Chapter Three

It came as a surprise to Andrew for his son to reveal that he didn’t like his fiancé.

“Dad, she’s just nice to me because I’m your son. I’m just a tool for her to get to you.”

Andrew’s face dropped. “Raymond, that’s not a nice thing to say.”

“The truth never sounds pleasant to the ears!” Raymond said with wisdom far greater than his years, “why do you even care? You’ve never asked for my opinion about who you should marry anyway. To you, I’m just the extra baggage.”

Raymond hopped off the counter and ran off in an angry fit. “Stand right there!” Andrew ordered sternly, “Raymond, who taught you to speak to your own father like this? Where are your manners?”

Raymond was already upset, being lectured like this by his father only made him more sullen.

He turned around obstinately, his eyes swirling with unhappiness and dissatisfaction. “Nobody taught me, I have no mother to teach me, do I?” Andrew was stunned…. When he came to his senses, Raymond was already gone.

Andrew ran out to chase after his son. He caught up to him at the entrance of the restaurant. He turned Raymond around and was surprised to see tears rolling in his son’s eyes. Raymond had always been a quiet child. He could spend a whole afternoon in silence all by himself as long as he has a good book to keep him company.

He was in all meanings of the word, a model child. He was not given to childish fits and outbursts. His behavior today was definitely out of the ordinary. This was also the first time Andrew had seen his son so upset.

When he divorced his mother, Raymond was only a year old. The mother wasn’t a part of the boy’s life for the past three years. Andrew thought this meant that Raymond had gotten used to being raised in his mother’s absence, but he didn’t realize that his son had merely been hiding and stuffing his feelings deep down.

Looking at his son’s face, Andrew also got upset and had no appetite to continue the dinner anymore. He made a call to his mother and told her he had something important to attend to. After the brief phone call, he brought Raymond home.

In the car, Raymond kept his eyes outside the window without taking in the scenery. His petite figure spoke of loneliness and forlornness. His father sat beside him silently. When they passed the hospital, his thoughts went to Caroline.

He wondered if she had woken up. Andrew couldn’t help but be reminded of her current situation. He was sure Raymond wouldn’t bear to see his mother like that. Andrew decided to temporarily suspend their meeting to spare Raymond the heartache.

When they arrived at Purple Jade Villa, their home, Raymond was already fast asleep. Andrew picked him up and was carrying him into the house when his phone rang. “Sir, please let me carry the young sir,” their maid, Mrs Jones said.

After gingerly passing Raymond over to the maid, Andrew pulled out his phone. It was an unknown number.

“Hello?” He began and was quick to realize it was from the hospital.

“Is this Mr Andrew Pierce? This is Clifford hospital.”

“Yes, Andrew speaking. How can I help you?” Andrew probed although he was certain it had everything to do with Caroline.

“Mr Pierce, I’m sorry to inform you but the patient you brought over today suddenly disappeared. We believe that she left the hospital of her own accord. However, her body is still recovering so she shouldn’t have left. Can you please get in touch with her and get her back to the hospital?”

Andrew was right in the sense that it indeed had something to do with Caroline, but even he couldn’t have imagined that the woman would be crazy enough to actually leave the hospital against the doctor’s advice. Caroline was involved in a car accident. Her injury wasn’t that serious but the doctor did say she was required to stay in the hospital for observation for at least a few days.

Who would have thought she would sneak out after she regained consciousness. The nurse also found $3000 on Caroline’s beside table after she left. When she woke up, the nurse handed her the money, telling her it was from Andrew. When she snuck out of the hospital, she left the money behind, an obvious rejection of his kindness.

This meant that she had no money on her and her body was still in a stage of recuperation. Andrew couldn’t understand how and why she would leave like that. Doesn’t she care about her own health? Andrew was a bit inflamed by her senselessness but he still hopped into his car to find her. It was not that he was worried about her, he was doing this because at the end of the day, she was still Raymond’s mother. He couldn’t just leave her to her own devices for the sake of his son.

While Andrew was out around the city looking for her, Caroline was at the police station. She was there to make a police report!

With a bandaged head, bruised face, pallid skin and feeble body, the police thought she was at the station to report a physical assault. However, it turned out that they were wrong and she wanted to report a car accident that happened six years ago.

The officer who was about to take her statement looked at her again and looked at his subordinate, his subordinate nodded and he put his attention back to Caroline. “What did you say you want to report ma’am?” The officer asked. “I want to report and accident that happened to me six years ago.”

“Ms Roberts, let me get this straight. You mean to say tha car accident that happened to you six years ago was a premeditated murder attempt?” The police officer asked in shock. Caroline nodded, her eyes held firm, adding, “That’s correct! Six years ago, I rushed back from overseas because my father had fallen seriously ill. Someone had made an attempt on my life and faked it as a vehicular accident. Thankfully, I didn’t die, I only lost my memory. Today, I got into another accident and everything came back to me.”