I stared at the door, hoping that he might change his mind and return. However, he left and didn’t come back.
I sighed deeply and stared gloomily at the ceiling. My last bit of hope had disappeared.
Eventually, I drifted off to sleep.
A long while later, I detected a bright light shining above me. I opened my eyes slightly to see what it was.
What I saw was the snow-white fabric of a doctor’s coat. Apparently, a doctor was changing my medication.
Alarm bells sounded in my head, and I snapped awake immediately. The biggest hospital in M County would never trouble a doctor to change a patient’s medication by themselves!
“Who the hell are you…!” I struggled to open my eyes and see who it was. However, my vision remained dismally blurry.
When he heard me, the person who was changing my medication stumbled backward. When my vision finally cleared, I could only see the door swinging shut after him. There were way too many people here who were after my life. Even though I knew my days were numbered, I didn’t want to go before my time. I hung on and shouted for help as loudly as I could.
“Is anyone there? Please help…”
By the time John returned with the doctors and nurses, I had already wormed my way to the side of the bed, and was a few inches from falling right off.
“What’s going on? Didn’t I tell you not to move around? What do you think you’re doing?”
Summoning up what was left of my energy, I grabbed hold of John’s arm and shot a look at the infusion bottle. “The medication…someone touched it…”
Before I could finish my sentence, I collapsed in John’s arms and lost consciousness again.
I finally woke up three hours later, feeling much more energetic than before.
When he saw that I was awake, Anthony quickly ran to my bedside. It had only been a few days since we last saw each other, but his cheeks were covered with black stubble, and his eyes looked horribly sunken. He looked as though he had aged ten years overnight.
“You’re awake! Are you hungry? Do you want to eat anything?” Anthony’s voice sounded a little hoarse. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but he sounded as though he had been crying.
“I’m not hungry,” I replied, reaching out a hand to caress his cheeks. “You haven’t been taking good care of yourself, have you?”
Anthony’s eyes still looked rather wet, but he plastered a smile onto his face and said, “I’m fine. Thank goodness you’re awake. Don’t worry, we’ve nearly figured out where the child is. Throw your energy into recuperating. Do as John says and stay put for now.”
“I feel much better now.” Anthony gave me the courage to face every challenge in life. I sat up and leaned against the headboard, feeling my headache lessen by almost half. Even my vision was getting clearer by the second.
I turned to John and asked, “Have you discovered who it was that tried changing my medication?”
“It was George from the Thoracic Surgery Department. Thank goodness you were vigilant and managed to scare him off! Otherwise, who knows what might have happened to you. We’re investigating the rest of the doctors in the hospital now. Whoever is behind this is a very frightening person! They even managed to bribe a doctor who has been working here for more than ten years!” John looked very agitated, as though he was gearing up to go into battle.
I nodded my head and didn’t stop him. I had fallen into the person’s trap once when I was giving birth, and he had nearly tricked me again today. I couldn’t allow this to happen a third time.
I asked Anthony, “You said you have new leads about the baby’s whereabouts?”
“That’s right,” Anthony said, nodding. He cupped my face in his bony hands and tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. In a gentle voice, as though he didn’t want to startle me, he said, “We’ll find him very soon. When the baby returns, you’ll get better too.”
I knew the matter couldn’t be as simple as it seemed. Stubbornly, I pressed, “What sort of conditions did Armond lay out?”
He had done this to me and made sure that Anthony got a good look at his handiwork. Armond was after something for sure. He was no longer the same person as before—these days, he spoke only to increase the difficulty of the terms he was negotiating.
Anthony chuckled. Caressing my face, he said comfortingly, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll settle it by myself. Just return home with John quietly. I’ll handle the rest.”
“Go home?” I turned around, looking at Anthony with an expression of consternation.
He nodded heavily in confirmation. “M Country is not our turf. If the other party decides to play a heavy hand, we might not have the resources here to go up against him. It’ll be safer if we go home first.”
I bowed my head and didn’t say anything.
I had come here for my child, but I had to return home empty-handed. How could I leave with peace of mind?
Anthony seemed to understand what I was thinking. He took hold of my head and turned it around to face him. As we leaned our foreheads against each other’s, he pleaded, “Believe me and let me settle this. Go home first and take care of our daughter. In three days—just three days—I’ll return with our son.”
“Letty, remember that you’ve only seen your daughter a few times since she was born. She needs her mother,” John reminded at the side.
They knew what my weak spot was. Left with no reason to refuse, I agreed to return home.
Anthony remained in the hospital that night, he left only after I fell asleep.
John had always been efficient at his work. After breakfast the next morning, we set out on the journey home. For safety reasons, he had booked the entire business class of the flight. When we got to the airport, we walked over to the boarding gate surrounded by a thicket of bodyguards. This, of course, caused some commotion.
There was still half an hour before we boarded the plane. John brought me into the VIP lounge, while the bodyguards and accompanying medical staff stood guard outside. Perhaps it was my mind playing tricks on me, but I felt a lot better than before. When I entered the lounge, I found, to my astonishment, that I could even walk by myself.
“Here, have some water. It’s time for you to take your medicine again.” John poured me a glass of water and passed me a medicine organizer.
I took the glass of water and medicine organizer from him. When I saw the vast amount of medicine tablets in the capsule, I felt rather deflated all of a sudden.
John saw the expression on my face, of course. Then, he patted me on the back sympathetically, he smiled and said, “You’ll get better.”
On the other hand, I wasn’t holding out hope, but I didn’t want to ruin his enthusiasm. Therefore, I changed the topic hastily. “Tell me the truth, John. What does Armond want Anthony to do for him?”
“Don’t worry your head about this.” John snatched the medicine organizer from me and shook a few tablets into my palm. “Right now, you need to recover first. Just hand the rest to us boys, got it? Here, take your medicine.”
He wasn’t going to tell me anything either.
I looked at the medicine, frowning with distaste when I thought about how horrid they were going to taste. After a pause, I finally pinched my nose and swallowed the tablets.
Just as I finished gulping down water, I saw a familiar figure flash past the entrance of the VIP lounge. When I glanced up in alarm and took a careful look past the screen, the doorway was empty again.
I patted my chest, feeling a little spooked out.
Thank goodness that was just my imagination.
Anyway, it was impossible for Armond to come here by himself, right?
However, reality gave me another huge slap in the face.
“Are you looking for me? I’m here, Sienna.” I could hear Armond’s silky, cruel voice from behind the screen. Immediately, the tension in the VIP lounge heightened.
John’s expression was one of extreme alertness. He patted my arm, as though to tell me not to panic, before shooting a look at the bodyguard next to him.
The bodyguard nodded and pulled the screen aside. We finally saw Armond—he was seated directly opposite us, and it looked as though he had come alone.
John’s subordinates were well-trained. Immediately, one of them left quietly to assess to situation.
Armond glanced at the bodyguard contemptuously as he left. He snorted, but didn’t say anything—this was enough to let us know that he had noticed.
However, he didn’t seem particularly interested. Instead, he continued in the same horrible voice, “Sienna, we’ve known each other for years. How long has it been since we had a heart-to-heart talk with each other out in the open like this?”
I was about to reply, but John jumped in before I could say anything. “Since you know you don’t deserve to see the light of day, why don’t you remain in your dark little swamp instead of coming out to disgust people? I’m warning you now—I remember everything you’ve done to Sienna, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life keeping an eye on you! Until the day you die!”
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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