“Mr. York, don’t try to adjust the drip. The nurse mentioned that you can’t rush the IV drip.” The manager stopped Zachary from adjusting the speed of the IV drips. Zachary helplessly gave up. “We’ll wait until your wife is here before heading home, Mr. York.” Zachary abruptly lifted his head and stared at the two men. “Is Seren coming over?” The two men nodded in unison. “Mr. Bucham said that your wife is worried about you and insisted on coming here to take care of you. Mr. Bucham arranged for a private plane to fly her here. She should be arriving any minute now.” Zachary tried to get out of bed. “The missus will give me a call when she gets off the plane, Mr. York. Mr. Bucham has given her my phone number. Don’t worry, Mr. York. I’ll get the missus here safe and sound.” Zachary sat back down and gave Serenity a call. He intended to wait until dawn before contacting her. It never occurred to him that Serenity would rush here. It gave Zachary a feeling that
Serenity said, “Okay. We’ll do as the doctor said. We’ll keep him in the hospital for a few days until he’s well enough to be discharged. His work… His salary…” With Zachary in the hospital, Serenity was hoping to get him to rest for a few days. His boss owned the company. The company was not Zachary’s, so why must he devote his everything when he was sick? The manager jumped in. “Don’t worry, Ms. Hunt. We’ll take over Mr. York’s work. We promise that we won’t bother him about work while he’s in the hospital. Mr. York is on a business trip, so his salary is not affected.” York Corporation belonged to Mr. York. Yet, the CEO’s wife was asking about Mr. York’s salary. She was worried whether his salary would be cut since he had to remain in the hospital.“Thank you.” Serenity expressed her gratitude, under the impression that she got her man a few days of paid leave. “Ms. Hunt, do you need us here to look after Mr. York?” Serenity asked, “How many bags of IV fluid does he n
With the messages sent out, Serenity stuffed the phone back into her pocket. Everybody must be asleep since it was late at night. She did not count on receiving an immediate reply. Zachary gradually came around. Opening his eyes, Zachary deliberately made a bewildered face as if he could not believe Serenity was here. He lifted his free hand and rubbed his eyes while mumbling to himself, “Is the fever getting to me? Are my eyes deceiving me? Why is my Seren here?” Serenity pulled his arm away from his face and gave him a hard pinch on the hand. “Ow!” “Does it hurt?” Serenity asked him. Zachary pulled those cute puppy dog eyes. “It hurts. It hurts so bad.” “It’s good that you felt the pain. You’re not dreaming. This is reality. I told you I’ll make my way here if you don’t get a doctor’s appointment.” Zachary was about to sit up. “Lie down. You’re in a hospital. You’re still burning up. I don’t know why you want to tough it out.” Serenity pressed him down. “Now lie
Zachary retorted in his mind, ‘The company does belong to me.’ Serenity went on saying, “Is Mr. Tank the manager here at the subsidiary company? That’s how he introduced himself. “He said you’ll need to remain in the hospital for a few days. You don’t need to do anything but rest. You might appear healthy, but all the work and tiredness finally caught up to you. Your immune system went down, and now you got one nasty cold. “You’re on paid medical leave. Mr. Tank asked me to look after you and will be paying me on the clock. At least, they had everything thought out for you.” Serenity was impressed by the subsidiary company of a huge corporation. Every aspect was considered thoroughly as family members were offered some form of remuneration without needing to ask for it. Zachary enjoyed his chicken soup while thinking to himself, ‘It’s my money nonetheless.’ However, it was not something he had the guts to blurt out. “How long do I have to be in the hospital? It’s only a c
Serenity immediately put her arms up in surrender as she exclaimed, “Zachary, don’t talk that way. It doesn’t sound good when you elongate your creaky voice. You’re trying to act cute, but it’s not working. You sound like you’re going through puberty. Fine, I’ll kiss you, okay? Stop the cute act. It’s giving me the creeps.” Zachary stared at Serenity begrudgingly. It was not like he wanted to do it. He did not know how to act cute anyway. Thankfully, his voice had turned hoarse. Without the raspy voice, Serenity would call him out for using the high pitch tone. Never mind. He could forget the moé act. Serenity gave Zachary what he wanted and tenderly kissed him on the cheek. She asked, “Happy now?” During the kiss, Zachary closed his eyes and felt the affectionate tingle on his cheek. Although he could not feel the warmth as she had a mask on, Zachary could feel the love she had for him. That was right—love. Zachary was content. It left him more satisfied than when
Seeing that Zachary was still staring at her, Serenity put her phone aside and got up. She drew close and kissed him on the cheek. Tenderly she uttered, “Go on to bed now.” Serenity then touched his head. “Is there a thermometer here? I’ll check on your temperature. You still feel hot. You’re on IV drips and the pills already, but the fever hasn’t really gone down.” Zachary replied in all honesty, “I don’t know if there’s a thermometer here too.” “I’ll ask for one at the nurse’s station.” Serenity grabbed her phone and took off. Zachary’s phone happened to ring when she left the room. It was Josh. Zachary took the call. “Why aren’t you asleep this late in the night?” “I have the habit of checking my phone when I wake up. I saw the message from your wife that she made it there safe and sound. Since I was awake, I thought I might as well call to check on you. Has your fever gone down?” Zachary faintly said, “Not completely. The doctor said I had to stay in the hos
