CHAPTER 4: A STRANGER IN THEIR HOUSE

Her grandmother hurriedly came out and opened the gate.

"Coming! Why are you so late?" Grandma greeted her, but her eyes immediately went to the man she was struggling to support.

"Jesus, who is he?" Grandma asked as she assisted them in getting inside.

"I'll tell you later, he needs medical help and doesn't want to go to the hospital. He has a gunshot wound, grandma." Zarina said in a panic.

Martha immediately helped her bring the man inside the house and laid him down in Zarina's room.

"He can stay here temporarily in your room, Zarina. Undress him immediately. I'll get the apparatus to remove the bullet from his body," Grandma instructed and left the room.

She swallowed hard as she leaned forward to undress the man. "Permission to undress you, sir," she said. 

"I hope you won't mind if I undress you. Besides, I asked for permission," she added in a hushed tone.

She successfully removed the man's clothes and noticed the label on his suit. 

"EleganceEra," the brand name of the clothing line she worked with. 

"It's a limited edition and expensive. Maybe he is one of the loyal customers of EleganceEra," she whispered.

Her eyes lingered on the man's body; his strong chest and abs were exposed. But what caught her attention was the gunshot wound on his side. 

'Oh no! That must be painful. That's probably why he lost consciousness so quickly, because of the blood loss,' Zarina whispered.

The door to her room suddenly creaked open loudly, and her grandma entered with a basin, a white cloth, and medical apparatuses.

"I'll take care of this, Zarina. You go and take a bath now. You're completely soaked, and you might get sick if you keep wearing those wet clothes," her grandma advised.

She nodded and headed inside her bathroom. After a few minutes, she changed quickly and returned to her room. She found her grandma applying bandages to him. It appeared that her grandma had finished attending to his wound.

"Grandma," she called to her grandmother. Her grandma spared a short glance at her but said nothing. 

"How is he?" she asked.

Her grandma took a deep breath before answering, "Hmm... he's doing fine now. He lost consciousness due to the blood loss, but don't worry, I have medicines that will help him heal. By the way, what exactly happened, Zarina?" Grandma inquired as she gathered her belongings.

She quickly recounted the incident to her grandmother. "That's what happened, grandma. He also mentioned before he passed out not to take him to the hospital. It could be someone from his business circle or an enemy who did this to him," she explained to her grandma.

Grandma nodded, "Ah, I see. Well, it's good that you found him and helped him. Poor young man," Grandma remarked as she observed the man's sleeping form.

"It's an incredible feeling to save someone's life, grandma. I feel like I've done one of the best things in life. Seeing him safe now brings me immense joy," she said cheerfully.

"Good to hear that, honey. You did the right thing. Just keep it up," Grandma said, a gentle smile gracing the corners of her lips.

****

The first rays of morning sunlight filtered through the curtains, casting a warm, inviting glow into the room. 

Draymond squinted his eyes, sensing the sunlight hitting his face, and the pain on his side surged once again.

"Ouch!" he groaned in pain, clutching the injured part of his body.

He slowly moved around on an unfamiliar bed, blinking rapidly to clear his vision.

'Where am I?' 'he silently asked, his eyes scanning the room, trying to recall what had happened.

"Don't take me to the hospital, miss," memories flashed in his mind as he vividly recalled his plea to the woman who had helped him.

"Right, that woman did help me," he mumbled as he tried to sit up.

As he scanned the room, he noticed that it exuded a cozy atmosphere, decorated with tasteful feminine items, hinting that it belonged to a woman.

Gradually recognizing his surroundings, Draymond's heart raced with the realization that he wasn't in his meticulously organized and orderly home. Panic began to well up inside his mind.

The room appeared as an unsolvable puzzle to him, filled with unfamiliar furniture, colors, and textures that clashed with the meticulously arranged environment he had always maintained inside his mansion.

"What am I going to do? I want to change and fix everything I see." His obsessive-compulsive tendencies kicked in, and the words repeated inside his head like a sing-song whisper. Yet, he also yearned to calm himself down.

A torrent of intrusive thoughts and compulsions flooded his mind. The compulsion to straighten a crooked picture frame, the urge to align the books on the shelf, and the overwhelming anxiety of being in an unfamiliar and disorderly place consumed his thoughts.

His breathing quickened, and sweat beads formed on his forehead as he struggled to contain the rising panic. He couldn't leave things as they were but couldn't bring himself to act on his compulsions, not in this strange place. He felt trapped, torn between the chaos in his mind and the reality of his surroundings.

"I should not fix things that I don't even own. Plus, I'm so exhausted, and my body hurts," he said, feeling weak and utterly drained.

Just as his anxiety threatened to consume him, the door to the room swung open, and time seemed to slow down as their eyes met.

'She's beautiful.' he thought to himself. 'She had a straight nose, long eyelashes, and chocolate-colored waves cascading down her back.'

The room seemed to brighten as if a goddess had entered.

"Grandma, he's awake!" Zarina shouted. 

Grandma hurried into the room.

"Why are you shouting so loud? Even the crows outside are flying away to escape your deafening screams. Fix yourself, Zarina; you're not acting like a lady," Grandma scolded her upon entering.

Zarina pursed her lips, clearly upset that her grandmother scolded her again.

Draymond remained silent, trying to calm himself down.

"Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling? Are you okay?" Grandma asked, approaching Draymond, who was sitting on the bed.

Draymond nodded, his voice caught in his throat. He wasn't used to people seeing him like this, vulnerable and disordered.

"Are you okay?" Grandma asked again. 

'Hmm, something seems off about this young man. He appears anxious and out of sorts, his body trembling,' Grandma pondered.

Zarina sensed his discomfort and took a step closer. 

"I found you in Hudson River Park last night. You were in bad shape. Your car accidentally fell into the river, so I swam to get you. But I wonder why you have a gunshot wound. When I put you on the riverside, I couldn't leave you there," she explained.