Chapter 339: Falling
As Melody walked back to the car after being discharged, she braced herself for the fall she was about to stage and felt a flutter of nerves in her stomach.
Her eyes flicked toward the dark clouds hovering above the hospital. The soft drizzle had turned the stairs slick, and the water pooling on the ground shimmered softly, making it the perfect scene.. She smiled. Even the heavens wanted to help her. The wet floor gave her all the justification she needed and she wouldn’t have to overact or exaggerate. No one would question it. A simple slip due to the wet floor, and she’d be back in his arms.
Her lips curled slightly as she followed Adam down the steps, already feigning fatigue. In her mind, she had already played the scene a dozen times. She would stumble, he would catch her- his hands on her arms, maybe around her waist. Her face would be close to his. Perhaps their eyes would meet, and maybe, just maybe, when she groaned in pain, he would lift her up and carry her to the car.
"This way," Adam said softly as he gestured to her to hold the railing while she was lost in thought.. She nodded obediently, heart thudding, but didn’t take the railing.
Instead, she waited until the moment felt right and then she let her foot slip from the edge of the stair. A small gasp escaped her lips as she flailed dramatically, her arm stretching out toward Adam. "Ahh---!"
She turned slightly toward him mid-fall, expecting the tug of his hand, the solid warmth of his chest, something, anything. But it didn’t come.
They missed.
Somehow, impossibly, they missed.
He had reached out too, but their timing was off. Maybe he had hesitated. Maybe she had leaned too far back. Whatever the reason, the contact she’d counted on never came.
And then- Thud.