"No, no, it's fine. I'm not busy. I'm just getting off work," I said over the phone.

"So can we gossip now?" Abigail asked.

I laughed shortly and said, "Yes. I'm waiting for Elian to finish his work. Until then, we can gossip."

Shortly after my talk with my parents, I started receiving calls from Abigail again. We patched up somehow. She apologized, and while I didn't completely forgive her, I gave her another chance because she was the closest friend I ever had. After that, I shared everything with her, excluding some details, and as far as I knew, she was doing well with keeping secrets.

"How's your therapy going?" she inquired.

"I have mostly recovered 70% of my memories, but my therapist said that some of my memories are forever lost, and I will likely never remember the incidents that happened directly before the accident."

"Understandable," Abigail hummed. "What about work? Busy as ever?"

"Yep. What about you, Abs?"

"Same. This is the busiest season, you know." She was the manager of the coffee shop her mom owned. "Anyway," her tone got excited, "How are things with Elian?"

A smile formed on my lips at the mention of his name. "Good."

"What good? Give me the details, girl."

I started telling her about Elian and my relationship's endeavors in the last few weeks, like our latest dates, having dinner with his parents last Sunday, visiting his little brother's art exhibition, and how my assistant, Ryatt, caught me sitting on Elian's lap in my chair but good thing he was a good secret-keeper and that's why there had been no rumors yet.

While gossiping with Abigail, I didn't notice the time passing until Abigail reminded me, "Hey, weren't you waiting for Elian's work to finish?"

My eyes widened as I looked at the clock indicating it was past nine.

"Oh, shit. I will call you later." I hung up the call and grabbed my work bag and ran to Elian's cabin. I heaved a sigh in relief when I saw the lights in his cabin were still on, which meant he still hadn't left. Not that I even expected him to leave without informing me in the first place.

I knocked on the door once, and the automatic doors opened up instantly.

"You still haven't left?" he asked, looking up at me with a small smile.

I shook my head and put my bag on the couch, walking over to him. "I got lost while talking to Abs."

"Yeah, I understood that when I called you twice to ask you to leave, only to find you were in another call," he said with a chuckle.

"I wasn't going to leave you to work alone here unless I had some urgent work," I replied and placed my hands on his shoulders from the back to start massaging them.

He relaxed a little and let out an exhausted sigh. "Sorry, you have to be waiting."

"It's okay. I understand the need to finish work," I said, peppering him with light kisses on the side of his face.

He smiled and tilted his head back to ask for a kiss. I leaned down to press my lips to his upside down. "Can you wait just a little longer? I need to finish looking through these two contracts and mail them to the foreign clients before eleven tonight."

"Sure, take your time. I'm right here." I continued massaging his shoulders as he started studying through the contracts.

I noticed his phone vibrating on his desk with a call from Eltan.

"Eltan's calling," I informed.

Without looking up from his laptop, Elian asked, "Can you receive it?"

I nodded and reached over to grab his phone.

"Big Bro—"

"Hey, Eltan. It's me."

"Oh, Big Sis, it's you." His voice sounded strained.

"Eltan, are you okay?" I asked in concern, and Elian immediately looked up.

"Yes, I'm fine. Can you please hand the phone to Big Bro? It's about Mom."

"Sure." I handed the phone to Elian who instantly took it.

"Eltan, what's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

I hope something bad didn't happen.

"What? Mom fell down the stairs? How much did she get hurt?"

Oh, no, falling down the stairs sounds bad, especially at her age.

"Shit, is it that bad?" Elian ran a hand through his hair, his jaw tightening as he listened to his brother.

He took a long, controlled breath and said, "Eltan, no matter how bad this looks right now, Mom's going to be fine. She's always been a fighter. I know I don't need to tell you this since you're the calmest among us, still stay calm, okay? I'm coming as soon as I can. Meanwhile, let Dad and Lance know about it and stay with Mom all the time." With that, Elian hung up.