“Do you want some water?” “I don’t feel like drinking any. I don’t want to rush to the loo so often. It’s not very convenient for me to go to the loo right now.” Serenity had no words. Since Zachary did not want to sleep, Serenity stopped watching videos on her phone and chatted with him. She did most of the talking while he listened intently. As she blabbered on, Zachary’s eyes grew heavy until he finally drifted into slumberland. Once the bag of IV fluid hooked to Zachary was empty, Serenity rang the nurse to change a new bag before returning to the dependent’s bed and getting on her phone. However, her eyes began to grow heavy as well. She could barely stay awake. In case she fell asleep, Serenity put down her phone and got out of bed to head to the loo. She removed her mask and splashed her face with cold water to freshen up. Serenity waited until the last bag of IV fluid was emptied before waking Zachary up for his medicine. It was only then she caught up on sleep
After the doctor made his rounds, the nurse came by to put Zachary on IV drips. Serenity stared at Zachary while Mr. Tank went to check with the doctor on the type of shot to be administered to Zachary.Zachary looked at the bag of IV fluid, pondering on ways to escape the injection. “What’s the matter, Zachary?” With Zachary staring blankly at the IV fluid without blinking, Serenity asked with concern, “Are you feeling unwell?” “Seren.” Holding onto her hands, Zachary uttered pitifully, “Can I get the pills instead? I don’t like jabs. They hurt.”“It’s all for your own good. Besides, you talked about the side effects of medicine, so taking the shot should do the trick.” Serenity withdrew her arm and amusedly pinched his cheek. “So there is something you’re afraid of.” Zachary grabbed her hands once more and looked deeply and affectionately into her eyes. “The thing I’m most afraid of is you leaving me.” “Alright now. Quit the act. Your attempt to be affectionate and
Adrian and his brothers finally heard footsteps. They instinctively turned their heads, only to see a group of people, who were already very close, approaching.“Police! Hands up, don’t move!”Upon realizing they had been spotted, the officer leading the charge immediately shouted, drawing his gun and pointing it at Adrian and the others.The police had learned from the Dott brothers that the kidnappers were armed.The officers following Darren were from an armed unit and carried guns.Jason’s mind went blank. He could not form a single coherent thought.How had the police caught up?They had scouted the location beforehand, ensuring it was remote and quiet. It was somewhere no one would come even during the day, let alone at night.Adrian reacted the fastest. He immediately bent down to pick up the kitchen knife, intending to kill Caroline.All he could think then was that even if he died, he wanted to take Caroline with him. As long as Caroline died, he would consider it wor
Justin, seeing his eldest brother approach with the kitchen knife, hesitated and asked, “Adrian, are we really going to do this?”“What, are you having second thoughts at this stage, like Jason? Justin, we didn’t even cover our faces. She knows it’s us. If we let her go now, we’re the ones who will die.“Think about it. How much have we suffered ever since she came back? How much have we lost? Even Mom’s dead now.”When their mother was alive, the three brothers lived carefree and comfortable lives. Now that she was gone, they were nothing.Hearing this, Justin quickly said, “Adrian, I’m not having second thoughts. It’s just… We don’t have to use the knife. We can just throw her into the sea. With her hands and feet tied, she won’t be able to escape.“The deep sea is full of fish. She’ll be eaten by a big fish soon, which will leave no trace. That’s better than us using the knife.”The main reason was that none of them had killed anyone before. Although they had done other bad th
Her indifference, as if she did not care whether they killed her or not, infuriated her three brothers.Adrian stood up, turned around, and walked to the back of the car. He opened the trunk.Inside the trunk were two sharpened kitchen knives.“Adrian.” Jason walked over, his voice trembling slightly. It was his first time committing murder, and killing his own sister at that. Jason was a bit scared.“Adrian, are we really going to… chop her up?”Adrian picked up one of the kitchen knives and glared at Jason. “What? Are you having second thoughts? Or are you scared?”“Well… It’s my first time killing someone. I am a bit scared. Carol is our sister, after all. I... I can’t bring myself to do it.”Adrian snorted coldly. “You think of her as a sister, but she doesn’t see us as brothers. Look at what she’s done—every single thing has been a stab in the back for us.“When it comes to using a knife, once you make the first cut, the second one won’t be so hard.”Adrian handed the kit
