Chapter 147
She couldn’t understand it—just yesterday, everything had seemed perfectly fine when they parted. So why had Maxine suddenly ended up like this?
“Cleo… will Maxine really be okay?” Jessica asked d softly, her voice barely above a whisper.
Cleo’s heart ached. Jessica had already been through far too much for a child her age–losing both parents, and now even Maxine, the one who’d taken her in, was fighting for her life.
She wrapped Jessica tightly in her arms, as if comforting the girl… or
be herself. “She’ll be okay. She has to be.”
Roughly ten minutes later, Sebastian rushed in through the hospital doors, eyes darting around before he found Cleo. “Where’s Maxine?”
Cleo’s eyes were bloodshot, but instead of answering him directly, her tone was icy. “Go sign the damn forms first. She needs emergency surgery.”
Without waiting for a reply, she stood up, took Jessica’s hand, and led Sebastian to the reception desk where a thick stack of surgical consent forms was
waiting.
The doctor took the signed papers, organizing them carefully before turning back to them. “We’re doing everything we can to save her, but… the prognosis isn’t great. You need to be prepared.”
Sebastian looked like he’d just been struck by lightning. “What… what did you say?”
At that moment, a nurse arrived with the completed scans. The doctor glanced at the X–ray and turned it toward them. “Look here–her ribs are fractured. But that’s not the worst part.”
He pointed to a shadow on the image. “One of the broken ribs punctured her spleen. All this here–this is internal bleeding in the abdominal cavity.”
He let out a heavy sigh and added grimly, “And that’s just the abdominal injuries. She also hit her head on the windshield during the crash. There’s a high chance she’ll need cranial surgery too.”
Sebastian’s eyes widened in disbelief. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, a nurse came running from the emergency room. “Dr. Estes! Patient in Bed 7 is crashing!”
The doctor gave them an apologetic nod before rushing inside.
The cold, relentless beeping of the machines echoed in the hallway, each sharp note slicing into their nerves.
“What the hell happened?” Sebastian finally asked, his voice tight.
Without a word, Cleo raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face. “This is all your fault!” she shouted. “Maxine has been outstanding since the day she was born, and I’ll never understand what she saw in someone like you.”
His head jerked to the side from the force of the slap. He
lenched his fists but said nothing.
4
Deep down, a terrible suspicion had already started to form in his mind–this accident might have happened because of him.
The nurse behind the desk jumped in alarm and rushed out to intervene. “Please, calm down. We’re doing our best to save the patient. You’ll have to wait outside.”
Cleo exhaled sharply, still seething. “Fine. Let’s talk outside.”
Jessica had stayed quiet the whole time, her eyes fixed on the emergency room doors, completely unfazed by the adults arguing around her.
Cleo bent down to pick her up and turned to Sebastian. “You. With me.”
They stepped into the hallway. Cleo glared at him, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “If you’re really so desperate to marry Kathleen, then do everyone a favor and divorce Maxine already. Don’t drag this out any longer.”
Chapter 147
Sebastian’s brows furrowed. “I’ve never once thought about divorcing her.”
Cleo let out a bitter laugh. “No? Then explain why you act like you already have, Kathleen screwed up badly and kept provoking Maxine, and yet you and that shameless bastard Brian kept shielding her. What’s so damn special about her, huh?”
