The old Mr. Nacht took his leave only after the three kids were tucked in for the night, and he made it a point to remind Mr. Hooters to take care of them to the best of his and his team’s abilities.
They were not his grandchildren, yet that did not stop him from treating them as such.
He could not afford to let anything happen to those three precious children.
Mr. Hooters nodded profusely as he spoke, “Yes, Mr. Nacht! I’ll personally attend to that!”
Ellie fell asleep after the old man left, and Robbie took this chance to clamber out of his cot and gently pat the shoulder of the nurse that had been taking care of them. “Sorry Miss, may I borrow your phone?”
“Of course!” the nurse said, handing over her phone.
Fearing that he might wake his siblings up, he hid in the bathroom and dialed Mrs. Berry’s number, only to be met with a robotic voice telling him that Mrs. Berry’s phone was turned off.
Sighing, he proceeded to call his mother, but no one picked up the phone.
Robbie’s heart raced. Is Mommy on a business trip again? Why hasn’t she returned home? Maybe she just doesn’t want to answer a call from an unfamiliar number?
Robbie decided to send his mother a message. Mommy, I’m Robbie. Please call this number when you see this message.
He returned the phone to the nurse afterward. “My Mommy didn’t pick up my calls. She’s probably busy right now. I figured that she won’t pick up if it’s an unfamiliar number, so I sent a message telling her to call back once she sees it. Can you inform me when she calls back, please?”
“Sure, no worries,” the nurse said, nodding. “You should sleep now.”
“Thank you…” Robbie said as a wave of fatigue washed over him. He stumbled back to his cot and fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
The nurse followed suit soon after.
Meanwhile, at Happy Avenue…
Zachary gave Charlotte a call, but it was ignored just like Robbie’s call. He frowned as his anxiety mounted.
Instead of calling her another time, he decided to call Raina instead to ask for Charlotte’s unit number.
Raina mentioned Mrs. Berry’s illness as well, and Zachary simply hummed in response.
He parked his car by the side of the road and climbed over the wall to enter Charlotte’s block.
The door to Charlotte’s apartment was locked, and no one answered when he tried knocking a few times.
He sighed and took out a card to get past the lock before sneaking into the apartment on his tiptoes.
Even so, he still somehow managed to wake Fifi up, and she began to flap her wings frantically. “Bad guy! Bad guy!”
“Shut up!” Zachary bellowed.
Fifi retracted her neck like a scared turtle and whimpered, “Mommy, Mommy, there’s a bad guy here…”
Zachary shook his head and walked past her cage to find Charlotte’s room, only to freeze in shock when he saw the sight before him.
Charlotte was on the floor, drenched from head to toe and deadly pale.
“You idiot!” Zachary growled as he picked her up bridal style and rushed out of the front door.
“Mommy! Mommy!” Fifi called, bursting out of her cage to follow Zachary out.
Zachary walked into the lift with Charlotte in his arms, and Fifi followed them closely. Instead of squawking incessantly as she had been before, she stayed silent and pecked Charlotte’s hair gently, as though she was trying to wake her owner up.
Zachary rolled his eyes and ignored Fifi. What a dumb bird!
Fifi followed him all the way to his car, chirping nervously along the way and staying huddled against Charlotte’s chest.
Zachary steered the car with one hand and gave Raina a call with his other hand, telling her to wait outside the hospital.
“Yes, Sir!” Raina answered.
After he hung up, he began to pick up speed, stealing worried glances at Charlotte’s motionless body next to him every so often.
