Chapter 634 Nightmare
The giant floor-to-ceiling window of the studio was smashed before a few sticks of fire were hurled through the hole. In an instant, the studio was set ablaze.
The fire spread rapidly, and its thick smoke stung everyone’s eyes.
Christina was the first to react to the situation and shouted, “Run!”
When the people in the restroom heard the commotion, they immediately left to check the situation. The moment they saw the fire, they sprinted outside.
“Where are you going?” questioned Christina as she grabbed Rayne, who was running into the fire. She was also covering her nose and mouth while coughing.
“Many clients’ information is kept on the computer. I can’t let it be destroyed. You should leave first, Christina. I’ll be out soon.” Without hesitation, Rayne shoved Christina’s hand away and bolted into the
office.
Christina couldn’t watch Rayne dove into the fiery claws of death and do nothing. However, after turning back and taking a few steps forward, she felt someone holding her shoulder. Swiftly, she turned around and heard Lyle speaking with a pant. “Forgive me, Mrs. Hadley!”
Before Christina could react, she registered pain coming from the back of her neck and blacked out.
Lyle promptly carried Christina out of the fire and requested the employees send the latter to an ambulance. After that, he jumped back into the burning building.
When Nathaniel learned the studio was set aflame and that Christina was urgently sent to the hospital, he became frenzied. He ignored all red lights as he sped to this destination.
When the car arrived at the hospital, Sebastian practically crawled out of the vehicle. Unlike Nathaniel, he couldn’t just dash off after experiencing that extreme speed because he wasn’t as physically fit.
Despite his weak legs, he forced himself to keep up with Nathaniel.
Nathaniel ignored Lyle, who was guarding Christina’s ward, and entered the room.
At that moment, Christina was sleeping soundly on the bed, though her face was pale, and she was wearing an oxygen mask.
Agony struck every part of Nathaniel’s body as he stared at her.
“Mr. Hadley, the doctor said Mrs. Hadley and her baby are healthy. She only inhaled a small amount of smoke, so she isn’t in danger,” reported Lyle in a small voice upon ambling into the room.
His naked arms suffered varying degrees of scald, with some parts revealing the bloody flesh underneath his skin. It was a harrowing sight. His golden hair was singed, producing a faint charred scent in the air.
With furrowed eyebrows, Nathaniel glanced at him. “You should treat your wounds first. Report to me later.”
“Understood!” Lyle nodded.
When he left the ward, he met Sebastian, who was still carsick.
Sebastian arched his eyebrow in response to seeing Lyle’s wretched state. “It’s only been a few hours. Why did you look like that?”
Lyle scoffed and retorted mercilessly, “You don’t seem to be doing better than me.”
Glancing at the ward, Sebastian changed the topic. “Is Mrs. Hadley doing okay?”
“She’s fine.”
Pressing his hand on Lyle’s shoulder, Sebastian urged, “Take me to a doctor, too. Quickly. My head’s spinning so hard that I think I’m about to see God.” Next time, I would rather crawl to my destination than re- experience the overwhelming fear of staying inside a speeding car!
Lyle rolled his eyes and snorted. Although, he didn’t abandon the half-dead Sebastian and dragged the latter to a doctor by the collar.
Christina was tormented by nightmares and woke up with a scream. “No!”
Hugging her, Nathaniel rea*sured, “It’s me, Christina. Everything’s fine.”
Christina heaved and felt her throat burning. Focus gradually returned to her dazed eyes.
Abruptly, she gripped the edge of Nathaniel’s shirt as though she was clutching onto a beam of light in the darkness and wailed. “Nathaniel!”
“I’m here,” rea*sured Nathaniel softly, patting her lean back with his warm palm. “No need to be afraid. I’ll stay by your side.”
“I want to drink some water. After collecting herself, she left his embrace and stared at him,
“I’ll grab you a gla*s. Give me a second.” Nathaniel stood, poured a gla*s of water for Christina, and reminded her, “Drink slowly. I can refill it if you want more.”
She glugged down half a pot’s worth of water before the stinging pain in her throat was relieved. “What happened to the others from the studio? What about Rayne? Is she okay?”
“The employees are fine, and Lyle saved Rayne from the fire. All of them were slightly injured, but none of their lives are in danger.”
Christina’s anxiety was finally put to rest as she lowered her head and patted her rounded abdomen. “I had two nightmares earlier. I dreamed of Rayne being burned alive and my mother falling from a skyscraper while I watched…”
“We’ll bring the culprit to justice. In the meantime, you should cooperate with the doctor to recuperate.”
However, Christina’s thoughts only journeyed further away from her health. In an agitated tone, she asked, “Don’t you find this sudden fire familiar, Nathaniel?”
Clutching Nathaniel’s wrist tightly, she exclaimed, “Miranda was burned alive!”
“The police are working hard to apprehend the arsonist. Miranda’s case is closed. Don’t overthink things. It won’t do your baby any good,” advised Nathaniel.
After the fire, the first thing the employees did was call the cops. Even though the studio was located at a rather remote location in the business district, it was surrounded by surveillance cameras. Hence, it wouldn’t be difficult to capture the arsonist.
