Chapter 391 How Dare You Come Back, Huh?
Alexander would spend at least a month or two in France this time before coming back, so he wanted to take another look at his daughter, who had just undergone surgery, before leaving.
All the doctors and nurses in the inpatient department knew Alexander. Upon seeing him, the nurse on duty immediately asked, “Are you here to visit Tina, President Duncan?”
“Uh-huh.”
“She’s been sleeping all this while.”
Alexander hesitated for a moment while looking in the ward’s direction. “Is anyone there with her?”
The nurse replied, “A nurse’s staying in the ward with her, but I didn’t see anyone from your family all afternoon after the surgery. Tina was transferred to the general ward when her condition stabilized. We called Miss Hunter at the time, but we couldn’t get through to her. Perhaps she was busy.”
Alexander furrowed his brow in confusion. “You mean no one came in the afternoon?”
The nurse staying in Tina’s ward thoughtfully left upon seeing Alexander. The ward was somewhat dark after the door was closed. Walking over to the side of the bed, Alexander sat down in the chair and studied his daughter’s face.
Tina had a fair complexion, and her eyes and brows resembled Courtney’s very much, whereas her nose and mouth resembled his own. Back when he met the lost and running little girl for the first time at the airport, something about her had struck him as familiar, and he even gave her a box of chocolate because of this. However, he would never have thought at the time that the little girl was his own flesh and blood.
Alexander felt very sorry for Tina when he recalled Courtney telling him that the girl had suffered a lot over the years because of a congenital defect. She’s only a child, yet she had grown used to going in and out of hospitals since she was little. Even so, she’s still so cheerful and vivacious, and she seems in much better shape than Jordan, who grew up being surrounded and taken care of by so many people at home.
At the thought of this, the furrow in Alexander’s brow deepened, and an idea flashed across his mind. If Jordan had grown up around Courtney, he probably wouldn’t have had such a temperament. Courtney had gotten him to speak in less than a year, which proves that I’ve not taken enough care of him.
Just as Alexander was thinking, the little figure suddenly stirred in her sickbed. “Daddy…” The child’s clear voice rang softly in the ward. Startled, the man looked up.
Tina had woken up before Alexander noticed it. There was still a confused look in her eyes, and her voice was somewhat husky. “Daddy? Why are you here? Where’s Mommy?”
Alexander crouched over the bed and held the tiny hand that reached out to him. He comforted Tina, saying, “Your mommy’s got something to do, so she’ll probably come later. Are you not feeling well? Let me call the doctor for you.”
Tina shook her head with some difficulty, which made her look even frailer. “Daddy, have you made it up with Mommy?”
Alexander was stunned for a moment. Though he didn’t say anything, his expression was very easy for Tina to read; she had always been a clever kid who was good at reading faces, after all. “Daddy, you shouldn’t make Mommy angry. She’s very kind and wonderful, and she likes you so much, but you’ve always been mean to her. You’re even worse than Daddy Elijah. There’s no way she’ll be together with you if you treat her like this.”
Tina was getting tired after saying so much in one breath, and her face inevitably showed a look of disappointment when she looked at Alexander.
Alexander thought it somewhat funny that he had been lectured like that by a kid, though he was also filled with self-reproach at the same time. “Did your mommy tell you that she likes me?”
“Uh-huh.” Tina’s little face was pale. “Why would Mommy agree to marry you if she doesn’t like you, Daddy?”
“Maybe it’s because of you and Jordan.”
“No, that’s not the reason.” Tina got somewhat irritated. “Even I would get angry when you say this, Daddy, so Mommy’s gonna be angry too, of course. Why would she ignore her own feelings for somebody else’s sake?”
Alexander’s face took on a somewhat complicated expression. Tina is only a child, but what she said is right. Courtney isn’t someone who would sacrifice herself easily and needlessly, so why would she sacrifice herself for the two kids’ sake by marrying into the Duncans? Am I really never on her mind? That can’t be possible, he thought.
Just then, Tina added, “Daddy, Mommy told me that we can’t just take what people say and do at face value; we have to be considerate of their feelings. There are many feelings that people don’t express in words, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t there.”
Alexander was at a loss for words upon hearing what Tina said.
Then, Tina continued, “Honestly, I really wish I could live together with Jordan and a daddy who loves me, but when Mommy asked me whether I wanted to be with you or her, I said I want a daddy who loves Mommy. So, if you can’t make her happy, I can only call you Mr. Alexander in the future.”
Tina had said a lot, and every word she said pricked Alexander’s heart, especially when she said, “I can only call you Mr. Alexander in the future,” toward the end of her speech, which perturbed him somewhat.
After leaving the hospital, Alexander phoned Courtney up. He wanted to sort things out, apologize as he should, and proceed as he should. In any case, he couldn’t put the kids in a difficult position.
“Sorry, the number you’ve dialed is currently unavailable…”
A recorded female voice repeated the same message over and over again on the other end of the phone. Alexander called Courtney again several more times, but the result was the same. He thought about it for a moment and reckoned that Courtney was still angry about what had happened that afternoon.
Just then, his chauffeur drove up to the Duncans’ villa. “Young Master Alexander, it seems that something has happened at the residence…”
Alexander looked up and saw the villa being ablaze with lights. It seemed that all the lights in the villa were on, making the building seem all the more obtrusive at night. Moreover, women’s panic-stricken screams were heard from there continuously, and the sight of the long line of black sedans in front of the villa caused a flicker of alarm to flash across Alexander’s eyes. The familiar scene is appearing again after only a few days, he thought. “Stop the car.”
In the Duncans’ villa, Harry warned angrily as he failed to stop the bodyguards from ransacking the place, “I’ve called the police! If you guys keep on barging around like this, the police are gonna arrest you later!”
However, a voice replied, “I’m afraid that the police are gonna arrest you guys along with us if you don’t hand her over. If that happens, you’re not gonna be able to get away like us.”
Dressed in business attire, Lilian looked especially aggressive as she stood in 12-centimeter-high heels in the center of the living room. Standing next to her was Elijah, who hadn’t said a word ever since he barged in with his men, though his face looked as black as thunder.
“Pulling down the door of my house again after only a couple of days, huh?” A chilly voice sounded at the door as Alexander entered the house without even changing into his slippers. When he saw the men moving around upstairs that Elijah had brought with him, his face grew even darker. “You’re not just pulling down the door of my house but also searching my home and seizing my property this time, eh?”
Upon seeing Alexander, Elijah strode up to him without hesitation. He uttered icily, “How dare you come back, huh?” Then, he seized Alexander by the collar. The instant he did so, Alexander seized his collar as well. Since the two men were of similar build, neither of them looked less imposing than the other, and both of them refused to budge.
Alexander retorted, “Why would I be afraid to come back? This is my house! How dare you come to my house now that you’re working against Sunhill Enterprise?”
“I don’t have time to talk to you about anything else.” Elijah took a deep breath with a grim look on his face. “What did you do to Courtney?”
“What do you mean?” Alexander knitted his brows with a cold expression. “You’d better let go of me.”
“Let go of you? Ha!” Elijah let out a sneer as he swung his fist at Alexander’s face.
