Chapter 223 She’s Really Sick
Justin said, “I told you she isn’t home, Charlotte. She must have headed out for some business. Let’s go home.” “That’s impossible! It’s the weekend!”
“But there’s nobody here, and there’s no way for us to enter.” “I have the password, though!” As the little girl spoke, she pulled the door knob and keyed in the password.
Before Justin came to his senses, the door let out a beep and opened.
“How do you know the password, Charlotte?”
“Samuel told me about it. It’s the sum of our birthdays.”
Upon entering the door, the girl called out, “Mommy!”
The bedroom door was barely cracked open, and a dim, amber light shone from the other side. After pacing toward the room, Justin pushed the door open and saw a woman lying on the bed.
We’ve been making so much noise, yet there’s not even a single reaction from her. Is she really sick?
Meanwhile, Charlotte rushed over as well and made her way through under his arm, her feet pattering toward the bed. She lifted Rachel’s hand gently, but before she could yell her mother’s name, she uttered in surprise, “So hot!”
The stupefied Justin hurried over without pondering much.
Beside Rachel’s pillow was a fallen ice pack, and no one knew who had prepared it for her.
Justin quickly reached his hand out and placed it on her forehead. He was shocked upon the scorching heat at a gentle touch. Clearly, it was a grave, high fever. She seemed fine yesterday, though. Why has it become so serious?
“What’s wrong with Mommy, Daddy?”
“We’re going to the hospital, Charlotte. Tell your uncle we’ll arrive at once.”
Having said that, he picked Rachel up horizontally from the bed and stormed out the door.
Very soon, he carried the woman into one of the emergency rooms in the hospital, and his hastiness attracted quite a bit of attention.
Meanwhile, Julian, who had gotten the call earlier, was already waiting in the room. When he saw Justin carrying Rachel into the room, he immediately rebuked, “What is it this time, Justin? What did you do to her again? She has always been sick, yet you continue to torture her. Can’t you just cut her some slack?”
“How about you cut me some slack instead and take a look at her?!”
As he gazed coldly at Julian, Justin put the woman down as he reminded, “We checked her temperature on the way here. Her high fever is at 39.7 degrees.”
As a professional, Julian’s temper was easily controlled. As soon as he calmed down, he lifted Rachel’s eyelids and shone a flashlight at her eyeballs, questioning as he inspected, “When did the fever start?”
“I’m not sure. The last time I saw her was at 11.00PM yesterday, and she seemed fine. We found her like this half an hour ago.”
“Did she consume something she shouldn’t have?”
“I have no idea.” The moment Justin blurted that, he seemed as though he had suddenly remembered something. “She must have taken some propofol and some wine afterward. It was yesterday night.”
Julian lifted his head, dumbfounded. “Propofol?”
Meanwhile, Justin glowered and said, “Why are you staring at me like that? I didn’t give her the drugs.”
“Prepare for a blood phlebotomy.”
“Yes, Dr. Peters.”
After hassling for almost half an hour, the test results finally came out. As they expected, the fever was caused by the incomplete fading of the anesthetic component in the drugs.
After setting up an infusion for Rachel, Julian pulled the curtains and came out of the ward.
“What happened?”
“Ask her yourself when she’s awake.”
Obviously, Justin found it troublesome to explain everything to him.
When he saw how apathetic the other man was, Julian furiously grabbed his collars and lifted him up. “D*mn it, Justin! Do you even know that she once planned to leave Riverdale after giving birth and ended up with a profuse bleeding at the airport? If I hadn’t been beside her, she would have lost her life. All those years, her life depended on a substantial amount of drugs. Do you intend on destroying her once again?”
Justin shoved Julian away, visibly irked. “What the f*ck are you talking about? You’re acting like I have no idea that she wasn’t the promised spouse I was supposed to marry! Since she decided to deceive everyone, am I obliged to show her any respect? Instead of showing her baseless affection, I seriously think we’re better off divorced!”
“Bullsh*t!” Julian gritted his teeth. “Rae? Deceived everyone to marry you? Who on earth told you that? It was Amber, wasn’t it? Rae only married you because Jefferey threatened her with her grandmother’s life and forced her to marry you in Amber’s place!”
Justin was baffled by this and questioned, “What are you talking about?”
“If you actually cared about this, you would have looked into it instead of blindly taking Amber’s words for it. Look at you getting fooled like d*mn clown. After all these years, you’re still clueless as to what kind of woman Amber is, huh?”
When he heard how Julian reprimanded him, Justin tightened his brows.
Meanwhile, after an awfully long dream, Rachel woke up and found herself in the hospital. When she came to her senses, she saw Julian yawning by her bed, and it felt like five years back in Montenegro all over again.
Back then, her health was so atrocious that she was constantly frequenting the hospital, and always woke up by Julian’s side.
“Are you awake yet?” After being a doctor for years, he could never fall into deep sleep anymore. “How do you feel? Better?”
Rachel expressed apologetically, “I’m sorry for troubling you again.”
“We’re family, aren’t we? Your fever has gone down. Get some more rest, and you’ll be discharged tomorrow morning.”
“Okay.”
Since she felt drained, Rachel shut her eyes once again and was welcomed by the scenery in her dream; it seemed like time had stopped, and her yard was covered in flames while a teenager was pulling her away.
Initially, she had been contemplating how to face Justin when she returned to Riverdale, only to find out later that he had already forgotten about everything he had to do with her. Well, it works for me.
The next morning, Julian was about to send Rachel home after finishing up his shift. Much to his surprise, the ward was already empty by then.
When a nurse saw him standing there idly, she said, “Miss Hudson just left, and she told me to inform you about it.”
“All right, I got it.”
With that, Julian immediately gave Rachel a call.
“What’s the rush, Rachel?”
“There’s something I need to manage in the office, so I left in a hurry. Sorry, Julian, I didn’t manage to say goodbye.”
“As long as you’re fine.”
“By the way, if you have the time, could you check on Samuel for me? Jolly has been missing these few days and the kid has been home alone. He’s only going to school tomorrow.”
“All right.”
Right when the call ended, Rachel arrived at Burton Group where Lisa was waiting for her in the lobby. “Morning, Chris. Mr. Howard somehow heard about our contact with Mr. Wayne and explicitly expressed to discontinue our partnership contract.”
“Did you try talking to him and clarifying that we have no intentions to work with Mr. Wayne?
“They’re refusing to have any contact with us. Perhaps we should get President Burton to handle this.”
Rachel frowned and answered, “Okay, I got it.”
Meanwhile, Justin was studying some project plans in his office.
Suddenly, Frankie came over and handed him a couple of documents that needed his signature. “President Burton, I’ve amended these as you requested. If there aren’t any other issues, you may sign them.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll take my leave, then.”
“Hold on,” said Justin, stopping Frankie.
“What is it, President Burton?”
