“Stop talking right now!” John turned away abruptly. “I’ll go talk to the doctors about the recovery process. You have a good rest!”
“John…”
Even as I doubled over and coughed, John pretended as though he hadn’t heard me. He quickened his footsteps and disappeared out of the door in a matter of seconds.
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, Ashton 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?” Ashton’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?”
Ashton’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.” Ashton 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 Ashton, “You said you have new leads about the baby’s whereabouts?”
“That’s right,” Ashton 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 Ashton 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.
Ashton 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.”
