From OT To Wheelchair: He Cried When I Boarded Chapter 06

From OT To Wheelchair: He Cried When I Boarded Chapter 06

The night was dark.

Half-conscious, I felt someone lift me off the ground.

A hoarse voice broke through.

“Zoe!”

“Don’t you dare close your eyes. Look at me!”

I forced my eyes open. Everything was blurred-blood, a face, familiar eyes.

“Ethan…”

I tried to say his name. Then everything went black.

When I woke up, I heard airplane engines.

I was strapped to a stretcher, splints on my limbs, monitors beeping around me.

The cabin was quiet except for the steady beep of machines.

Ethan sat beside me, still in his blood-stained clothes, eyes red.

“Where… am I?” My throat was so dry.

“We’re on a plane.” He leaned down and fed me a sip of water.

“Taking you overseas. The specialists there are better-for spines, for hands.”

“Already contacted the best doctors. You’ll go straight to the hospital when we land.”

I tried to move my legs. Nothing. My throat tightened.

“Ethan, am I never going to walk again?”

He paused.

“The doctors said there’s still hope.”

“If there’s even a one percent chance, I’ll make it happen.”

“You’re a surgeon. I know what your hands and legs mean to you. I won’t let you lose them. I

I promise.”

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a different hospital room.

Outside, an unfamiliar city. Foreign text on the walls.

Several foreign doctors stood by the bed, speaking to Ethan.

When I woke up, Ethan grabbed my hand.

“They examined you. The nerves in your legs are badly damaged, but not completely severed. There’s still

some response.”

“They’ll do decompression surgery first, then repair, then months of physical therapy.”

“Your wrist-the bone shattered, but they can save the joints and tendons. They’re flying in the best hand surgeon.”

“If there’s any hope at all, I’m not giving up.”

“I told them to use the best medicine and the best equipment to save you.”

“Zoe, don’t give up.”

Surgery after surgery. The lights turned on and off, on and off.

When I woke up, Ethan sat by my bed. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

Seeing me stir, he immediately leaned over.

“You’re awake. Does it hurt?”

“The surgery went well. Just keep up with rehab. You’ll get better.”

I shed tears of relief. The weight on my chest finally lifted.

At first, I couldn’t even sit up.

The therapist counted. “Hold the bar. Lift your leg.”

The first time I tried to stand, gripping the bar, I lasted three seconds.

My legs gave out. I went down hard.

Everything went black for a second.

Ethan shot up from his chair, looking ready to rush over.

But the therapist blocked him.

“Family stays back.”

“She needs to learn to fall. And get back up. On her own.”

I saw Ethan’s red eyes. He bit his lip until it went white. But he could only stand there.

I gritted my teeth and grabbed the bar. Inch by inch, I pulled myself up.

I smiled at Ethan. The tears in his eyes fell instantly.

That day, I fell seven times.

Ethan stood with his hands behind his back, nails digging into his palms.

By the end, he’d broken skin.

Later, when he changed the bandages, I saw his palms. Bloody crescents everywhere.

Something twisted in my chest. I said nothing.

Six months later, I walked from one end of the rehab room to the other. With crutches.

The room erupted in applause.

I turned. Ethan stood at the door.

He covered his face, shoulders shaking.

He rushed over and pulled me close.

His voice trembled, like he’d been holding back for so long.

“Zoe, I’m so sorry.”

“I should never have left you.”

“If I’d stayed, you wouldn’t have…”

He choked on his words.

His shoulders tensed, like he was barely holding it together.

“I didn’t want to leave. It’s just… I realized what I felt for you wasn’t brotherly anymore.”

“I was scared you’d think I was disgusting if you knew.”

“So I avoided you. Ran away overseas.”

He held me tighter, as if afraid I’d push him away.

“But when you got hurt, I almost went crazy.”

“When I got there and saw you on the ground, not moving, blood everywhere…”

“Right then, I thought-if you died, I didn’t want to live either.”

He pressed his forehead against my shoulder, voice barely above a whisper.

“Zoe, I’m sorry.”

“I’m not leaving again.”

“Never letting you go. Not ever again.”

My nose burned. Tears came all at once.

Ethan and I aren’t blood-related.

He was the child my stepfather brought into the marriage.

After our parents died in a car accident, it was just us.

Everyone said I was a burden and told him to abandon me.

But Ethan refused. He dropped out of an Ivy League school and worked odd jobs to pay my tuition. Every day

-work, cooking for me, walking me to school.

Everything changed when I started college.

I realized my heart would race whenever I saw him.

I’d get jealous watching him talk to other girls.

Those feelings were definitely not sisterly.

But before I could work up the courage, he announced he was leaving. Going overseas for work.

He packed fast. Left fast.

I thought he’d figured it out. That he was pulling away on purpose.

I never imagined he loved me too

I hugged him back.

“Ethan.”

I whispered softly, “It’s not your fault.”

He held me tighter.

“So… do you think I’m disgusting?”

I leaned against his shoulder, eyes stinging.

“No.”

“I couldn’t be happier.”

The air went still.

Then I heard him laugh, soft and relieved.

I turned to look at him. Tears in the corners of his eyes.

I thought leaving the country meant I’d never see Julian again.

One day, Ethan had a meeting. He asked a nurse to take me to a nearby mall, get some sun.

Inside, the heat was on full blast. People everywhere.

I was looking at my phone when the wheelchair stopped.

I looked up.

A familiar figure stood there.

He was thinner than I remembered. His suit hung loose on him.

Clean-shaven, but it didn’t hide how haggard he looked.

Julian froze. Then his eyes lit up.

He came at me like a man possessed.

“Zoe-”