"Alena, I need to go to the hospital—" His eyes fell on his laptop. "Shit, the contracts—"

"Hey, I got this," I quickly said. "You just give your signature in the draft here, and I will paste it after I check the contracts." Thank goodness, it was an online signing, so he could just give me a draft and I could use them. He usually never kept his online signature in draft or anywhere else saved, on the off chance someone stole or hacked his laptop.

"Can you do that? They are really big—"

"It's fine, it's fine. Just sign here, unless you don't trust me."

He nodded. "There are keys to my other car in the middle drawer. Use it to drive home." Elian gave me a quick hug and signed on his laptop, then left as soon as possible.

I sat down on his chair and rolled my neck before getting to work. I thoroughly read through the contracts for an hour and pasted Elian's signature before mailing the clients, then I deleted his signature from the draft and closed his laptop.

I grabbed Elian's car keys and checked all the windows and locked his cabin properly.

While going down the elevator, I checked my phone to find no texts from Elian yet, so I texted him myself.

His reply came a few minutes later when I was walking towards the basement-2.

True. But I still wanted to go. I never wanted him to go through anything bad alone ever again. Yes, he technically had Eltan there, but Elian would always fall into the big brother role around his family and put up a strong facade.

He could only ever be truly vulnerable in front of me.

I reached Elian's car and got in it. While I did have my own car, I had been spending nights at his place or vice versa, so he always ended up giving me a ride.

A minute later, Elian texted me the name and location of the hospital.

I smiled and drove out of the office. I picked up some food for Elian, me, and even for Eltan in case he hadn't eaten as well.

I reached the hospital and grabbed the takeout bags and entered the hospital.

As I looked around the almost empty lounge area, I started to feel a little dizzy. Hospitals always made me feel like that. It was because of a childhood trauma.

I had once got hurt from playing in the park and fractured my leg, so Mom brought me to the hospital. At that time, there had been a bus accident nearby, and there were too many people bleeding and crying around us. Too many people were screaming and dying while the doctor was checking my injuries.

I couldn't bear it back then, and I still had issues now. Because every time I was here, I couldn't help but think that maybe someone was dying around me.

Maybe it was illogical. Because people were dying every second around the globe. Yet, I couldn't help but feel scared every time I was at the hospital. I had never told anyone the truth about my hospital-phobia, except—

"Elian!" I called out when I saw him looking around for me.

I was smiling as he came toward me and pulled in an unexpected hug.

"Hey, are you okay? Is Brisa okay?" I asked, the slight trembles in his demeanor twisting and squeezing my heart.

He stayed silent for a few seconds before responding, "No. Mom hit her head hard. She hasn't regained consciousness yet. The doctor told me that the head damage can be permanent." His voice wavered a little bit. "Not to mention, all the broken bones and fractures."

I brought my hands up to rub his back in circles and said, "It's just been a couple of hours. She will be fine. You know better than anyone else that despite Brisa's sweet nature, how strong she is. Yes, she may be a little clumsy, but she always bounces back, right?"

He barely nodded, and I continued to hold him tightly because I knew that's what he needed the most, more than comforting words.

"Thank you for coming," he murmured against my hair after several minutes.

"Of course." He always came whenever I needed him, how could I not do the same for him?

"Big Bro, there you are," Eltan's voice interrupted us, and we both pulled apart to look at him. He was standing in the corridor. "Mom regained consciousness for a few seconds just now. The doctor wants to talk to you. It doesn't sound like anything bad."

"Thank goodness," Elian let out in relief and nodded, no trace of the vulnerability from a minute ago. "Eltan, you were hungry earlier. Alena brought food," he said while walking towards the elevator to go to the doctor's chamber.

"What about you, Big Bro?" Eltan hollered after I approached him with the takeout bags.

"I will eat later," Elian responded before the elevator doors closed.

"He's such a self-sacrificing big bro, isn't he?" Eltan sighed.

I sighed as well and nodded. I patted his shoulder and said with a smile, "But don't worry. I will make sure he eats."

Being a big brother had its upsides and downsides. Maybe I didn't know what it was like to have siblings, but I was at least sure that I wouldn't let Elian carry all the burden alone now that I was there for him. I intended to stay as his support system forever.