Chapter 5: The Mistake

Chapter 5: The Mistake

Arthur’s P.O.V

The pediatric private ward was quiet and dimly lit, with a soft, hushed atmosphere. My little girl lay on the bed, her golden hair spread out around her like a halo. A teddy bear sat at her side, the one that she never left alone because it was a gift from her mother…the last gift that she received. 

She was the only occupant of the room, and I was the only one who was allowed in. I sat on the chair next to her bed, my face etched with worry and fear. My brow furrowed as my eyes scanned her unconscious form, looking at the bandage on her head.

God! She must have been in so much pain!

Since she was saved from the claws of the kidnappers, she hadn't opened her eyes. Many hours had passed, each tick of the clock feeling like an eternity, and yet…she lay still on the bed like an unmoving statue.

A few moments later, as I stared at her to notice every tiny rise and fall of her breath, she moved her arm a little bit. "Hayley?" I called her, delighted, hoping that my baby would finally open her eyes and call for me. But my excitement was short-lived as she gave no response, resuming her coma-like sleep.

In the middle of my emotional turmoil, I recalled how I had an important business meeting earlier today and how I left it in the hands of my secretary, without even informing my business partners that I wouldn’t be able to make it. But none of that mattered half as much as my daughter's life did at this moment.

I still couldn't imagine what would have happened if I hadn't arrived at the scene early enough to save her from the crafty delivery girl who attempted to kidnap her. Who would’ve thought that an innocent looking face could hide something so dark and filthy underneath?

Finally, unable to bare it any longer, I got up to pace the little space in the room, my fingers trembling slightly as I ran them through my hair. I was trying to stay calm, to be strong, but it was so hard with my baby just lying there motionless...

 All I wanted was to see my daughter's beautiful eyes, to hear her golden voice, to know that she was okay. The minutes ticked by at a snail’s pace, and I was all but ready to lose my mind.

Thankfully, right then, a nurse came in to check on her, smiling at me softly before she went on to take Hayley’s temperature and checked her heart rate.

"Hello, Mr. Dalton," she came to stand in front of me after she was done with the preliminary tests. She spoke in a gentle, soothing voice, not wanting to disturb my little angel.

"Is she okay? Is she just asleep? Is she in a coma?” Strangely, the questions just rushed out of me. I felt on the verge of a panic attack and the worst part was, I didn’t even know what to do to help it. “Hayley…she’s been asleep the whole time! It's been so many hours already!"

"It's only been two hours, Mr. Dalton.” The nurse sighed as she explained to me. “She’s still passed out because she was traumatized. It’ll take a little time for her brain to get out of that trauma. But she has been provided with the necessary medication and should be walking up any minute now."

 A quiet, calm peace hung over the room, a sense that everyone was doing their best to help my daughter feel better. 

"Does this mean she is going to be fine?"

 "She's going to be okay, sir." The nurse finally looked up at me. "She'll be awake soon, so please calm down."

Like ice water on an open sore, her words were soothing to my aching heart. I heaved with so much relief that I couldn’t even explain, and blurted out words of gratitude."Thanks again, nurse..."

"The name is Betty!" She said, turning to leave after ticking off something on the chart in her hands and placing it on Hayley’s bed.

As I watched the woman walk out of her room, a sway  to her hips that told me that she was doing it on purpose…I turned to look at the bed once again…and my eyes met my daughter’s bright blue eyes, the eyes she had inherited from her mother.

"Hayley?" I was shocked to find her awake. And if the nurse hadn't left the room already, I would’ve called her back that instant.

"Hayley!" I rushed to her bedside, holding onto her tiny hand as she looked around the room in confusion.

"Yes, daddy. Where is this place?" She looked from me to the curtain rails, to the child-sized pieces of furniture, her gaze finally resting on the balloons next to her. "Is this..." She squinted.

"You're in a hospital." I helped her sit up on the pillows, angling her bed so she didn’t have any trouble or hurt her back. Seeing her awake was all it took to make me calm down and it felt like I was finally able to breathe again.

"What am I doing here?" Her brow was raised in confusion.

"You got hurt, baby. Do you remember what happened?” I was already reaching for the telephone to call the nurse’s station. “But right now, all that matters is that you're fine, and safe."

I heard the ring of the phone before a woman’s voice answered the call. "Betty, am I right? Please come to the private pediatric ward at the far end of the block. My daughter is awake."

Betty was as swift as a bird on her feet. She arrived at the ward in under a minute as the door burst open and her form appeared before us, her breath coming out in shallow pants. "Is everything okay, sir? Oh! She’s up! That’s great news. She should be strong enough to go home in a few minutes."

“Go home?” I looked at the nurse in astonishment. "But you guys did nothing! No tests, no scans! Absolutely nothing! She can't be home just yet, she just woke up."

"We have confirmed her medical records with her doctor, sir.” Betty told me in a tight voice. “She is fine and ready for discharge."

