"Precious?"
Idris called out softly when he noticed Arwen looked a little lost in her own thoughts.
"Hmm?" Arwen humd and turned to look at her father, her brows rising slightly in confusion. "Do you need anything?"
Idris stared at her for a long mont, as though trying to read her thoughts. But only today did he realize how little he had mastered that skill —the skill of understanding his daughter without her having to say a word.
A pang of regret twisted in his chest. He had never been the father he should have been to her. He shook his head internally and let his lips curl in a warm smile.
"I do not need anything, sweetheart," he said at last, his voice light and comforting. "But it seems you are definitely trying to figure sothing out. What is it? Tell . Maybe ... maybe I can help."
Arwen paused, and even if it was just for a second, she saw the guilt flash in the eyes of her father, before he again concealed it behind his smile. To say she had forgotten it all would be a lie. But she no longer blad him for the things from which she had already moved on.
And that was why seeing him still blaming himself for it didn’t feel right.
She pressed her lips into a thin line as she turned to look at her father. Moving her hand, she slowly placed it over her father’s and said, "Of course, there is a lot you can help with, Dad."
When Idris looked at her as if asking, she really ant it; she nodded firmly.
"Then tell , precious. Dad will always be happy to help."
Arwen shook her head at him. "Not at this mont," she said, shifting her eyes slowly toward his fra that was resting on the hospital bed, "And definitely not when you are asked to rest. Only when you recover will I be able to trouble you with my issue. Otherwise, I will just end up blaming myself."
Idris’s brows knitted. He quickly said, "I am not in that bad condition, sweetheart. From the ICU, I have already been transferred here to the VIP general ward, which ans things have improved."
"It has," Arwen nodded. "But not very much. You are still lying in a hospital bed under dical care."
Idris opened his mouth to retort ... but then closed it, looking at his daughter as though he had already accepted the defeat. "You are very stubborn, aren’t you?"
Arwen paused and thought for a mont before nodding and admitting. "Of course, that’s sothing that flows through my blood."
Idris squinted his eyes at her but then said, "To be honest, it suits you just as it used to suit you before."
Arwen chuckled. But then, suddenly, she halted, catching sothing between those words. Her brows knitted a little as she turned to her father and asked, "Before? Had I been stubborn before as well?" She tried to keep her expression as natural as possible.
When Idris heard her ask that, he humd. "Oh, don’t ask that. Your attitude was never easy to take. You always made sure that things went your way. Be at school or at ho. You barely used to abide by the rules —especially the ones that your mother had set for you."
"And when I used to ask why you break them, you would just say — I don’t want to be bound by rules, Dad. Especially the ones that don’t hold much aning." He said that mimicking her young tone.
Then, shaking his head, he laughed, "And I couldn’t argue with you on that. You always had reasons that could make you stand right. I just couldn’t find any way to make you." As he said that, he seed like he had teleported back in ti.
But, on the other side, Arwen couldn’t rember such a side of hers at all. She never rembers herself having such a bold, rebellious side. All she rembered was the ti when she used to strictly follow the rules and standards set for her by her mother.
Was her father really talking about her?
If he was, then how did she change so much just after an accident?
"What’s wrong?" Idris asked when he noticed that Arwen had suddenly gotten all silent. "What are you suddenly thinking?"
Arwen stared at her father before shaking her head. "No, nothing. I just feel like I am hearing about soone else. I an, I don’t rember myself changing so much." She shrugged her shoulders before giving a weak chuckle. "Do you rember it?"
Idris blinked at her words. Then his brows drew together as though he tried to think back when it all changed. "Umm ... to be honest, even I don’t understand when you changed so much," he said, looking at her. "But you did. And it was a sudden change. Maybe after the accident of yours." He noted, thinking carefully.
"It was then that you suddenly went silent and slowly changed. You started agreeing to the things we asked you for. You’ve even gotten ready to make the change in schools. Especially when I rember you were very against it before."
Arwen looked at him, and her brows only drew deeper. "Don’t you feel it was a little wrong?"
"Wrong?" Idris repeated, raising his brows a little in a frown.
Arwen quickly explained, "I an, wrong because I wasn’t like that earlier. If I was changing so much, there should have been a reason for it?"
Idris shook his head. "It was sudden, but at the sa ti very gradual. I even asked your doctor about it. But he said there was nothing to worry about. In so cases, patients show behavioural changes after an accident. That was the sa for you. And you would get better."
"But I didn’t, Dad," Arwen said suddenly, and when she saw Idris’s brows knitting, she continued, "I never got better. But personality never returned back to normal. I changed ... changed completely. To the point where I no longer rember how I used to be earlier."
Idris didn’t understand. But Arwen’s reaction told him that there was sothing wrong. "What are you trying to say, sweetheart?"
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