The sharp smell of hospital antiseptic seemed to choke Aruna's throat. The long corridor leading to the ICU felt like a corridor through time, slowly torturing her. Every second felt precious and terrifying at once. Her eyes were swollen and red, and her vision blurred with the tears that wouldn't stop flowing. She clutched her handbag tightly, trying to find something to hold on to in the middle of a world that had just collapsed.
Inside the ICU, the room was deathly quiet, broken only by the beeps of the heart monitors and the hiss of the ventilator. Her older sister, Adisti, lay weakly in bed, her fragile body covered in tubes. The face that was usually so cheerful and full of laughter was now deathly pale, marked with bruises and wounds from the violent impact. In the bed beside her, her brother-in-law, Rendy, was in equally critical condition. The pileup on the toll road had destroyed their car—and now it was destroying the future of their little family.
In the corner of the room stood the one man Aruna avoided more than anyone: Gavin. Rendy's younger brother.
Gavin, who usually dressed to the nines in designer shirts with the top buttons always undone and wore a nauseatingly charming smile, now looked like a wreck. His hair was a mess, and the expensive suit he was always so proud of was nowhere to be seen, leaving him in a wrinkled white shirt stained with dried blood—probably his brother's blood from when he had tried to help evacuate him. His usually cheerful face was now grim, deep sorrow filling his eyes, but Aruna was too shattered to notice.
"How could this... how could this happen, Vin?" Aruna whispered, her voice hoarse and barely audible. She stared at the ICU in despair.
Gavin slowly turned and looked at Aruna with an unreadable expression. "That truck... its brakes failed, Na. Rendy tried to avoid it, but..." He couldn't finish, his voice catching in his throat.
By coincidence, Gavin had been in the same place as Rendy and Adisti when the accident happened. The only difference was that Gavin had been in a separate car. He had been driving his own car alone, while Rendy had been in the other car with his wife and child.
As the two of them spoke, the door to the hospital room opened. A doctor and a nurse stepped out, exhaustion and sorrow clearly etched across both their faces.
The doctor invited Aruna and Gavin into the room. The married couple had asked the doctor and nurse to let their younger siblings come in.
Aruna approached Adisti's bed, ignoring Gavin standing behind her. She gently rubbed her sister's cold hand. "Sis Dis... wake up, Sis. Kenzie is waiting for you outside. He kept asking for his Mom," she sobbed, tears spilling down her cheeks again.
Outside the room, their one-year-and-seven-month-old nephew, Kenzie, was asleep in a nurse's arms. The little boy had just been treated by the medical team. Since he wouldn't stop fussing, one of the nurses took pity on him and carried Kenzie to the room where his parents were. The child had no idea that his world had just collapsed, that he might never again feel his mother's warm embrace or his father's strong arms.
"Aruna... Gavin..." Adisti's weak voice broke the suffocating silence. It was so soft that it was nearly drowned out by the machines in the room.
They both started and immediately moved to the bedside. Adisti and Rendy exchanged a glance with the last of their strength—a look full of love and heartbreaking farewell.
"Please... take care of Kenzie," Rendy whispered hoarsely. He tried to reach for Adisti's hand, but he didn't have the strength.
"We'll take care of Kenzie, Bro. We will. I promise," Gavin replied quickly, his voice trembling violently. He gripped the railing of his brother's bed.
"Not just take care of him..." Adisti reached for Aruna's hand with great difficulty, then pulled Gavin's hand on top of it. The three of their hands felt so fragile, yet burdened with so much weight. "Get married. Be Kenzie's whole family. Don't let him feel the loss of a father and mother. Please, don't let him be alone."
Aruna jolted as if she'd been shocked. She stared at Adisti in disbelief. Her heart seemed to stop for a moment. "Sis Dis, what are you talking about? Get married? To him?" Aruna pointed at Gavin, unable to hide her disgust.
"Sis, but... we can take care of Kenzie together without having to—" Aruna tried to object, her voice trembling between grief and shock.
"Gavin... Aruna... please," Rendy urged, his breathing growing more labored. The heart monitor beside him began emitting an unstable warning tone. "This is our final request. For Kenzie's sake."
Aruna looked at Gavin. He appeared just as shocked. Gavin was the very definition of freedom—a high-level playboy allergic to commitment, whose world revolved around parties and women. Marrying Aruna, who was sharp-tongued, rigid, and a perfectionist, had to be hell for him. Aruna still clearly remembered how Gavin had been busy texting three different women while winking at a restaurant server during a family dinner a month ago. The thought of spending the rest of her life with a man like that made her nauseous.
"Aruna... Gavin... promise us," Adisti urged again, tears gathering at the corners of her weary eyes. She looked at them with a pleading expression they could never refuse.
Gavin drew a deep breath and looked at Aruna with deadly seriousness, his humorous, flirtatious side gone for the first time in his life. He saw the desperation in his sister and brother-in-law's eyes. "All right. We'll do it. I'll marry Aruna. Right now."
Aruna froze. Her mind went blank. No love, no preparation, and with the man she hated most in the world. But seeing Adisti's condition deteriorate, refusing her request felt like a cruel dagger. She had no choice.
"Aruna, what about you?" Rendy asked, his voice nearly gone.
Aruna swallowed, her throat dry. She looked at Adisti, remembering all their sweet memories and Kenzie's laughter. "Y-yes, Sis. I agree."
Beneath the pale hospital fluorescents, with an Islamic marriage officiant urgently summoned by Mahes, Gavin's secretary, and witnessed by the doctor and nurse in the room, an unregistered religious marriage was held. There were no floral decorations, no beautiful wedding dress, no lavish reception. Only tears of grief, a forced vow of devotion, and the crushing weight of responsibility.
"I accept the marriage of Aruna Paramitha, daughter of Afendi Irawan, with the stated dowry paid in cash..."
Gavin's deep, trembling voice echoed through the room. Every word he spoke felt like a nail driven into Aruna's heart. She could only lower her head and let a single tear fall onto her smooth cheek. This was not Aruna's dream wedding, and the man who would be her life partner was not the man she loved.
After the officiant declared their marriage valid, Adisti and Rendy smiled faintly, relief shining through the pain tormenting them. "Thank you... Kenzie will be safe..." Adisti whispered.
Just minutes after those sacred vows were spoken, the heart monitors beside Adisti and Rendy emitted a terrifying, continuous tone. The lines on the screens went flat.
"Sis Dis! Bro Rendy!" Aruna screamed hysterically, trying to shake her sister's body, but a nurse immediately held her back.
"Don't leave Aru, Sis... Mom left Aru when I was little. Dad lives far away in another country... Aru is all alone now, Sis." Aruna cried out in the arms of one of the nurses who had been treating her sister.
"Kenzie still needs you, Sis!" Aruna cried, her voice trembling.
Gavin stood frozen, staring at his two older siblings, who were now gone forever. In the middle of the chaos and Aruna's hysterical sobs, Gavin felt the weight of the world suddenly collapse onto his shoulders. He was now a husband and a father. The two things he feared most had become reality in the midst of his darkest grief. He looked at Aruna, now sitting limply on the floor and crying, and knew his life would never be the same again.
To be continued...