There were still traces of blood at the corners of her mouth and under her nose.Justin and Jason worked together to pull Caroline out, and Adrian immediately tied her legs together before binding her hands behind her back.“Are you going to feed me to the fish, Adrian?”Hearing the sound of the waves and feeling the cold sea breeze, Caroline shivered.She did not stand up and remained lying on the ground.Adrian kicked her several times, venting his pent-up anger.Caroline silently endured it.After kicking her a few times, Adrian squatted, gripping Caroline's chin forcefully with one hand, and said coldly, “Caroline, there’s nothing more to say between us.“Don’t blame us for being heartless. You’re the one who pushed us to this point.“You only have yourself to blame.“Where are the passwords and keys to Mom's private assets? Tell us, and we’ll make it quick for you, so you won’t suffer too much.“If you don’t, we have plenty of time to slowly cut you piece by piece and m
“We can’t just keep giving them money, now can we?”Adrian replied, “That’s not a priority for now. We can burn that bridge when we come to it. If they do dare blackmail us, we’ll just send them on to meet their maker.“The only thing is they both have families. If we kill them, we have to kill their families too. That way, there’ll be no one who’ll report it to the police.“And it’s best to make it seem like an accident too, or else it’ll seem suspicious.”Justin and Jason both felt Adrian was right. If they were going to kill the Dott brothers, they might as well kill their families too.Caroline internally cursed how merciless they were. The Dott brothers thought they could earn some money from Adrian to live a better life but little did they know, it would bring destruction upon themselves and their families.What the Clark brothers did not know was that the Dotts were forced to say what they did earlier.It was not that they had not left yet. Rather, they could not, because
Belinda had done everything other mothers would have. She loved them, yet the three of them had gotten a smaller portion of her wealth than their own children did. Indeed, Belinda left her grandchildren with more money.After all, her grandchildren still had a long life ahead of them.Therefore, she distributed more wealth to them. The Clark brothers loved spending lavishly and kept losing money whenever they tried to establish businesses. They also had many mistresses and never hesitated to spend money on them. Belinda was partial toward her sons about their affairs and also persuaded her daughters-in-law not to get a divorce. In truth, she resented her three sons for being promiscuous and inheriting their father’s flirtatious traits. While Hunter may have been interested in other girls, he dared not cheat on Belinda because she was strict. However, he still had an affair the moment he spotted an opportunity.Later, Belinda chased the Clark brothers’ mistresses out of
Celine, whom they had cared for all long, was not their biological sister but the daughter of the previous butler. Celine’s father was ambitious. He tried making his daughter the Fisher family’s successor. Justin was speechless.“Free me, Jason. I’m already in your hands. Are you still scared that I’ll escape? Let me out. It’s too stuffy in the sack. I feel terrible.”Caroline made a request. Jason seemed to be the one with some lingering feelings for his sibling. Well, that was not really the case.If he truly had even a sliver of sibling love for Caroline, he would have stopped Adrian and Justin from kidnapping her instead of joining the plan. If Caroline had been fortunate, she could have had five brothers doting on her. Sadly, she was unlucky. None of the five brothers had cared for her. They all wanted her dead. Was she a failure as a person, or were they too cruel?Jason said, “Just stay put, Caroline. We’ll let you out when we arrive.”They could not release Car
Caroline could not beat them. Then, her mouth was gagged with a cloth, and her head was covered with a sack. Someone forced her into a car. She heard Adrian saying to his brothers, “Let’s go.“Tell Celine’s brothers to follow us. Assign a few people to clean up and leave quickly.”After that, Caroline heard the sound of an engine starting. The car moved. She could not see what was happening. While she was shoved into the backseat, her arms and legs were unbound. She removed the cloth from her mouth but not the sack from her head.Someone held the sack tightly and started hitting and kicking her. “Tie the sack, Justin,” said Jason in a hurry. The person beating her up was Justin. “I know it’s you guys, Justin and Jason. What are you doing? Let me go. Mmph…”Caroline grunted in pain. She suffered a punch from Justin. She held her head tightly to prevent any injury to it. Many blows landed on her body. “It’s fine even if you know it’s us, Caroline. You better stay
“Ms. Caroline.”The bodyguards looked toward Caroline. Caroline opened her eyes and said calmly, “Stop the car, but don’t get out. Only get out when the situation gets out of hand. Remember to protect yourselves.”“Ms. Caroline…”“I’ll keep myself safe. Don’t worry. I treasure my life. There’s still a long life ahead of me. I haven’t even started enjoying good days. I won’t want to die.”Caroline chuckled, but her smile did not reach her eyes. There was sorrow in those eyes. In the end, she and her brothers could not coexist. It made her realize how bad her luck was with families. She was switched at birth and mistreated by her adoptive family. She thought her biological parents would treat her well after returning to them, but it turned out to be the opposite. Caroline had many family members, yet somehow, she was still alone. The people who truly cared about her were Darren, Liberty, and some others. Caroline’s bodyguards knew she had been waiting for that moment.