“... What?” I said.

I tried to recall my memories of reading the novel. Was it mentioned that Jaxon went to the same school as Emma? Again, Jaxon was a minor character in the novel, appearing in Book Three, so little was revealed about him.

It was also possible that my memories of the novel were incomplete. In fact, it was a miracle I remembered the amount I did at that moment.

“Why do you look shocked?” Jaxon asked me. “You’re acting like you got amnesia or something.”

I didn’t say anything to that.

“Jesus Christ,” Jaxon echoed. “You actually have amnesia?”

There was no way I could try to fool the guy, seeing that he had an idea of how the original Emma acted. I had no option but to nod in agreement, because he was bound to know something was amiss if I tried to act as the original Emma.

“Damn. What happened to you?” he asked again.

At that moment, concern began to develop. Sure, I wasn’t Emma, and I was definitely not planning to go through what Emma went through in the novel. But, was it possible that certain events in the novel would come to pass whether I liked it or not? Jaxon's presence made me think that way because he mentioned attending the same school as Emma. The school where the majority of the novel's events took place. So in a way, was the novel trying to tie me down?

‘No, wait. Stop it. You’re overthinking things,’ I told myself, urging myself to calm down.

“You do know I can find out what happened to you from the nurses, right?” Jaxon then said.

“I’m surprised you haven’t yet,” I grumbled under my breath.

“What was that?”

“Can’t you learn to respect people’s privacy?” I said instead.

“I can try, but everyone I know usually tells me I’m a nosy person. In this case, you can understand why I’m pressing for answers, right?”

I was dressed in a hospital gown, with gauze covering certain areas of my body and an IV attached to one of my wrists. Remembering my current state, I could see why the guy was acting the way he was.

“Will your father come visit me?” I moved to ask, wanting to talk about something else.

“I doubt it. He’s away on a business trip.”

I felt relieved at that. I wasn’t ready to see him yet, because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see him at all.

“As usual, he doesn’t have time for family, only work–”

“Uh huh, sure. How long are you going to stay here?” I cut off whatever Jaxon had started to say.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged.

“You don’t know?”

“I just got here,” he pointed out.

“Technically, you’ve already come to visit me. You’ve seen me, you know how I am doing. Isn’t that good enough for your dad?”

Jaxon nodded along with my words.

“Wait. Are you trying to chase me out?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

Jaxon stared at me for a while without saying a word.

“You know what, you’re right,” he relented, much to my surprise. “I was busy, you know. I had plans. Plans to go to Morocco, then Spain, Hawaii later…”

I didn’t respond to that.

“Then this happens,” Jaxon thrust his hand towards me. 

I didn’t respond to that either.

“And honestly, it’s kind of sudden and overwhelming. I’ve never stayed in a hospital to care for someone before," he admitted.

I did not expect to hear that from him. But before we could delve further into that, a ringing sound came from his pants.

“Oh!” he said, taking out his phone. “One moment.”

He then left the room, leaving me to be alone again.

I sighed, contemplating what to do with the new developments.

Again, I was not expecting to interact with any of the other characters in the story right after dealing with Alice and James. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

At least it wasn’t Maddox.

Still, I needed time to think about how to handle Jaxon. He didn’t seem to exude the air that surrounds a typical mean male lead. He also didn’t seem to have an aura that told me he was close to Maddox. So I could trust him a little.

More importantly, so far, it was just him, and I hoped to keep it that way for as long as possible.

I wasn’t sure if my attempt of getting Jaxon to leave me alone worked, because the next thing I knew, the medication I was being fed through the IV started making me sleep.