Chapter 20
833words
"Mr. Ferguson, your wife's hospital checkup came back positive for gonorrhea. You should get tested as well."
Rebecca sat on the side, tears streaming down her cheeks. When the hospital phone rang, she instinctively stood up and moved away from her son, her face showing discomfort.
She even got up and quietly wiped her hands.
Samuel watched his mother's every action in silence, not uttering a word.
He thought to himself that if Tania were there, she would never look at him that way.
The thought of Tania made his heart race.
He did not mind that Lucy had passed on a serious illness to him, but he could not bear the thought of Tania's life being destroyed.
"Samuel, you need to take care of yourself. The company is swamped, and your two brothers are busy — one is applying for a PhD program overseas, and the other has a big board meeting today. You just focus on getting better here in the hospital, and I'll visit you when I can," Rebecca told him.
Samuel did not respond and just closed his eyes, exhausted.
He tried calling Elias.
Elias did not pick up, and Samuel was not sure if he was just busy or ignoring him.
Samuel removed his IV and headed to the hotel to find Tania.
Elias had warned the hotel management ahead of time, so Samuel's car was stopped from entering, and the security guards kept him from getting through the main gate.
Samuel decided to wait outside.
As the night wore on, it began to rain. Samuel was cold and tired but too worried to leave, his eyes fixed on the gate.
When the sky lightened with the morning, the gate finally opened, and Samuel saw Tania sitting in the passenger seat.
Tania looked anxious.
Just the night before, she had accepted Elias's advances.
It was not an engagement, just an agreement to start dating and see where things would go.
As such, Tania was heading home with Elias to meet the parents and talk about their future together.
Elias looked as if he did not have a care in the world, but deep down, he was more worried than Tania could imagine.
"Tania, don't feel weighed down. When we took you in, mom and dad put your name under our great-uncle, who didn't have any kids of his own. Technically, you're not in our official family records, so you don't have to worry about anything."
Elias's words were all jumbled up when suddenly, a dark figure loomed in front of the car.
He hit the brakes with all his might!
It was Samuel.
Samuel had run out of options and had thrown himself in front of Elias's car, lying there in the path of the oncoming vehicle.
Elias and Tania got out, one on each side, and when Samuel caught sight of Tania, he could not stop his tears.
"Tania, I'm sorry… I sent Lucy to a psychiatric hospital, and the doctor just told me she tested positive for gonorrhea. I don't care about my own life anymore, but Tania… you still have a future."
Elias' face went pale.
He did not even look at Samuel, who could not stand because of his injured legs, and quickly led Tania to the car to head for the nearest hospital.
The whole drive there, Elias was shaking with nerves, promising himself over and over that if Tania had any health issues, he would make sure the Ferguson family made it right.
However, Tania was the picture of calm. "It's going to be okay."
The test results came back two hours later.
Tania was perfectly fine, not a single issue.
She shrugged, "See, I told you it was okay. I haven't let Samuel near me since Lucy came back."
Thinking about it all made Tania feel a little blue.
She flashed back to that day when Samuel had yanked her from the basement and wildly pinned her down on the bedroom bed.
It was the unborn child who had somehow protected her from that terrible event.
Tania brushed away a tear and picked up the phone, quickly standing up.
"What's the matter, Tania?" Elias asked.
"The new medicine for the Ferguson family's sickness, the data's all fixed up, I'm off to get it," Tania said in an even voice, without a hint of love or anger, as if Samuel was just a sick person who needed help, "The research lab needs to push harder. We've all been staying late, maybe there's still a chance for Samuel's sickness."
Elias drove Tania to Kingston University.
As they drove, they passed a mental hospital with a crowd gathered around it.
The car's radio was sharing the latest news.
"This afternoon, around two, a woman got away from a mental hospital in our city and sadly fell from a building. It looks like the woman was the famous internet star Lucy who had just come back home..."
