Promise me

Gwen Lady McQuarrie, the first woman who became his best friend when he first set foot in the country he had lived in for eighteen years.

And it's been almost a year since Gwen has been suffering from leukemia, her disease was announced when her parents had just died in a traffic accident a year ago.

A blood cancer that could have been cured had Gwen not been an orphan maybe things would have been better, but even so, she is not a poor orphan girl because her parents were both rich and her grandfather was one of the most influential people in the world.

But unfortunately, until this moment, there is no suitable bone marrow for Gwen so she can only undergo regular treatment at the hospital recently her condition has weakened so she has to be hospitalized.

Gwen's condition makes William feel sad every time he meets Gwen because the joy she has slowly fades and is replaced with sadness.

"What are you thinking about?" William asked, he gently touched the back of Gwen's hand as he looked at her. It's been almost half an hour since he was in the VVIP room where Gwen was treated without a single sound or sentence being spoken from her mouth, she was silent and just stared blankly at the window.

"There isn't any," Gwen replied looking down sadly, but then slowly her eyes moved up to look at William.

"Will, what if I don't have much time to live?" she asked, her eyes only flashing a void filled with sadness as she looked at William, the man she had loved for so long.

"Don't talk like that, you'll be fine," William said encouragingly, he gently touched Gwen's cheek and rubbed it gently.

"Every second I always feel afraid, I'm afraid if I will die without seeing you." She said worried, she even started to shed tears now. The fear of her illness not only tortured him physically but also mentally, every time she felt like dying, the thought of William made her worse off. Gwen wants to live a long life but she can't fool herself if her body is in so much pain every second.

William sighed softly, his breath hitched every time he saw Gwen's health condition decline because Gwen always talked about death, and William could only hold the tightness in his chest and showed a smile to strengthen Gwen's "Don't say that, you have to live and grow old with me. You promised didn't you?"

While holding back his tears, William then took Gwen into his arms, but instead of calming down, Gwen started sobbing even more.

"But my body hurts more and more. It hurts so much as if I could die at any moment..."

"You will get better, don't ever dare to leave me. Remember you have to pay for everything you did to manipulate me all this time. You have to pay for it and live with me until you're old." Cut William firmly, his heart ached every time Gwen felt down like this. Death is the most painful goodbye and William doesn't want to feel it, especially if it's Gwen.

Gwen used to be a cheerful woman who always did anything to keep her attention focused on him.

Even though at first William was disgusted by Gwen's attitude towards him, which was sometimes so similar to Jackson who liked to manipulate him, once Gwen lost both of her parents, Gwen reminded him again of his former self who suddenly lost both of his parents which made him and his brother end up in an orphanage and now they even separated.

Gwen was alone, she was lost then the fact about her health made her even worse and that's when William got closer to her, being the only person who was always by her side and slowly the friendship turned into a love affair that had been knitted without Mark's knowledge.

A dilemma that trapped William, only that Gwen's condition was getting weaker made him have to put aside Mark's feelings which would be hurt if he found out about the special relationship between him and Gwen.

"I brought a present." William quickly wiped his tears before letting go of his arms and showing Mark's bracelet to Gwen.

"From Mark?" Gwen asked, slowly wiping her tears and smiling lazily. She already knew that the bracelet that William gave her was a bracelet made by Mark because Mark had often made accessories from crystal beads since he was a child, even though he was an adult he was still like a child, and that's what made Gwen don't like Mark.

William realized that Gwen looked disappointed and she also never wore the things Mark gave her and always just put them in his accessories pile, while Mark looked very enthusiastic this morning when he gave the bracelet to him.

Mark would be disappointed if he visited Gwen and Gwen wasn't wearing the bracelet she gave him, maybe Mark would cry sadly.

After thinking for a moment William finally answered with a smile "Do I look like Mark?"

"So you bought it?"

William nodded then grabbed the red bracelet and ate it on Gwen's wrist.

"The bracelet shines even more once it sticks to your fair skin." Praise him, don't forget to kiss the back of Gwen's hand gently.

Gwen's sad eyes sparkled when she looked at William's face, who was looking down and kissed the back of her hand, giving her a million warmth that made her aching body slowly feel much better, without feeling Gwen smiled and said a sentence of request to William. "Promise Will, promise me if I get better then we'll get married."

William raised his head and smiled, he couldn't answer Gwen's promise because he was afraid to be bound by a promise, because every time he has bound to a promise and a million reasons would prevent him from keeping the promise he made.

"You don't want to marry me?" Gwen asked the twinkle in her eyes slowly fading and the curve of her smile dropping.

"Of course, I would love," William replied, he smiled before hugging Gwen warmly again.

"I will only marry you."

Gwen's smile grew again, this time she hugged William tightly. "Your words, I will treat as your promise to me, Will."

William did not answer, he only responded to Gwen's words by kissing the top of his head, there was anxiety in William's heart, even though he tried to ignore it.

***

It was late, William deliberately waited until Gwen fell asleep before he came home.

William was just about to touch the doorknob of his room when Jackson called him and asked him to come into his study and without protest, William stepped into Jackson's study.

The door was firmly shut, William stepped through the bookshelves that rose almost to the ceiling.

Jackson's workspace also looks like a library that not only contains encyclopedia books and business strategy books but there are also several files of his giant company data.

A room with a thick warm element, unfortunately, the owner of the room has an icy heart at the North Pole.

"Have you received my file from me?" Jackson asked matter-of-factly.

"Already," William replied curtly.

"I was a little surprised to see that the candidate for governor, one of them or one of them was a young woman." He continued, there were three records that Jackson had sent to him earlier, a fifty-three-year-old man, a sixty-year-old woman, and one that surprised him a little, a twenty-four-year-old woman who looked very beautiful. Without realizing it, William smiled when he remembered how the young woman's pose was photographed which was attached to the biodata file that Jackson sent him, the woman looked more like an actress than a politician, or maybe the girl was forced to enter politics like herself.

"Roseline Cheruson," Jackson confirmed.

"That's right, she deserves to be a celebrity more than a politician," said William.

"She is indeed a superstar, she is dubbed the national first love." Jackson. Jackson then stepped up to William and touched his shoulder and said with certainty. "She is the woman you will marry."

.....