บท 80: 80

As Henry was leaving, he could her the little race car driver say on her breath, "Thank you, Henry. You understand better than anyone. It scares me sometimes."

Do I really? Henry wanted to ask her. He himself didn't think so. Henry wondered if he would regret conceding to her in her battle. He didn't like that he was on the sidelines watching. Actually, it was more like he was watching her match from a shaky unreliable radio. It was going to be risky.

Ellie sighed as Henry left. It was nice knowing that out of everyone in her life, he was such a good support. "It's so rare that men don't call women crazy when they do things they don't like."

"Henry is compassionate to your plight." Michael said truthfully.

Ellie looked at the butler. Did Michael really know all the details about the elder Mrs. Wong? There was no strain in his eyes like when he talked about the war, so strangely Ellie wanted to ask if that had been before his time. In that case, Michael was speaking from secondhand knowledge. Michael must have joined service at the Wongs after the late Mrs. Wong had passed on. Ellie shivered as she considered she had almost joined the woman whose portrait hung across from the doorway to her room. She turned her focus to what she was dealing with presently. She turned to her maid, "Angela will you help me sit in that ottoman over there? Maybe you could have some of the boys come over to help me, if you can't do it yourself."

"I still think that Mr Wong would prefer if you rest in the bed, madam. It would be easier for all of us if you didn't tire yourself out unnecessarily."

"No. I need to have some discipline now. For as long as I can, I want to enjoy the view sitting in that chair. It'll help me take my mind off of things."

The maid carefully took her and helped her to a standing position. Ellie swayed as she was straightened. Her body couldn't take her weight after such a long time where the feet were unused. One of the butlers in the hall ran into the grab her as she began to collapse. Even with his help, Ellie swung from both of their shoulders. She was surprised she was so weak. But she knew she still had her arms so she tried to focus on tightening her grip.

Both of them waited as Ellie's head spun. When she seemed to clear her thoughts they looked at her expectantly. Ellie looked ahead at the ottoman and made a gesture so the butler would understand that was where she wanted to go. The butler nodded in tandem with the maid and they helped her like they were two crutches under her arms to get to where she wanted to go. Ellie moved forwards to the ottoman with their kind help and they turned her so she could just collapse into the chair. It was like falling onto a cloud, it was so soft. Ellie could feel reverberations in her limbs as her body jerked involuntarily. She was thankfully that the serving staff had already turned around so they couldn't see. But she was aching everywhere. It was like a lit wire was bursting through her with the inception being where her incision site was. She shuddered before getting her breathing under control. She knew the bed would have been a better option, but the fact she had moved somewhere on her own was a vast step towards getting her own independence.