Although, Nathaniel had secretly asked people to track the arsonist because he wanted to catch the culprit before the police.
“I know,” answered Christina. “Don’t let my parents and children know about the fire. I don’t want them to be worried.”
“It’s too late for that. That inferno was severe, your studio was frequently featured on trending in recent times, and someone uploaded a video of the building burning. Hence, your parents learned of the news and visited you at the hospital half an hour ago. However, Camila and Lucas are still in cla*s, so they probably don’t know about this incident yet.”
Even though Nathaniel asked Public Relations Department to suppress the news, it wasn’t effective.
He was too worried about Christina to spare extra energy and time to handle the mess on the internet. However, that didn’t mean he would allow anyone to bully his woman.
Besides, Hadley Corporation’s Public Relations Department and legal team were a force to be reckoned with.
“Good” Christina yanked the blanket away, intending to descend the bed. However, Nathaniel stopped her. “Where are you going?”
“I want to see how Rayne’s doing, she replied.
Nathaniel informed. “She’s in the neighboring room. The doctor said she needs to rest, so you shouldn’t disturb her today. In any case, you’ve slept for a few hours. What do you want to eat? I’ll ask Sebastian to send the food here.”
While Christina didn’t have any appetite, she still needed to care for her baby. “Oatmeal.”
Nathaniel called Sebastian. Not long after, Sebastian entered the ward with two bags of food containers. There were enough light, nutritious dishes to fill the whole table.
Instead of leaving immediately after delivering the food, Sebastian glanced at Nathaniel, looking as though he had something to say.
“Eat slowly. I’ll have a brief chat with Sebastian outside.” Upon ending his sentence, Nathaniel rose and left
the room.
Sebastian followed behind and shut the door.
Frowning, Nathaniel inquired, “What’s the matter?”
“The car accident Mrs. Hadley encountered on the night she returned to Jadeborough had a peculiar development.
Nathaniel stared at Sebastian coldly. “Tell me!”
”
Sebastian was momentarily stunned by Nathaniel’s intimidating demeanor. “We’ve discovered the identi of the mastermind behind the accident. It was Mr. Nigel. After we captured Mr. Nigel’s subordinate, we employed a few illegal methods to extract valuable information from the thug. According to the thug, he received orders from Mr. Nigel that night to infiltrate Rose Gardens to tamper with the car. However, when he arrived, the place was too dark. Hence, he mistook Mrs. Hadley’s vehicle for Mr. Timothy’s. The person Mr. Nigel was attempting to a*sa*sinate was actually Mr. Timothy. He didn’t expect the person wi died, in the end, was just a driver of Mr. Timothy’s.”
After the incident, when Nigel learned the news his brother was alive and that his hired goon almost kille Christina, he sweated profusely.
Nigel’s first instinct wasn’t to punish the thug. Instead, he was concerned about Nathaniel’s revenge. Consequently, he couldn’t care less about whether he should eliminate Timothy or not.
His a*sumption about Nathaniel was correct. After Nathaniel finished listening to Sebastian’s report, he fe the urge to murder Nigel. Killing Nigel is letting him off too easy, though. I think torture’s a better revenge.
Coldly, Nathaniel questioned, “Was Yerek involved in this plan?”
Sebastian frowned. “According to what I heard, after the incident at the Stone family’s banquet, Mr. Yerek relationship with his father grew tense. Both of them wanted to return to their previously luxurious lifestyle as quickly as possible. While Mr. Yerek wasn’t directly involved in the accident, I think he knew something about it. After all, he had someone monitor his father and even installed a surveillance device on Mr. Nigel.”
As Nathaniel digested that information, he theorized, “Timothy paid close attention to Nigel after the latter attempted to harm him. Thus, I don’t think Nigel’s stupid enough to commit a crime at this moment, but I don’t know for sure he didn’t aim to inflict harm and usurp his brother.”
After Timothy had been hidden in the dark for years, he realized the truth. In order to change Christina’s mind and ask her to save Gibson Corporation, he was willing to burn bridges with Azure.
Azure’s bias was clear as day. If Timothy had died in an accident, she would’ve attempted to kick Christina out of the family and allow Nigel to become the head of the family once more.
Even if Nigel couldn’t handle the heavy responsibility, Yerek would still be around to act as a substitute. Ultimately, Yerek would be the only winner.
Sebastian finally understood the intricacies of the matter and broke into a cold sweat. “Do you mean it’s possible Mr. Yerek used his father’s name to hire the thug?”
Nathaniel eyed Sebastian with praise. Then, he sneered, “We’ll know soon enough if Yerek’s behind this.” Nigel’s company is on the verge of bankruptcy right now. Unquestionably, I can destroy the company overnight with little effort. Since that pair of father and son don’t know how to behave themselves, I don’t mind pouring more fuel on the fire they’re trying to extinguish.
“Ask someone to sabotage Nigel’s company and plant clues pointing to Winston. Hopefully, Winston will be spurred to purchase Nigel’s company. We should let them fight first.” A cold look swirled in Nathaniel’s eyes. “After completing this plan, I want you to turn the Stone family against Nigel.” Nigel’s appearance isn’t
