Chapter 228 One Should Always Repay the Kindness That People Have Shown Them
Rachel was stunned upon hearing Julian’s words.
“Just have a good rest and call me if you need anything,” Julian said. Then, he got up and left with no intention of hearing her response.
Rachel’s lips quivered as she watched him leave, but she didn’t explain anything in the end.
Thanks to the conclusive evidence, Mr. Wayne was detained for the kidnapping and was awaiting trial. Furthermore, he had previously been charged with running a prostitution business. Therefore, it was almost impossible for him to escape punishment by law this time, and his predicament had been reported on the news quite a number of times.
Frankie told Justin about this in the ward. He said, “Now that things have gotten so serious, no one would dare to shield Mr. Wayne anymore. Also, you’d better have another string to your bow. Who settled the case of his nightclub’s involvement in prostitution last time? Collect the evidence and have it mailed anonymously to the Discipline Inspection Bureau.”
“I have sent someone to get it done already.”
“Great.” Justin leaned his back against the head of the bed, his leg still in plaster. Then, he glanced out of the door and asked, “How is she?”
Frankie hesitated for a moment. “Miss Hudson has been discharged from the hospital.”
Justin immediately straightened up in disbelief. “She’s already been discharged?” How could she leave the hospital without a word after I did her such a huge favor?
Frankie explained in embarrassment, “You’ve been unconscious for two days, whereas Miss Hudson was only in frail health. She was discharged from the hospital after a day’s rest, and that is quite normal.”
“Normal? Do you think it’s normal for her to leave right away without even saying thank you to the person who saved her life?”
“I’m sorry to say this, President Burton, but it was because of you that Samuel got kidnapped, so this matter is actually—” Frankie said, but he got a dirty look before he could finish his sentence. Since he didn’t dare to say another word, he quickly buttoned his lip. “Uh, please have lunch first.”
“I’m not eating. Take it away!” Justin’s face darkened as he flipped the pages of the contract in his hand loudly.
Frankie scratched his head. Did I put my foot in it again?
Frankie looked at the lunch box he was carrying as he left the ward. After hesitating for a long time, he dialed a number. “Hello, Miss Hudson? It’s me, Frankie.”
Rachel was making lunch at home. After answering the phone, she turned down the heat, walked toward the living room, and asked on the other end of the line, “What’s the matter?”
“Uh, Miss Hudson, could you come to the hospital if you’re free?”
“Why? Did something happen there?”
“Nothing. Actually, something did happen.” Frankie sounded very troubled. “President Burton refuses to eat anything. The way I see it, he isn’t going to eat anything until you’re here. You don’t have to do anything, though—all you have to do is come here and say that you made the food. I’ll get the meal ready.”
Rachel fell silent at once.
After a long time, Frankie sighed on the other end of the line. He said carefully, “I know such a request is a bit too unreasonable for you. President Burton has forgotten what happened back then, but I know all of it. I’m sorry for making such a presumptuous request, and please pretend that I never called you.”
After hanging up the phone, Rachel sat on the sofa in a trance with her cell phone in her hand. Samuel poked his head out of the crack of his bedroom door and watched for a long time before calling, “Mommy!”
Rachel came to her senses at once. “Are you hungry, Samuel? The soup will be ready in a minute.”
“Mommy, I’d like to go to the hospital to visit Daddy. Can I do that?”
Rachel was startled. “We don’t need to go to the hospital. Somebody is looking after him there.”
Samuel grabbed Rachel’s hand. “But Daddy is staying alone in the hospital with no visitors. Besides, the food in the hospital must be tasteless. If he can’t eat the food in the hospital, he’ll fall sick. That’s pathetic.”
“He won’t fall sick.”
“He will, and I heard it. Didn’t Mr. Beckham say that he’s refusing to eat anything?”
Rachel frowned. “Do you really want to see him?”
“Yeah.” Samuel nodded solemnly. “Daddy saved my life, after all. Mommy, didn’t you say that we should always repay the kindness that people have shown us?”
Rachel’s feelings were mixed; she couldn’t tell Samuel that he had been kidnapped only because he was unaccountably acknowledged as Justin’s son. If it weren’t for Justin, his life would have been peaceful, and nothing would have happened. The same was true of what had happened to Nancy back then. Despite all the efforts Justin had made, it was because of him that Nancy died in the end. However, the words ‘Keep on running, and don’t look back,’ had been reverberating in her ears these days ever since she heard them in the rain. These words kept invading her dreams at night as they overlapped with the voices she had heard during the fire back when she was little.
Just as Frankie was at a loss for what to do in the hospital’s inpatient department, he saw a familiar figure coming out of the elevator. When he saw the figure walking toward the ward with short legs, his eyes lit up at once. “Samuel?”
Samuel was carrying his school bag with a lunch box in his hand. “Hi, Mr. Beckham.”
“Samuel, where’s your mom?”
“Mom said she wouldn’t come, but she told me to bring this here.” Samuel handed the lunch box to Frankie. “This is for Daddy. Mommy made this herself.”
Frankie took the lunch box and glanced behind Samuel hesitantly. “Is your mom really not here?”
Samuel winked and put his tiny hand on his lips as he whispered, “Shh! It’s a secret.”
How could Rachel possibly allow Samuel to go out alone after the latter had been kidnapped once? Frankie smiled as he realized what the boy meant. He knocked on the door, entered the ward, and said, “Look who’s here, President Burton.”
Justin’s cold eyes lit up visibly the instant he saw Samuel, but he regained his composure soon afterward. “Why are you here?”
Samuel entered the ward like an adult and put the lunch box on the table. Then, as he put down his school bag, he replied, “I’m here to bring you your lunch. It’s delicious; my mom made it herself.”
“Where is she? Why didn’t she come in person?”
“My mom is very busy.”
“Is she so busy that she doesn’t have time to deliver the meal that she had time to prepare?”
Samuel turned around and looked at Justin with a stern countenance. “Are you going to eat it or not?”
Justin was rendered speechless by his words.
Meanwhile, Frankie called a nurse over to help adjust the armchair and the small desk beside the sickbed to the right angle so that it would be convenient for Justin to rest his plastered leg properly and eat his lunch.
“Mommy said that the fish soup is rich in calcium. You should drink more of it.”
“No man keeps talking about their mom like you,” Justin needled Samuel as he drank the fish soup. Perhaps because people of the same gender often found each other repugnant, he had always given Samuel the cold shoulder. Even after his narrow escape from death this time, he was still impatient with the boy. Frankie seriously suspected that Samuel would have been thrown out of the ward as soon as he entered if it weren’t for the fact that he had brought the food Rachel prepared.
Samuel disagreed with Justin, though. “My mom is right, so why can’t I say that? Don’t you have a mother?”
“You…” Justin was so speechless with rage that he could only drown his indignation in food.
