truth or a lie.
"Right... That means three weeks has passed. And the week after I wake up—"
"It wasn't exactly one month coma," he interjected, remaining as cool as a cucumber while ruffling through the drawers.
"No. But the nurse said it was a month..." I eyed him suspiciously, trailing my voice behind waiting for his response.
"Yes, if I was a caring nurse, I would give a simple answer as that than get technical. Eventually you did talk to a doctor," he said and handed me a white folder containing all the medical records. The first page revealed my hospital discharge containing all the relevant information from the moment I was treated as a victim of car accident.
As I skimmed through the paperwork, I still could not get the timeline right. Either that or something fishy was going on.
"But I still don't get it," I voiced out my suspicions. "Here it stated I woke up from the coma on the thirtieth of July but we are legally married on the eighth of August? Do you know how many days that is?!"
"Yes."
At this point, I was beginning to suspect he straight up avoid lying by stating truths with omissions.
"Aaaand how many days is that?"
"Almost two weeks."
"What a stretch! That's nine freaking days! You're telling me we developed feelings in nine days??"
"It may be absurd but time is relative."
I groaned at the sound yet ridiculous excuse he gave. "Nine days?! How are you not as surprised as I am? It's not even nine days if we deduct the times when I could not communicate!"
Even if it was love at first sight, getting married in one week or so was just plain stupid and dangerous! I must have been barely conscious to even make a proper judgement. Right?
"I failed to see how I easily accepted the marriage, especially when we barely knew each other. I may be reckless but not THIS reckless!"
"I understand it sounds crazy but it takes two to tango. We are here now because we both agreed to be husband and wife."
My head thumped at the craziness of the situation, sending painful pulses to every nook and cranny in a rhythmic pattern. It simply did not add up.
I could not even think further and wanted to end the conversation. Then I realised I still have not receive a satisfying answer to my initial question.
"Pause!! What kind of threats were you making for her to easily trade me off for some large sum of money?? No, wait! Actually I wanted to know why you would make that threats if we were strangers."
"I put you in a coma. Of course I feel responsible of what happened to you."
"Okay, fair enough. Then, does that mean what you have for me was pity?"
He appeared pensive as he took his time to answer. My eyes squinted, as though I tried to squeeze the truth out of him.
"I would not say pity," he finally answered. "But it didn't matter anymore. We have moved on since then.
I stared at him with a gaped mouth. "Moved on?? Maybe you have, but not me! Just because that is your past, it does not mean I could not still be in the middle of this mess!"
"You know I don't mean to invalidate you—"
"But you have! And no, I don't know! How would I know whether you mean it or not? I don't even know you!"
My glaring eyes met his pained expression. His body slouched as he nodded his head in agreement to what I have said and excused himself out of the room.
His pace was slowed and his feet dragged heavily behind. It was only momentary but when he halted, I was preparing myself to run.
Do I feel sorry for what happened to him? Yes but my anger took control of all my rationale. Maybe if I was not all riled up, I would apologise for having a double standard and for invalidating his feelings.
After all, even a stranger deserves kindness.