Husband With Benefits
Chapter 143: The Last Ten Years

With a perfunctory knock, he entered the room stared at the frail man in front of him and sat on the chair gingerly,"Uhh.. Hi, Erasmi."

Of course, he paused and then cursed himself for pausing. It wasn’t as if the man could reply.

With a deep breath, he continued again," I am Lucien.. I mean Lucy. I just thought I’d come back and re-introduce myself to you. I... uh... I want to tell you that I am really happy to see you like this..."

"I mean... I don’t mean like this in this state! I meant to see you alive..." He quickly corrected himself embarrassedly.

"Is it okay, if I hold your hand? Gabe said that you are able to clench your fingers and give reactions..."

Slowly and carefully, Lucien took the man’s cold and bony hand in his and continued," I hope you won’t mind if I come here regularly. I mean I know that Demon used to come here every week, but I doubt he would have said much about himself."

Lucien paused in wonder as he felt the hand in his palm flinch and he looked up in wonder. Erasmi still had his eyes closed but maybe he could hear what he was telling him..." Do you want to listen to Demon? You must be wondering why he is called Demon now...It’s been so long since we have been calling him that, it even feels off to call him Demetri..."

"Ho got the name after you were in the accident... I think he felt really alone when you ended up like this. There was a lot of pressure on him and the company... there were too many things happening that Grandfather was unable to take care of. Anyway, he was akin to a Demon at the time as he almost slashed everything that stood in his way. Do you know, recently we had been discussing how he had changed after he lost you. Demetri has married Nora, you know. She is a bit like you, I think. I think she shares the same ironic sense of humor that you and Demon do..."

Whenever the man paused, he would feel Erasmi’s fingers flinch so he talked about everything that happened over the years. Everything that Demetri had done to everything he knew about Nora.

Lucien, who had gone to see his brother in the morning, left the room after a few hours after promising to visit him again. However, as the door closed behind him, he failed to notice that Erasmi’s eyes had already opened and were now staring at the ceiling coldly.

A little while later, the evening nurse quietly entered the room, followed by the physical therapist, who helped the man, start to stand up by himself with support. As the nurse was about to leave, Erasmi’s raspy voice spoke," I need newspapers."

The nurse paused in surprise as she looked at the man warily. Maybe it was that he had been almost dead for so many years or that the look in his eyes was somehow scarier than his previously blank gaze, she felt uneasy with this man. She even thought that it would have been better if the man had remained in his previous unresponsive state. She nodded and politely answered," Of course, sir. I will go and get it now."

But before she could have gone further, Erasmi spoke again," I want newspapers from the last ten years."

The nurse looked at the man warily and spoke, "I’m afraid we don’t have old newspapers here. But you can catch up on the news using a smartphone. It’s much faster and more convenient."

"What is a smart phone?"

The nurse realized that the man had no idea about these things and felt a surge of pity. It made her realize that this man had been out of touch with reality for over a decade. With a sigh, she took out her phone and showed it to him, teaching him gently how to use the phone.

Surprisingly the man was quick to learn and she could only sigh in wonder. This man had been lying in bed for a decade and still managed to recover finally. She should have known that the man would be smart. Feeling guilty for her previous thoughts, she offered," You can borrow my phone. I am here for the next few hours and really don’t need it. If you want to ask something, you can ring the bell."

Erasmi nodded his thanks and watched the woman walk out of the room. As she did, he slowly opened the search page, and typed in "Demetri Frost."

Casually, he started reading from the oldest article in the newspaper, reading through his twin’s many achievements and awards.

Hours later, when his eyes and hands were too tired to even move, a new article was updated on the trending search about Demetri Frost’s wife.

Carefully, he opened the page and looked through the information shared on it, noting that she was still a student. Someone had even shared her contact details. Even though, the page seemed to disappear almost immediately, Erasmi had already memorized the details.

Next he searched "Erasmi Frost" but the page came up blank. With a dark frown, he clenched his hands and quietly turned off the phone trying to think of his next plan of action. Demetri had already erased all traces of him from the world...And he needed to find a way to return not just to the living but also to his rightful place...

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l