Chapter 577
When Natalie opened her phone to check the news, she saw a video of Lydia, about to jump off the hospital rooftop. It was right at the top of the home page of the Barnes’ biggest news website.
The entire Internet community was up in arms about it and filled with abuse. The video of Lydia on the rooftop had gone viral, and in it you could clearly hear Lydia’s hysterical questioning of Brandon.
The comments below were even worse. The most liked comment was from someone calling for a pushback against the Larson Group, which they said was a corrupt business. They were going to boycott all kinds of products from the Larson Group from now on, and any high-ranking reviews were going to be revised as best they could be, if not pulled down altogether.
“Stop watching it. It was bound to happen because these people know nothing about the truth. It will be fine once it all dies down.” Brandon turned off Natalie’s phone and said calmly, “It won’t annoy anyb*ody but us.”
There was nothing Natalie could do. Staring at the calm look on Brandon’s face, she asked, “What can I do for you?”
Brandon didn’t say anything. He was thinking hard. There were a lot of reporters outside the hospital. It would make things difficult if they were to take photos of Natalie.
After a long time, Brandon looked round to Sean, saying,
“Take her away. Make sure she gets home safe, okay?”
Then he looked down at Natalie and raised his hand to stroke her smooth, soft cheek. He smiled gently. “Wait for me there.”
******
Night fell. After Vivian’s physical examination, a nurse pushed her into the VIP ward.
Brandon had made all the arrangements.
Vivian peered out of the window to see Natalie leaving in a car.
“Miss Cooper, I’m going to bind up your wound. Tell me if it hurts.” The nurse picked up the cotton swabs and gauze to begin carefully bandaging the wound on Vivian’s neck.
It was clear to the nurse that Vivian was in a bad mood. She smiled and tried to comfort her. “Don’t worry, Miss Cooper. There are only bruises on your face and forehead. It might look terrible now, but as long as you take good care of them, they won’t leave any scars.”
Scars? The nurse’s words took Vivian even further down into her depression. She replied impatiently, “I know that. No need to keep reminding me.”
If it hadn’t been for the accident, Vivian would never have changed her mind and brought the baby back.
That afternoon, Vivian had asked those two men in black to take away Lydia’s baby, but even though the two idiots took the baby away, they forgot to deal with Lydia first.
Vivian had been already to leave when she saw Lydia up on the rooftop, about to jump off the building. Natalie and Brandon were standing not that far away from Vivian and when Natalie took the call, she could hear Lydia asking Natalie to give the baby back. If she didn’t, she was going to jump off the building.
Vivian hadn’t expected Lydia would go to extremes.
It wasn’t long before the crowd grew, and with it the media presence. Vivian had no choice but to call the two men back and get them to find a place with surveillance cameras where she could get them to help her make it look like she’d been in a fight with them to get the baby back.
The men in black were shocked at her request. “Miss Cooper, surely you’re still going to pay us even if we beat you up, right?”
Holding the baby in her arms, Vivian said, with a fierce look in her eyes, “Just hit me. The harder, the better!”
So the two men really went for it. They followed her instruction to the letter. If the doctors and nurses hadn’t come and stopped them, Vivian was afraid she might have really been killed.
Staring at the scar on the back of her hand, Vivian thought about Brandon, how he had seemed just now, and felt a little worried.
He must have asked his men to investigate the surveillance footage. But since he still hadn’t come to see her, she knew he didn’t suspect her yet.
“Miss Cooper, please lift up your head. I haven’t put any cream on your jaw yet.”
Listening to the nurse, Vivian raised her chin impatiently.
The nurse accidentally poked the cotton swab into the wound a little too hard. Vivian winced in pain. Once she was over it, she gave the nurse beside her an intense glare.
The fierce look in Vivian’s eyes shocked the nurse. She didn’t think that Vivian, who had always been so gentle, could look at her this way.
Realizing she had dropped her act, Vivian fought down the anger and found a smile. She put a hand to her neck and went back to playing meek. “Thank you for helping bandage my neck. It really hurt just then, so I got a little upset. I’m sorry, can you forgive me?”
The nurse smiled, tidying up her stuff. She said, “Miss Cooper, you can stay in hospital for a few more days so we can keep you under observation. Mr. Larson has paid all your medical fees, so no need to worry about that.” “Please thank Mr. Larson for me.” Vivian smiled politely. She had planned to leave the hospital tomorrow. But now it occurred to her that Lydia was still here, so staying was probably a good option. “Do you know which ward I could find Lydia in? I’d like to see how she is.”
Vivian still had to persuade Lydia to clear things up for Brandon. Vivian’s saving her child might persuade Lydia to agree at last.
The nurse told Vivian, “There’s no hurry if you want to see Lydia. She’s being monitored in the VIP ward because of her mental instability. That way the medical staff can watch her 24 hours a day, and they will. If you want to see Lydia now, you have to get the doctor’s permission. And, Miss Cooper, you’d better not go wandering around just now. The hospital gates are surrounded by reporters. We just caught a male reporter pretending to be a patient so he could get in. You’d better be careful.”
Vivian nodded with a smile. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to wait until all this fuss is over before I can see Lydia. Thanks for the information.”
Everything was a mess now and Brandon must have been very busy. If it hadn’t been for Natalie letting Jethro and Lydia come into the Larson Group building the other day, none of these things would have happened.
However, Natalie could do nothing but hide away now that things had gone out of control. What a loser. 2
Vivian relaxed her face and let herself smile. She picked up the phone from under her pillow and had a leisurely scroll through the news.
The Larson Group was still being hotly discussed online, and the public were starting to boycott all the goods they produced. Financial reporters were also saying that Larson Group stocks had plummeted, and their shareholders were furious. The Larson Group was in meltdown.
Vivian wanted to switch to an anonymous account and have a go at Natalie in the comment section, but then she noticed someone had recorded a video of her giving Lydia her baby back and uploaded it to the Internet. The comment section was full of anonymous users asking who the woman with the baby was.
One reporter was looking for a connection between the Larson Group, the kidnap of Lydia’s baby and the woman giving the baby back. In particular, whether the woman had anything to do with the Larson Group.
