Chapter 2

On the third day after surgery, the bandages could finally be removed.

I sat on the hospital bed, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it might burst out of my chest.

The doctor carefully unwrapped the bandages, layer by layer.

"Try opening your eyes," the doctor said.

I slowly opened my left eye.

I saw nothing but darkness.

Utter darkness.

"Can you see anything?" the doctor asked.

I shook my head.

The doctor waved the flashlight back and forth in front of my face. "Any sense of light?"

I shook my head again.

The air in the hospital room felt like it had turned to ice.

Roderick stood off to the side, his face as pale as a ghost.

The doctor sighed. "The damage from the glass shards was worse than we thought. The optic nerve is damaged, and I'm afraid..."

"Afraid of what?" Roderick asked urgently.

"I'm afraid this eye may never recover its sight," the doctor said.

I rested my head against the headboard, staring at the ceiling with my right eye.

So this was what blindness felt like.

From this moment on, everything on my left side was shrouded by eternal darkness.

"There has to be another way," Roderick insisted. "Maybe a cornea transplant or some other surgery?"

The doctor shook his head. "The damage is too severe. Even a transplant probably won't help."

Roderick was about to say something more, but I cut him off. "That's enough."

"Leila..." Roderick started.

"I said enough!" I snapped. "Are you satisfied now? The 'surprise' Caitlin gave me. I've received it."

Roderick frowned. "What are you even saying? Caitlin didn't mean it!"

"Didn't mean it?" I sneered. "Then why was it the cake tray that shattered? And why was it my eye that got hurt?"

"What are you implying?" Roderick's voice turned dangerous. "Are you saying Caitlin hurt you on purpose?"

I looked at him, the man I had known for fifteen years, and suddenly he felt like a stranger.

"I didn't say anything." I closed my eyes. "Just leave."

"Leila—" Roderick started.

"I said leave!" I snapped.

Roderick stood there for a moment, then finally left.

The moment the ward door closed, I couldn't hold back anymore. Tears streamed down my right eye.

But my left eye couldn't shed a single tear.

Because it was already dead.

On the day I was discharged from the hospital, Roderick came to pick me up.

He held my arm carefully, afraid I might fall.

"Slow down, there are steps," he said.

I shook his hand off. "I can do it myself."

Losing the vision in my left eye had affected my sense of balance.

I stumbled and almost fell.

Roderick reached out to steady me. "Don't push yourself."

When we got back to the apartment, everything was just the way it used to be.

The coffee table in the living room was still stacked with my favorite magazines, and in the kitchen, there were all the snacks Roderick had bought for me.

But everything felt different now.

"You should rest. I'll make something to eat," Roderick said.

I sat down on the couch, looking around the place I had lived in for two years with my right eye.

Our photo was still hanging on the wall, and in it, I was grinning from ear to ear.

Back then, both my eyes were perfectly fine.

My phone buzzed. It was a message from Caitlin.