Reborn: The Tyrant's Obsession-Chapter 229: Her broken memories

Ella’s voice was barely audible, as though pulled from a distant tunnel. "Darkness..."

Dr. Xiao didn’t interrupt, "Anything else? If you can’t see anything, try to sense..."

"There’s... the sound of rats," Her fingers twitched and her face scrunched in pain.

Dr. Xiao immediately noted it down, ’’How do you feel?"

"It’s cold," her voice sounded hollow. "So cold... I—I can’t move my legs."

"Why not?" Dr. Xiao asked gently. "Can you look around and tell me what you see?"

"Blood... Blood everywhere... I..." Ella’s lips parted, her breathing grew shallow.

"Ella?" Dr. Xiao called out to her, more firmly. "What’s keeping you there?"

Ella winced, her body trembling as if something invisible had gripped her.

"No... I—I shouldn’t be here..."

Her head jerked slightly against the cushion.

"Ella, what are you seeing?"

"It has ended... No more pain! No... no... no no no no—"

Her voice escalated into a panicked chant. And suddenly, her eyes snapped open wide.

She gasped for air, as if she had broken through the surface of a dark ocean. Her chest heaved, and her eyes flicked around the room in terror.

Dr. Xiao leaned forward immediately. "Ella. You’re safe. Look at me."

But she was already sitting up, arm wrapped around herself, shaking.

’Bang!’

The door to the office room was pushed open, startling Ella until she was suddenly engulfed in a familiar scent.

Adrian held her tight wordlessly, his fingers caressing the tears away from her face.

Just as she began to relax in his arms, he picked her up and walked away from the office room.

Dr. Xiao opened his mouth to stop the man but seeing his determined strides, he fell silent. However, his gaze that lingered on Ella turned solemn.

He noted the way her eyes, though lucid now, still looked haunted.

...

"Did Mrs. King fall asleep?"

Dr. Xiao stood by the tall window of the hospital lounge, watching the snow gathering on the glass. In one of his hands, he held a black file, while in the other, he held a red one.

"Yes."

Adrian stood a few feet away, coat still on, his expression unreadable.

Dr. Xiao turned, flipping open the black file in his hand, "In the name of the treatment, the first day I started a conversation with her. We talked about her nightmares and she said that she doesn’t remember much."

Adrian gazed at the first page in silence.

Dr. Xiao flipped the page, "The second day, I had her write it down and she seemed reluctant at first. Look at the number of times she scribbled off the word ’darkness’ before she eventually wrote it."

Adrian’s brows tugged together when Dr. Xiao flipped to the third page.

"After the first two days of treatment, the hypnosis would have been mostly a success to get to the root cause of her nightmares. Yet..."

Dr. Xiao sighed, "Despite being barely conscious, she actually fought through that state and refused to say anything."

Adrian looked away from the file, his expressions unchanged, "What are you saying?"

"She’s suppressing something," Dr. Xiao said finally, turning to him. "Whatever’s at the core of her nightmares... she refuses to face it."

Adrian didn’t respond, but the faint tightening of his jaw spoke volumes.

"It’s beyond trauma," the old man added quietly. "There’s something else. Something she won’t even let herself see."

"What did she say?"

"She mentioned darkness. Cold. Rats. The inability to move," Dr. Xiao continued. "But the moment I pushed closer to the root, her mind shut the door."

"Is it different?" Adrian asked suddenly.

Dr. Xiao fell silent for a moment before he nodded, "Mrs. King’s condition is very different from yours. When you came to me the first time, you had no qualms talking about your past. It’s just..."

Dr. Xiao fell silent, a complicated expression flickering on his face.

It’s just that Adrian’s body, and his mind seemed to be deeply familiar with the pain.

Despite Adrian’s cooperation, no therapy or treatment worked because those experiences had long become a part of who he was, no longer different from him.

"Mrs. King refuses to claim it or to acknowledge it, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Unlike your situation, she can be treated. But if she remains quiet and lets it aggravate her mind..." He trailed off, shaking his head.

"Mr. King, please try to think about it. Has Mrs. King gone through any of the things that she has mentioned? Rats, Darkness... Any incident that makes her fear them...?"

"No," Adrian answered in a beat.

Dr. Xiao’s face scrunched, "This is difficult... Based on her condition, I see two possibilities. First, she is reliving the pain left from some past traumatic event that has long been over. It is like a wound that has scabbed and healed but still has a lingering pain beneath it. In other terms, we also call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

Adrian fell silent, "Second?"

"Delusion." Dr. Xiao fell silent for a moment before he continued, "Her fears, her nightmares and her memories are all built from delusions, not from reality. And if it’s not treated in time, her mental health might collapse..."

Adrian turned to leave before the man could finish speaking.

"And you know it better than I, Mr. King, that for someone with broken memories like Mrs. King, going mad is not an impossibility," Dr. Xiao’s old face was solemn this time as he waved the untouched red file in his hand.

Adrian’s footsteps only halted for a moment before he walked away.

Dr. Xiao touched his chest, "Sinful! So sinful!"

Adrian entered the hospital room, his slow footsteps coming to a halt in front of the hospital bed.

On the bed, Ella slept peacefully, her eyes were closed, her breathing was even and her face had a rosy tint to it.

Adrian reached out towards her face, but just as his finger was about to graze her face, he retracted his hand and turned to leave.

He had just taken a step forward when he froze suddenly.

Soft fingers wrapped around his hand and a hoarse voice sounded from behind, "Baby...?"