Eighteen Again: The CEO's Wife Was A Delinquent

Damien and his brothers went to visit the hospital three days after the incident. 

While his younger siblings may not be aware, he finds out that the suspect behind the car crash is none other the person he has been suspecting that whole night. He didn't expect that Edward would take his words seriously, but considering how grave the situation was and how much he tried to sound as believable as possible, he might have been convincing enough.

Even then, there is still something else that everyone doesn't know yet.

Other than Sophie, Damien has also seen a certain someone that time.

'I should tell Dad about it. For the past days, he was so busy in dealing with the aftermath of those events that he could not even go home. We barely ever saw him lately.'

At the moment, they are about to arrive at the private hospital room where Adrian is staying at. 

What they saw there was nothing short of what Damien expected. The place appears depressing and heavy with tension. Light subdued by the dull weather outside filtered through the windows in the room, giving it a gloomy feel.

Olivia sat on a chair, her face flushed and tear-stained as she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. Her eyes are glassy and swollen red, making her look so hunched and exhausted. Edward is sitting beside her with an arm around her petite shoulders and the other rubbing soothing circles on the top of her hand.

"Daddy! Aunt!" Hugo called as he ran towards them, already feeling like crying himself. 

Joshua follows after him to meet the adults. That is until both of them finally notice the patient they have mainly come to see. They stiffen on their spots at that very second, not really expecting how bad he would look like. 

Along with the myriad of strange smells are the beeping and bopping sounds that came at different intervals, forming these soft whirring noises that can be heard in the background. The smell of disinfectant and analgesic are not that strong but noticeable. There is a nurse who is rounding the bed in the middle of the room, looking at the machines and jotting down notes on a clipboard methodically.

Their eyes then fell on the unconscious figure on the bed - on the inert body dressed in a pale blue robe and sunken chest deep into pristine white sheets. His skin looks pale while his cheeks are flushed with sickness. A tube of sorts is attached to his mouth and connected to a ventilator at the side.

The great majority of his head is wrapped in thick, white bandages. All over him is a few more cables and tubes that are connected to his body in some way - on his chest underneath the robe and on his temples, tethering him to all the strange monitors around him.

Adrian is breathing slow, trembling a little with every try as if he is struggling to suck in even the simplest of breaths.

"Uncle... Bossman..." Joshua muttered in aghast shock and dread while Hugo started tearing up from beside him, prompting Edward to leave Olivia for a moment to comfort the toddler.

Unlike them, Damien feels more relieved than appalled. He had an idea of how severe the impact was since he was told that the vehicle had come bursting in with a mad speed. Any other normal person would have been dead by then.

At the very least, his uncle survived that. He is grateful that he gets to manage even though he is in a bad shape now. 

"Aunt Cassidy... Where is she?" Damien thought out loud, a bit taken aback after realizing his aunt's absence. 

"She went out for a breather. Had been here since last night. She barely ever left the hospital actually..." Olivia answered him before patting the seat beside her.

"You can sit over here for now, Damien. You can't be crowded there."

For some reason, he feels like she has softened up in a way. She appears approachable unlike before, and she even talks about Cassidy with no underlying tone. It's almost as if something changed about her. 

"Where is Grandmother?" he asked as he made his way to her and sat on the chair, letting his brothers take their turn to look at their uncle in the meantime. 

"With Irish. Like Adrian, she hasn't regained consciousness yet," she replied with a downcast gaze. 

"And how about our other relatives?"

"Will be here tomorrow or the next days."

"Including Great Grandfather?"

"Hmm...?"

Olivia is a sharp one. That's why when Damien suddenly brings up her grandfather as if cutting him out from their relatives on purpose, she can sense that something is bothering him. With that in mind, she decided to prod in the topic more. 

"Grandfather said that he is already on his scheduled flight today. So, he might arrive here tonight or the next day," Olivia continued while peering at her nephew through the corners of her eyes.

"He was still abroad?"

"Yes. That's right." 

At that, Damien pales and starts biting his lower lip, suddenly looking greatly disturbed.

---

"You're all alone."

At that all-too-familiar voice, Cassidy perks up and turns around in surprise.

For a while now, she has been all by herself in one of the balconies at that hospital - with the dark, rolling clouds and dreary ambiance keeping her company the whole time. That is until someone appears from behind her all of the sudden. 

Right then, her dead, hollow expression has been replaced by another emotion for the first time in three days. Her eyes widen while her jaw drops a little in surprise.

"Asher..." she breathed out, not expecting an old friend's arrival.

"So, it really is you, Asher."

While Cassidy continues staring in disbelief, Asher only smiles and walks closer to her. He could tell that she wasn't crying, which he knew was much worse than when she was. That means she has been bottling all her emotions up again, and it always leads her bursting out at the wrongest time - at the time when she would be catching all the pains on her own. 

Ever since they were little, she has always been like this. 

"Sorry. I didn't get to see you any sooner than this, Cassie..." Asher started before slowly wrapping his arms around her and pulling her in for an embrace.

"It had been a while. I missed you."

"You dummy, I thought you guys had already kicked the bucket or something!" Cassidy huffed with a brittle tone, lightly slamming her head on his shoulder and repeating it over and over again.

"Oh, come on. When did missing in action become equal to biting the dust? Idiot."

"It has been six years since I last heard from you, after all."

"Six years? Cassie, it's already been fourteen years."

Baffled by her strange estimation, he pulls away from the hug and takes a look at her again. She only blinks in puzzlement before eventually recalling that she has lost memories.

"Oh, right! It is, it is. I totally forgot," she feigned laughter and rubbed the back of her neck.

"You're acting weird. What's up?" he flatly pointed out, squinting his eyes in suspicion.

"I just said I forgot, dude. I've got amnesia during a plane crash months ago-"

"Wait, what?!"

Utterly in shock, Asher jolts and looks at Cassidy with wide eyes.

He had no idea at all. While he did learn about the plane crash - which was exactly why he risked returning to that country and showing up again, he did not know that she lost her memories. Hearing that made him livid. It got his blood boiling more than ever before. After all, this could only mean that she also forgot some essential details of their tragic past that he could not even bear retelling her. 

"Since you thought it was six years and you still knew me, was it retrograde amnesia...?" Asher trailed off with a scowl marring his frame while she only nodded in reply.

"And I get that your current memories had you believing that you're still eighteen?" 

"Well, don't worry. I know that I'm supposed to be twenty-six-year-old already..." Cassidy said with a shrug before noticing how his expression contorted into a distressed one.

"Hmmm...? What's wrong, Asher?"

"Everything! Everything's wrong! It could all go wrong even more. Why do you sound so casual about it?"

"O-Oh,  ummm... It's my way of coping. Sorry if I upset you with my laid-back attitude."

At that, Asher tried to calm down at once.

He didn't mean to make Cassidy feel bad. She was the type who would not make a big deal out of every problem, after all. But the good thing is that she never fails to face the challenge and solve it. She just does it with a positive mindset.

"I'm afraid that this one is worth making a big deal about, though..." he sighed before holding her shoulder.

"Losing you memories past the age of eighteen means losing a huge part of yourself. There are things that changed your life forever - our lives even."

"What do you mean?" she asked in evident confusion.

"Come back with me, Cassie. I'll tell you everything that happened - things that only your real family knows about."

Cassidy stiffens for a second there, feeling like she has been stroked by some nostalgic sense of grief and agony at the mention of her family.