Back to My Worst Birthday and Starting Anew
Chapter 50 Treatment
Emyr frowned, a subtle shift in his expression, and Charmaine’s eyes brightened at the change.
“How does this feel?” she asked, her voice filled with a quiet intensity.
“It’s numb. Not strong, just a faint feeling,” Emyr responded, his tone even.
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Years of experience with his injury had sharpened his awareness. He recognized the pressure points immediately. Even the slightest touch on these spots usually triggered sharp pain. But Charmaine–he noticed her pressure was firm.
“Is it painful?” Charmaine pressed.
He shook his head in response.
Charmaine’s fingers moved upwards, gently gliding over his calf. “How about here?”
“This feels lighter,” Emyr said, his voice steady.
She continued her examination, moving higher toward his knee. The sensation diminished the closer she got to his thigh.
When she finished, Charmaine lowered his pant leg and slowly stood.
“The nerves in your leg have suffered varying levels of damage. Some inflammation is present near the nerve endings. We should try needle treatment to see if it helps.”
Emyr’s eyes narrowed with interest.
Since the accident, he had seen more doctors than he cared to count–specialists, renowned experts, all of them reluctant to give him any concrete answers.
But Charmaine, with just a few presses, had already come to a conclusion that the so–called experts hadn’t even dared to touch.
Was she truly skilled, or had all the others been mere pretenders?
His gaze turned sharp. “You’re going to do needle treatment?”
Charmaine, sensing his doubt, responded firmly, “I’m serious. I’m not messing around with you.”
At that exact moment, a crack of lightning split the sky, so loud it seemed to shake the building. The lights blinked out, and the room was plunged into darkness.
Charmaine’s heart raced, her reflexes taking over. Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed the closest thing to her–Emyr.
Before she could even call out for Tad, she found herself pressed against Emyr’s chest. He looked down, noticing her trembling in the dim moonlight. Her wide eyes were full of uncertainty, and her lips quivered slightly in the stillness.
She was the tough one. The quick–witted, sharp–tongued woman who never backed down. But now, she was clutching him like a frightened animal, vulnerable and unguarded.
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Chapter 50 Treatment
“That was just a coincidence!” Charmaine shot back, her voice a little too quick.
“A coincidence?” Emyr raised an eyebrow, his tone skeptical. “Then why are you holding on to me?”
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Charmaine gritted her teeth, trying to steady herself. “The lights always go out before the bad stuff happens to the rich guy if we’re in a story. I’m just making sure you’re safe. Understand?”
“Sure,” Emyr replied with a knowing grin. “But you might want to watch your hands next time. They’re shaking.”
Charmaine was a little miffed.
Charmaine couldn’t shake the thought that all the sensation in Emyr’s legs must have wandered somewhere else entirely.
Emyr, seeing her uncharacteristically thrown off, allowed himself a rare moment of amusement. “Charmaine, you act like nothing scares you. Are you really afraid of thunder?”
The idea caught him off guard.
Charmaine, clearly irritated but unwilling to show weakness, dropped her voice as she began.
“Two years ago, my adoptive parents gave me a plane ticket for my birthday. They said it was a gift, something to help me unwind and take a trip to Newland.”
“There are direct flights from Eragos to Newland’s capital, but those cost a lot. And they’re only during the day.”
“To save a few bucks, they booked me on a dirt–cheap flight. It left in the middle of the night and had a layover in a tiny country in South Aspus.”
At that time, the Reads were doing well. They had climbed the social ladder and were known among the middle class in Eragos.
But that plane ticket was the first real gift Bennett and Sophie had ever given her. They had handed it over in front of Grandpa, the one person in the family who genuinely cared for her. He had been bedridden for years after an accident, unable to do much but watch over her.
Charmaine had long stopped hoping for much from Bennett and Sophie. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to disappoint Grandpa. So, she went.
Her gaze shifted to the window. Outside, the night had grown darker, the sky layered with heavy clouds pressing low against the earth.
“The plane was packed that night. The sky looked just like this–dark, heavy, like it couldn’t hold itself together anymore. But no rain ever came. When the plane climbed through the clouds, the turbulence started. It wasn’t just bumps. The plane shook like it was being thrown around, like we were falling out of the sky.”
Her voice faltered, but she steadied herself, pushing forward. “After about an hour and a half of that nightmare, we landed at the layover airport. But then the real trouble started. The next flight? Canceled because of the weather. No reschedules, no help. They handed out some hotel vouchers and told us to figure out our own way to Newland.”
