In the observation ward.
Robert Rhodes held the newly issued medical report.
“Mr.
Hawthorne, your test results are completely fine.”
“Can we leave now?” Adrian Hawthorne stood up.
“Follow up with them regarding Simon Cheney’s death compensation.
Find out exactly who is responsible for this incident.”
“Understood,” Robert replied.
“I’ll head out first,” Adrian said, waving a hand dismissively.
Wendy Scott grabbed her small purse and quickly hurried after him.
“Adrian, I’ll go with you.” She frowned.
“I can’t believe she just left like that without staying to take care of you.
You’ve had quite a shock today and need looking after.”
A casual smile played on Adrian’s lips, though it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Robert will take you back.”
Wendy froze for a moment.
“But…
I want to stay and take care of you.”
The corner of his mouth curved up.
He raised a hand and gently caressed Wendy’s cheek, repeating himself.
“Robert will take you back.”
Wendy opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to argue, but as she met Adrian’s bottomless, dark gaze, the words caught in her throat.
Biting her lip, she could only nod.
“I…
I understand.
Get a good rest, then.”
Adrian turned and walked out of the hospital.
As his car drove away, an image suddenly flashed through his mind.
It was the sight of those usually calm, indifferent eyes turning completely red.
The sight of those delicate shoulders trembling slightly.
And the sight of those slender fingers clutching so tightly they had turned white and shaky.
Adrian’s brow furrowed slightly.
He raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose and said in a deep voice, “Drive faster.”
“Right away, Mr.
Hawthorne.”
Leah Sterling wasn’t feeling well.
Her throat burned as if she had swallowed glowing coals, and her head pounded with an excruciating, throbbing pain.
She felt like she was about to fall sick.
She had been through this before, so she recognized the signs.
Leah drove all the way back to the hotel.
By the time she stepped out of the car, her legs felt like jelly, and extreme dizziness made stars dance in her vision.
Upon returning to her room, she couldn’t care about anything else.
She collapsed headfirst onto the bed, squeezed her eyes shut, and fell into a coma-like slumber amidst the splitting headache.
It felt like she was drowning, forcibly pushed under into a terrifying nightmare.
In the dream, the unsettling, pungent stench of gasoline filled her nose, mixed with a horrifyingly sweet and metallic scent of blood.
A gentle female voice, weak yet frantic, echoed out.
“Leah, Leah, wake up!
Wake up!”
Leah saw that face again—a face so covered in blood it was almost unrecognizable.
Yet, Leah could still feel the gentle and sorrowful expression in those eyes.
“M-Mom…
Mom…!” In the dream, she was still a little girl.
“Leah, my baby…
my sweet girl.
Don’t cry.
Don’t go to sleep…
Promise Mom!
Promise me!”
“I-I won’t go to sleep…!” she sobbed.
“I won’t!”
“Good.
Crawl out, my sweet girl.
Crawl out through the window, okay?”
“Mom…
what about you?
What about you?”
“Be a good girl, Leah.
Mom will be right behind you…
You crawl out first.
You’re a big girl now, and Mom can’t carry you, so you have to climb out by yourself, alright?”
“Okay…” she wailed.
“Mom, you have to hurry and come out too!”
The pain of shattered glass slicing her skin felt so incredibly vivid in the dream!
“Mom, come out!
Mom, hurry up and come out!”
But no matter how desperately the young girl cried out, the blood-soaked woman just looked at her, smiling gently and sadly.
She said to the young girl, “Leah, my baby, my sweet girl…
you have to be strong from now on, okay?
You have to be strong.
It’s okay to be sad, but don’t be sad for too long, alright?”
But the young Leah was crying too hard to give her mother an answer.
She forgot to nod so her mother could leave in peace.
By the time Leah realized what was happening in the dream and wanted to hurriedly tell her mother that she would be strong, everything before her eyes had already been engulfed in flames.
A wave of scorching heat washed over her, the thermal blast almost swallowing her whole.
She felt as if she were burning up, too.
No matter how wide she opened her eyes, she could no longer see the woman in the sea of fire.
“Mom…
Mom…”
She could almost still hear her mother’s voice ringing in her ears, telling her to wake up, telling her not to go to sleep.
“Wake up, Leah!” Adrian stared at the woman on the bed, his brow tightly furrowed.
His voice carried a trace of urgency.
“Leah!
Don’t go to sleep.
Wake up!”
He had originally returned to the hotel in this town just to find Leah, planning to take a shower and change his clothes before going next door to look for her.
To his surprise, as soon as he entered his room, he saw a small lump protruding from the large bed.
Stepping closer, he found Leah buried beneath the blankets.
The woman’s tiny face was completely drained of color, her lips chapped and dry.
Her pitch-black hair was soaked in cold sweat, clinging to her cheeks.
Her breathing was rapid, her exhales scorching hot.
Adrian gently touched her cheek.
It was burning hot.
His frown immediately deepened.
He tried to wake her up, but no matter how much he called her name, she wouldn’t open her eyes.
Instead, she just knit her brows tightly, as if she were suffering greatly in her sleep.
“Leah…!” Adrian frowned, reaching out to scoop her up from the bed.
Suddenly, he saw her chapped lips part slightly, as if she were trying to say something.
But her voice was incredibly faint.
“What is it?” Adrian couldn’t make out her words and had to lean in close to listen.
Then, he heard the faint syllables wrapped in her burning breath.
“Mom…
I’m scared…”
Adrian’s expression froze for a moment.
He lowered his eyes, gazing at her.
If he remembered correctly, Leah’s mother had passed away when Leah was eight years old.
He had heard vague rumors about it.
It was a tragic accident.
Her mother had been trapped in her seat after a car crash, unable to escape before leaking gasoline caught fire.
Rumor had it that Mrs.
Sterling was burned alive.
What was even more tragic was that eight-year-old Leah had personally experienced and witnessed the entire horrifying ordeal.
Although she survived, she had lost her mother forever.
Looking at her current state, Adrian wondered if seeing the photo of him covered in blood had triggered some terrible memories for her.
Pausing his attempt to pick her up, Adrian pulled out his phone and dialed Robert.
“Bring a doctor to the hotel.”
Hearing this, Robert immediately grew anxious.
“What’s wrong?
Are you injured somewhere?” He worried that perhaps Adrian had sustained an injury that went unnoticed earlier.
“It’s not me.
Leah is running a high fever and I can’t wake her up.
Bring a doctor over to take a look at her.”
“Understood.”
Feeling the scorching heat radiating from Leah’s body against his arm, Adrian grew inexplicably agitated.
“Hurry.”
After hanging up, Adrian stared at Leah lying on the bed.
He frowned for a moment before heading into the bathroom.
Not long after, he walked back out holding a damp towel.
He roughly wiped her face, cleaning away the cold sweat.
But the coolness of the wet towel brought Leah immense comfort, and her small face instinctively nuzzled toward it.
From this angle, she ended up nestling her cheek directly into Adrian’s palm.