Chapter 36

She tried it on, and it didn't need anything at all, not any adjustments or any change of design. When she wore this dress, she sensed déjà vu and recalled that vision that she had in her home. She was clear, 'I saw myself that day!'. It was exactly the same dress. Although her description was not that grand, and she couldn't identify it until now. As they walked outside the boutique Catherine asked her, 'We have not decided on venue yet?'. 'When will you do that, we won't get any venue if we keep delaying like that!' remarked Nora. 'I am certain we will find a fine place for that! After all it is a private ceremony and wouldn't need a grand hall for that!' she replied. Cathie recalled something, 'Oh no! Johnathan will kill me! I had to join him in his office for the settlement with that cheat!'.

'Settlement! What sort of settlement?' Rosalie asked. 'Oliver wants to avoid court, such a coward! So, he will sign the agreement and divorce proceeding will just be accomplished without our formality of attending the court! Only solicitors will be handling the matter!' she told her. 'Alright, that is the good news! We will celebrate it! Come back as soon as you are done!' Rosalie said to her. 'I will be there in a blink!' she answered. She walked to Johnathan's office soon after Rosalie and Nora left for Scarlet Garden. 'Alright, I will be fine after that! This is the last time I will have to tolerate him!' she told herself. She entered Johnathan's private office and without glancing at Oliver sitting outside the office waiting for John to call him in.

He looked at her with disdain and she paid no attention to him. 'Hello, John! When can we start?' she asked. He phoned Emanuel to accompany him in. Oliver came in and before he could say anything non-sense. Johnathan gestured him to sit at the couch on the far side along the door as it would make Catherine uncomfortable if he had allowed him to sit beside her on the chair next to her, that faced Johnathan's desk. Emanuel was briefed by John about what needs to be done and he assisted Oliver. Catherine was helped by him in filling out the statements and signing the collective agreement. She cued him in gratitude, over his gesture of keeping him away from her. 'Alright, then Mr. Emanuel our job here is done! We must send them off to court and ask for a date!' Johnathan spoke. Emanuel requested Oliver to join him to his desk outside John's office.

He went out and stood near in the town square. He waited for Catherine and Johnathan to come out. They came out after a good hour or two and tried to avoid Oliver. But he stream-lined in their direction and took a pocket-knife from his pocket to attack Catherine. He succeeded in his attempt to stab the target, but it wasn't his desired one. He aimed at Catherine and Johnathan blocked her. The knife landed on his kidney and pierced his skin deeply. The blood started flowing in abundance, Johnathan was in pain, but he pushed him with his arm and kept a hand over his wound now. Catherine held her by the shoulders to balance him and Oliver went for another blow that landed on his stomach.

George saw what happened and as he could finish his job. He yelled at him, 'Officer, catch Oliver! He has stabbed somebody!'. Eliot was dinning with some of his colleagues in George's restaurant, he rushed to the window and followed as soon as he identifies it was John who was stabbed. Oliver stopped, looked around as he heard George's voice. He became alert and tried to escape the scene. Eliot landed a punch on his back as he faced him. He hit him a great deal in public. George carried Johnathan to the Clinic and admitted him. Eliot threw him in the jail and filled a report. Johnathan lost plenty of blood and was unconscious.

'John! Wake up! Please!' she pleaded glancing at him from the glass window adjusted inside the door.

The doctor told them, 'That the first twenty-four hours were crucial to him!'. As Richard was notified of the incident, he rushed to the hospital where Eliot waited with Catherine. Eliot advised George, not to tell Rosalie about John. 'But she has the right to know!' he told him. 'She needs to be with him no matter what follows!' said George Earl. Angie went to Scarlet Garden where Nora and Rosalie were chatting over tea in the dinning. She pushed the door in, and Anne-Marie was alerted to who it was, she stopped her and asked, 'Are you alright, Angie? What is the matter?'. 'It's John, he is hurt?' she told her. 'I need to tell Rosalie!' she told Anne-Marie. 'Wait, take a deep breath! And tell me how he is hurt?' she inquired. 'Oliver stabbed him, twice in his abdomen!' she responded.

Rosalie and Nora over-heard all of it. She dropped the cup she held and couldn't control herself. She rushed to Angie and screamed in agony, 'Where is he? Where is John?'. Anne-Marie held her as she was shivering with dread and her breath felt heavy. She panicked and felt her ears started ringing, and her head started moving in circles which blurred her vision. She couldn't hear a word they told her. Nora sat her down and Angie told her, 'He is in the clinic! He will be alright, just be patient!'. She repeated it to Rosalie who heard it after the third time Angie replied to her same muttering about John in half-conscious state.

Anne-Marie took her in her car to the Clinic and Catherine and the others waited outside the door. He was unconscious, lying lifeless with a sign of timid breathing that moved his chest. She leaned in close to him and held his hand, 'John, you must get up! You can't just leave me like this!'. Her heart felt the dreadful aura near him, it was unsettling. She identified it, and it intensified her fear, it was that of looming death. How she knew that, was the real question here. Her granny's diary which she read while she spends a month at home alone stated that how the forthcoming death is sensed, your heart fells burdened, and the shoulders feel a certain spasm that is different in depth and intensity. The sensation made her sick and drained, but she didn't leave his side even after a span of three days.

He was not awake even now. The doctors told them that Johnathan is in coma due to the excessive loss of blood and shock due to assault. His wounds were deep, and fluid entered his body through drips only. She didn't blink her eye even for a second and nor she left his side as she attended him. 'I can't continue living, John, without you! You must wake up for us! We have a marriage ceremony advancing!' she whispered to him. And she kept holding his hand and leaned over his bedside staring at him impatiently. She was so fatigued by now that when Catherine entered the room, she couldn't help but shed tears looking at them both. 'I am responsible for their misery!' she spoke to Eliot.

He took the flowers from her hand and placed the roses in the vase near, Johnathan. Eliot told her the doctors said, 'He may wake up in a month or remain like this for years! It is only three days how can we expect him to recover that soon!'. She brushed his hair off from his forehead to have a good look at his now pale face. 'I just want to see his glowing blue eyes once again! I can't bear to see him like this!' Cathie pleaded. He held her hand and she followed him out. Eliot comforted her by rubbing her shoulder gently. He told her, 'It was his fault! Don't you worry! I will make sure he is severely punished for it! And regret laying a hand on John!'. Catherine gestured in reassurance and said, 'Certainly! You will!'.

Rosalie woke up and saw Johnathan who now moved towards the window. There was a light that paved his way to where he went off to. Rosalie called him, 'John! Wait, you are injured! You must rest! Where are you going?'. She rushed after him and entered the intensely illuminated room, her eyes couldn't bear the light that now gleamed over her whole being. She shouted again and again, 'John ... .! Johnathan!'. She was in a desert with warm sand surrounding her as far as her could vision reach. Her feet burned and she couldn't tolerate the scorching sand that dried her throat. She held her throat in pain and she tried to call him again, she couldn't do that anymore.