"How did you confirm her records? With a stethoscope?" I asked incredulously. “What about a CT-scan? An x-ray, perhaps?”

"Mr. Dalton, your daughter is fine.” The nurse emphasized tightly. “There is no need for any more tests. We have done what we could and everything came out positive."

"Where is the doctor?" I asked irritated. “Call him now! I want to talk to him personally.”

"The doctor is on his lunch break…sir." She was getting irritated, I could tell from the tone of her voice, yet her smile remained intact. “I’ll let him know that you requested a visit, as soon as he returns.”

"Never mind!" I decided to call the doctor myself since the nurse wasn't able to do her job properly. Why would she assume my daughter was fine after such a traumatic incident? All she did was check her pulse and the monitors. I needed more than that to assure myself that my baby was fine!

"It's not necessary, Mr. Dalton. As you can see already…your girl is doing just fine."  She tried to discourage me from getting any further tests done, but it was way too late. I had already called the doctor and he was on his way to my ward.

"Is everything okay, Mr. Dalton?" Doctor Peter asked as soon as he entered the ward a few moments later, his expression grim.

“Please, check on my daughter. She just woke up.” I told him and he immediately went to Hayley’s side, greeting her with a smile and asking her questions.

He performed small tests, moving his finger in front of her eyes, checking to see that Hayley's eyes were focusing correctly; and using a stethoscope on her to check her heart rate. Finally, after a few minutes, he came to stand in front of me.

"Your daughter is fine, Mr. Dalton" Doctor Pete smiled at me. “She’s ready to go home.”

However, even the doctor's tests weren't satisfactory for me. I needed more scans to reassure myself that everything was alright.

"How can those mere tests determine the safety of my child?" The national hospital was surprisingly lazy. I wasn't asking for too much, just a thorough medical checkup for fuck’s sake! To even think that I donated millions to this-

"Dad!!!" Hayley called out to me in her usual high-pitched voice, snapping my attention to her. "You're making a fuss about nothing. I told you that I'm fine. I don’t hurt anymore! Please just take me home already!”

"You don't understand baby, you're all I have.” I pleaded with her as I went to stand beside her once more. “Please, just…do the tests…so that I can feel relieved?"

I had lost her mother not too long ago. She had been the love of my life and the loss had been so sudden that even now, I sometimes wonder how it had all transpired. And now, I wasn't risking her life for anything. I wanted a thorough medical checkup done and proof that everything in her body was perfectly fine.

"Okay, I'll do it. You know I would do anything it takes to see you happy, Daddy." She accepted with a smile and I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulder.

“Thank you, baby.” I sat on the bed and wrapped her in my arms, feeling the warmth of her tiny body as everyone else left the room to give us some privacy.

After a while, she broke the comfortable silence in the room; moving out of my arms to look up at me with her wide blue eyes. "What happened to the nice lady who saved me, Daddy?" 

"What lady?" I had saved her from the kidnapper myself...hadn’t I? Then what exactly was she talking about now?

"The lady, Daddy! The one who saved me from those bad men!” She exclaimed, her eyes wide in astonishment. “And would you believe that she got injured while saving me? I wonder if she is okay..."

Jenny? Was Hayley talking about her nanny? The woman that I had hired today to look after her? But she had been missing from the scene…did that mean she was hurt somewhere and I didn’t know about it? If so, then she needs to be rewarded for her actions.

"I didn't see her when I came to save you, dear. I saw the kidnapper, though." I sighed. “But don’t worry about her. I’ve put her behind bars.”

Hayley bit her lips in thought, "I hope she's fine because I'm very worried about her. She’s hurt too…" 

I planted a kiss on her forehead. "I'll text her and ask her what happened, don't worry baby. And I'll make sure she gets adequate medical attention. I'll also make sure I appreciate her for saving you, I do hope she's fine. Such a sweet lady."

"Text who? I didn't know you had her number."

"Of course, I have Jenny's number."

"No, no!" Hayley frowned immediately. "Jenny was the one who tried to take me. I told you I didn’t like her, but you wouldn't listen! As soon as you left, she brought in a man and they tried to take me away! She even slapped me!”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Hayley…are you trying to say that, Jenny…tried to kidnap you?”

“Yes!” Hayley nodded her head vehemently. “But then there was this other lady in blue jeans, the delivery lady I mean. She was the one who saved me." Hayley sounded very angry at me, even though I still couldn’t comprehend what she was saying.

"It doesn't make any sense, baby. The lady in the blue jeans was the one I saw you with. She had probably hurt Jenny, then attempted to escape with you."

"That's not what happened!" She said, almost screaming. "I don't know what she came to do at our house, I think she came to deliver food! That was when I saw her! She ran after me when that man tried to take me with them inside their big, black car. But she saved me. But then I fell…and I don’t remember what happened next!"

The fogs of confusion slowly started to unfurl as the weight of Hayley’s words, and the complicated web of the situation that we were in, finally revealed itself in front of my eyes.

And it was then that I realized…that I had put the wrong person in jail.