Were I not close enough to smell the blood, I might not have noticed either.
Upon seeing my distress, he said in a comforting voice, “It’s no big deal. Just a scratch.”
“Shut up!” I was upset. Whether it was because he was with Rylee, or because he did not take care of himself—I was not sure.
All I knew was that I was mad as hell.
The nurse was brought in to help clean up his wound. He was frosty when his exquisite, limited edition shirt was cut open.
Unfamiliar with his ways, the fingers of the youthful nurse trembled at his cold demeanor.
A frown creased upon his face before he lifted his eyes. “You do it!”
Her hands stiffened and the alcohol soaked wad fell upon his wound.
Anthony reiterated himself aggressively, “Let her do it!”
I exhaled before I took the bottle from her. “Thank you. Let me handle this.”
A weight seemed to have been lifted from the young nurse’s chest as she nodded profusely. “Alright!”
After she had gone far, I regarded the man with severity. “I’m not as gentle, so you better not be whining.”
He pursed his lips. “What’s with the temper?”
I quietly wiped the cotton wad over his wound. It was fortunate that the cuts were superficial in spite of its goriness.
With a bit of cream, it should heal in a couple of days.
Once done with the dressing, I got to my feet and started to clean up. “Why were you arguing in the car?”
I knew him well enough that he would not have gotten into an accident otherwise.
He bit his lip and did not seem intent on speaking. A voice then cut me off before I could say anything else.
“About you, Sienna Stanhope. You jinx!” Rylee stepped out of the ward after she had her injuries attended to.
Hers was a look of antagonism.
When Anthony saw that she was alright, he said, “That’s enough. Go home!”
“Hmph!” Rylee sneered. “How long do you think you can continue to keep this from her?”
I looked to Anthony, confused. “Is there something I should know about?”
The man seemed distant when his gaze fell upon Rylee. He then turned to Joseph who had just settled things on the other front. “Send Ms. Lorraine home.”
The other man nodded, but Rylee pushed him away when he tried to put a hand on her. “Do you think no one else is going to talk just because I won’t?”
She turned to regard me scathingly. “You’re a pathetic idiot—being happy and contented when everyone’s taking you for a ride.”
“Get her out of here!” Anger permeated Anthony’s voice.
Joseph got a hold of Rylee in an attempt to have her forcibly removed.
I looked into her wild eyes and asserted myself, “Let her speak.”
I approached and pushed Joseph off her. “What was it you wanted to say?”
Rylee replied with a smirk, “Ask your husband. You are going to love the surprise if you got it straight from him.”
“What’s going on here?” I asked Anthony.
“I’ll tell you when we get back!” He rubbed his forehead in fluster.
The man pulled me into the elevator and prepared to take me away.
Hesitantly, I stood my ground.
He did not look pleased. “Let’s go home first, alright?”
I paused momentarily before I followed him in.
I waited by the hospital’s entrance while Anthony went to fetch the car from the parking lot, all the while preoccupied with thoughts about what I was being kept in the dark about.
My phone then chimed a couple of times in a row. Messages had come in, with attachments.
They were from an unknown number, and the first opened to reveal a photo of a baby.
The baby looked to be a newborn. It was tiny, with patches of red and green on its forehead. The eyes were closed.
The rest of the photos were, as far as I could tell, also of the same baby. There was also a video that featured it inside of an incubator.
My limbs went limp, as though struck by a ray of enfeeblement. The phone fell loose from my hands and onto the floor.
My mind droned on—filled with scenes of what I saw inside of the warehouse and my inability to deliver the baby before its fragile little life was snuffed out of existence.
I felt a moment of asphyxia. By my own admission, I was weak, or should I say, a coward.
I had not seen that child even once before Marcus buried him. I feared that if I did, I would be scarred for life.
Never had I thought that I would be able to see him under these circumstances. He had the same features as the child in my dreams.
Rylee came down the steps shortly after. “What sort of face is this? Did Anth not tell you everything? Do you realize what a fool you’ve been, allowing yourself to be strung around in circles the way you did?”
My head throbbed as I looked at her. I was speechless.
She seemed to relish the expression on my face. “How does it feel to have your own mother kill off your offspring?”
I conjured the remnant of my strength. “What did you say?”
“So, he hasn’t told you yet, huh? You are Cameron Anderson’s real daughter. It was Anth who passed the sandalwood box your Grandma left for you to that woman. It was Anth who told her that it was mine, and also he who swapped our DNA samples.”
She continued, “Do you not see how far he went to get me into the Moore family so that I may enjoy the luxurious life of a wealthy young lady while you remained an impoverished nobody? This is proof that he doesn’t love you, and never will.”
My body felt like it was no longer anchored as I staggered backward and sat slumped on the floor.
The demise of my child, my own close brush with mortality, and Macy’s death. Were all these of Anthony’s machinations?
“Why?” I asked. From whom was I seeking the answer from, exactly?
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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