“Please hurry with the exposé on Anastasia. She’s far too vicious to get away scot-free like this. We’re talking about my husband and Erica’s father here. How could she be so cruel as to stop us from seeing him?” Naomi cried, looking anguished as she buried her face in her hands.
“We’ll finish the write-up and publish it as soon as possible. Can’t have someone so downright heartless to her own father do this without repercussions, can we? Do you have any pictures for the column?” Timothy, the editor-in-chief of the press, asked.
“Yes.” Erica fished out her phone and pulled up the candid shot she had taken of Anastasia in the conference room last time. She had been bored and decided to take several pictures for her own amusement, only to find that she had taken one where Anastasia was sitting next to Francis.
Upon seeing the picture. Timothy nodded in approval and said, “That’s a good one, and the public will perceive it as Anastasia being eager to get close to
Francis for the sake of taking over the company as CEO.” He stared at the picture for a moment longer, and he had to admit that Anastasia was stunning. With her perfect features and warm smile, it was hard to believe that she was capable of doing something so underhanded.
This could give rise to another hot topic. Anastasia was like a rose in full bloom in that picture, but concealed within her was greed and fierce ambition to take Tillman Constructions for herself, and apparently, she would stop at nothing to achieve that goal.
Naomi and Erica were like a pair of thieves when they left the press company later that day. Now that they had done their part, all they needed to do was for the press to do their dirty work and ruin Anastasia’s reputation.
Meanwhile, Francis had undergone a series of check-ups at Presgrave Hospital, and Elliot came rushing back just as the doctor was reporting the medical findings to Anastasia.
The atmosphere in the conference room was grim as Theodore Dugray, the Head of Neurology in Presgrave Hospital. announced, “Your father’s condition is worse than we presumed and based on the tests we ran on him, we found that his brain is severely damaged. Self-recovery is nearly impossible, and while surgery is the best option we have, he does not meet the requisite standards for us to carry out the operation immediately. We’ll have to keep him under observation for at least three months before we draft out the surgery plan.”
Anastasia had been wound up so tightly over the last few days that she almost snapped after hearing the news. She clapped her hand over her mouth as tears spilled down her face. I didn’t know Dad’s condition would be so serious. Is this it? Do I not get to see even a glimmer of
hope for this situation to turn around?
At the sight of this, Elliot quickly handed her a piece of tissue, a gentle gesture that did little to soften the impact of the hard news. He felt his heart twist when he saw how devastated she looked, but there was
nothing he could do to take the pain away from her.
“Do not give up, not while there is still hope,” Elliot said to the doctor.
“We’ll come up with the best solution to save Mr. Tillman,” the doctor promised.
Another doctor who had come in with Theodore’s small medical team added, “Miss Tillman, preliminary checks have led us to believe that your father will remain in a comatose state for the rest of his life if he does not undergo surgery. That said, the chances of him regaining consciousness after the surgery are slim, and we’d like you to be mentally prepared for any unfavorable outcome.”
She nodded weakly. She knew that almost
all the odds were against Francis now. but she wouldn’t give up on even the slightest chance to save him. She took a deep breath and asked, “Have you found any traces of the pill I brought in my father’s oral cavity?”
The doctor from the laboratory shook his head and answered, “We’ve compared the samples and found that the traces of the
pill in your father’s mouth are different from the pills you brought.”
“So you’re saying that the pills he last took not only did not help with his condition but also caused him to go into cardiac arrest?”
“Yes. The pills he ingested are lethal to the human heart, and if we were to go by pharmaceutical standards, these pills would be considered highly poisonous. More importantly, we have deduced based on the lab tests that this was not the first time your father has taken these pills; he might have taken them for days prior to his cardiac arrest.”
Anastasia’s fists clenched under the table. and her palms hurt where her nails dug into them. She was almost certain that Naomi had plotted this against Francis, and the motive behind such a deadly move more likely than not had something to do with Tillman Constructions.
Francis had on several occasions mentioned that he would leave the company to Anastasia. He even joked
about having his son take over the reins back in the hospital the other day. Anastasia thought about this, and she wondered if his intentions to deprive Naomi and Erica of getting their share in the company led the woman to commit such a horrendous act.
Knowing Francis, his sentiments for Naomi as her husband prompted him to put his guard down around her. He wouldn’t lie to her about any plans he might have for his commercial or personal assets. As such, he definitely told her about the successorship of the company.
Right now, Anastasia would give up succeeding the company if it meant her father could be saved and live out his best life. However, it was all too late. Francis body had gone into shock, and he was as good as brain-dead.
