A Wrong Surrogate for the CEO-Chapter 103: Regained consciousness

Curtis’s eyes blinked open.

Rays of sunlight slithered into his eyes and blurred his vision, and he had to close his eyes again from how bright the light was.

When he eventually opened them, his eyes easily got used to the light. He tried to sit up, but he found out that he could not.

Not without disturbing the machines hooked into his body.

A frown creased his forehead as he looked around. Machines?

Why was he strapped to machines?

Was he at...the hospital?

Before he could find answers to any of the questions in his head, a door opened somewhere to his left, and his mother stepped in.

Lisa gasped when she saw that Curtis was awake. She rushed to his side, tears rapidly filling her eyes as she took him in.

"Oh my God. Oh my goodness. You’re awake. I can’t believe...oh my God. Thank you. thank you for coming back to me," she sobbed as she held his hand.

Curtis’s confusion deepened.

"What am I doing in a hospital? What happened?" he asked.

Lisa slightly pulled away from him.

"You don’t...you don’t remember what happened?" she asked. Curtis said nothing, only waited for her to talk.

Lisa sighed and rubbed her forehead. She gently lowered herself into the chair at his bedside and started to rub his hands.

"You...you got into an accident, my love," she said quietly.

And in her words, Curtis’s memories rushed back. He remembered taking Lara on a date to Paris. He recalled how they had taken a walk after the breakfast they had, how she had wanted to eat corn dogs on their drive home.

Curtis remembered the sensation of getting hit by a car, flying through the air as pain dragged him into the pits of unconsciousness.

If he had gotten into an accident, then his wife must have been worried sick.

Curtis started to sit up again. His mother stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You can’t sit up now, love. You need to stay that way. I’ll go and get you a doctor. You’ve been unconscious for a while and I think you need to...just let me go and get a doctor."

Her words filtered into Curtis’s brain, and his heart slowed down.

"How long have I been unconscious?" he asked. Lisa stopped walking towards the door and turned to face him.

"You’ve been in a coma for two months, Curtis," she said softly.

Curtis sprang into a sitting position. Two months?

He had been lying in a bed, immobile and unconscious for two months?

Panic wafted into his body. If he had been out for that long, Lara must have been so scared.

Horrified, even.

"Where is my wife? Did she go out to get something?" he asked, and a shadow fell on Lisa’s face immediately as the question slipped past his lips.

She turned away from him and walked briskly towards the door.

"The doctor will be here as soon as I tell him you’re awake," she said curtly and was about to walk out of the room when he spoke again, halting her steps.

"I asked you a question. Where is my wife?" he snapped.

Lisa turned back to face him, and there was a sad but determined look on her face.

"She left you, sweetie," she said gently.

Curtis frowned at her. What the hell did that even mean?

"What are you talking about?" he quipped.

Lisa sighed and walked back to his bedside. "Honey, I think it is going to be better if we have this conversation when you’re feeling much better," she said.

Curtis raised his eyebrows at her but said nothing, waiting for her to talk.

Lara gave in.

"Fine. If you insist. Lara left you, Curtis. The moment the doctor said you were in a coma, she just turned around and...left. No one has heard from her ever since," she deadpanned.

Curtis snorted at her words.

"That’s impossible," he stated.

Lisa frowned at him.

"I am telling you the truth, Curtis. That woman left you," she insisted.

Curtis shook his head. "That is obviously a lie. Lara would never leave me," he stated firmly.

Before Lisa could say anything in response, the door opened and Laura stepped in.

Her eyes lit up when she saw her brother awake and speaking to their mother.

"Curtis! You’re awake!" she squealed and rushed to his side.

Curtis turned an expressionless face to his sister.

"Where is my wife, Laura?" he asked.

Laura’s face turned into the deepest shade of red, and she instantly looked away from her brother.

"She’s uhm...Lara is..." she stuttered, but she was unable to come up with a coherent sentence.

Suspicion and fear snaked down Curtis’s spine, and he turned to glare at his mother.

Something had happened to Lara, and no one was willing to tell him anything.

"What did you do to my wife, mother? What happened to Lara? Why the hell is she not here?" he growled.

Lisa crossed her arms over her chest.

"I did nothing! I did not do anything to that woman. I already told you the truth but you have obviously chosen not to believe me. She is gone!" she snapped.

Laura had inched away from her brother, suddenly wishing that she hadn’t walked in the moment she did.

Curtis was looking extremely pissed now, and a vein ticked in his forehead

He was about to lose his shit, and as he opened his mouth to speak, Laura desperately wished for sudden powers that would transport her away from the room.

Before he could say anything though, the door opened and a doctor stepped in.

The tension in the room was thick and almost visible, but the doctor was clearly oblivious to it.

He smiled at Curtis.

"Mr. Rodney. You’re awake. Good. I need to run some tests on you," the man said.

His English had a slight French accent to it, and it made a bad feeling settle into Curtis’s guts as he stared at the man.

Laura saw it the moment the pieces started to click in Curtis’s head.

"Doctor. Where am I? Which country are we?" he asked.

The man frowned and stared at him, slightly bewildered.

"What...what do you mean?" he asked.

Lisa quickly interrupted the doctor. "Don’t mind him. You know he just woke up from a coma so he is slightly... disoriented," she explained.

Curtis glared at the doctor.

"Answer the question, Doctor. Where are we?" he asked again.

"We are in France, Mr. Rodney," the doctor responded.

And Laura instantly knew that Lisa was in trouble.

Big trouble.