Chapter 322 She Is My Life
“Anyone here is a family member of Courtney Hunter?” The nurse’s voice resonated in the hallway. An unprecedented weight that felt as heavy as lead bound Alexander’s feet, making it hard for him to even lift a foot. After a while, he finally returned to his senses. “Over here! I’m here!” He cut through the crowd and muttered in a trembling voice, “I’m Courtney’s family member.”
Holding an operation consent form in her hand, the nurse was rather indifferent as she was used to witnessing death.
“The patient’s left part of the chest was punctured by rebars. It’s very near her heart, so it will be a high-risk operation. At the moment, the doctors are giving her emergency treatment in order to save her life. Please put your signature here.”
Upon hearing her explanation, Alexander felt as if a bomb had exploded in his head. He froze on the spot as he couldn’t begin to imagine how it was like to have rebars in a person’s chest.
“Sir? Sir, are you alright?”
Alexander’s signature on the papers seemed stiff, and the noise around him seemed to fade into the background as if he was no longer part of everything. He stared at the gap of the operation theater’s doors with reddened eyes, as if staring would enable him to see the situation inside.
Ten minutes after the nurse had entered the operation theater, there was some noise coming from around the corner of the hallway.
It turned out that Bill, Shay and Casey had all rushed to the scene.
“How is my sister?” Shay asked in a panic.
With pursed lips and slightly trembling brows, Alexander stood still like a statue. After a moment, he repeated what the nurse had told him earlier.
“How could this happen?!” Shay’s eyes reddened and he suddenly grabbed Alexander by the collar. “Alexander, you were supposed to take care of my sister!” he yelled.
“Maybe the situation is not that terrible.” Casey held Shay’s arm and frowned as he looked at the timer above the operation theater that showed the duration of the surgery. “Don’t worry, nothing is certain yet. She is now undergoing emergency treatment.”
Shay, however, tightened his grip around Alexander’s collar, as if he didn’t hear a word that Casey said. “Alexander, remember your promise to me back then? That’s my sister inside!”
Alexander slowly raised his head and looked into Shay’s eyes. The former’s usual cold and indifferent eyes were now completely bloodshot. If it wasn’t for Shay who was causing a ruckus, Alexander didn’t even have the intention to speak.
“She is your sister but to me, she is my life.”
Everyone was stunned at his words.
Casey then pulled Shay’s hand back and consoled, “Calm down. The operation is still going on inside. Stop causing a ruckus. Let’s wait until the operation is over.”
Thirty minutes later, the light of the operation theater extinguished and the attending doctor was the first person who exited the room. Upon seeing the large crowd at the entrance, he removed his face mask and bowed at them. “Sorry, but we’ve tried our best.”
Shay’s feet gave in. If Casey didn’t support him, he would have slumped on the floor. “Sis!”
The surgical bed was then pushed out from behind the attending doctor. Shay pounced at the bed and clutched the white cloth tightly in his hand, but he lacked the strength to lift the cloth. Tears rolled down his face uncontrollably.
Bill’s eyes reddened as well and Casey, who had always been cold and indifferent, had tears brimming in his eyes.
On the other hand, Alexander stood blankly at one side like a lost child. He dared not get close to the surgical bed as he was unwilling to believe that the person under the white cloth was Courtney.
At that moment, he was filled with regret. He regretted arguing with her that morning, regretted for being unable to control his temper and blamed her although he knew that she couldn’t possibly betray him, and even regretted hiding his deep feelings from her and never having the chance to confess his love.
“Why are you all here?”
A crisp voice came from the right side of the hallway. Carrying two bags of food, Natasha was shocked to see the five men that had been swallowed by grief. Puzzled, she asked, “What’s wrong with you all?”
Bill, who stood the nearest to her, frowned and answered in a hoarse voice, “Don’t ask. We lost her.”
Natasha was stunned when she heard that. Her gaze landed on the surgical bed that was covered with a white cloth. With her eyes lowered, she sighed. “President Hunter and I tried our best to send her to the hospital as soon as possible. We really tried our very best.”
Bill nodded as well, but he suddenly realized that something was off. He abruptly turned to her and asked, “What did you say?”
“Huh?” Natasha was stunned. “I said, President Hunter and I tried our best—”
When Bill was questioning her, Alexander finally came to his senses. With a large stride, he went over to the surgical bed and lifted the white cloth—lying on the bed was a plump middle-aged woman whose face was as pale as a sheet.
Shay took a step back in horror and even tripped and fell into Casey’s arms. “She’s not my sister!”
Alexander’s hand that clutched the white cloth trembled slightly and the storm that had been raging inside him gradually calmed. After covering the white cloth on the dead body, he went up to Natasha and asked as calmly as he could, “Where’s Courtney?”
“I wanted to ask the same question. I’ve just returned from buying supper. We haven’t had our dinner.” At that, Natasha scratched her head and looked around.
“The hospital is short-staffed. Since President Hunter used to study medicine, she volunteered to help for the time being.”
As soon as Natasha said that, a gust of cold wind swept past her and the very next second, Alexander was nowhere to be seen.
Bill glanced at his leaving figure before asking the nurse to send the patient who didn’t survive to the morgue. Then, he bowed at the woman to apologize for the disturbance.
A confused Natasha raised her head and asked, “What’s going on?”
As Josh had been around the whole time, he was the most suitable candidate to explain the entire misunderstanding.
Upon seeing that everyone was looking at him, Josh gave it some thought and hesitantly replied, “The nurse came out and said that the name of the patient inside is Courtney Hunter. She even asked for the family member of the patient to sign the consent form. So, President Duncan thought that…”
“Oh—I see.” Natasha finally understood the situation and explained, “It was President Hunter and I who sent the patient here. In case the hospital personnel couldn’t find us, President Hunter asked the nurse to call for her name if they needed to look for the patient’s family member. I reckoned that the doctors and nurses must have been so busy that they got them mixed up.”
“Then, what do we do now?” Josh’s brows were tightly knitted.
“Let’s go home and do whatever we need to do.” Natasha seemed helpless. “The car that President Hunter and I were in had hit the guardrail, so it has been sent to the workshop to be repaired, but we are totally fine.”
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing that, especially Shay, whose face had been pale the whole time. At that moment, he felt as if he was finally able to breathe. Taking a deep breath, he leaned against Casey while rubbing his eyes hard. “Alexander’s gone mad!” he mumbled.
Casey stroked his tousled bangs at his forehead and asked, “Do you still want to meet your sister?”
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s late. Let’s head back. I have to rush for an appointment tomorrow morning.”
After Shay and Casey had left, Josh went about his business as well, leaving Natasha behind. Carrying the supper in her hands, she was left standing in the hallway in an awkward situation.
“Let’s go. I reckon that Courtney now has someone to get her dinner.” Bill cast her a glance. “I need your help to look at some designs back in the studio. Would you like to check it out?”
“Yes!” Natasha’s eyes lit up at that.
He glanced at the meal boxes in her hands and said, “It just so happened that I haven’t had my dinner as well.”
Alexander searched high and low in the entire hospital and finally spotted Courtney at the entrance where the ambulances were parked. At that moment, she was helping the doctors and nurses to receive a patient. Her pink coat was stained with crimson blood, but she seemed composed among the messy crowd, calmly keeping the situation under control.
The tightness in his chest gradually eased and his heartbeat returned to normal when he saw that.
“You don’t need to put in too much strength. Save your strength as this will be a long night,” a doctor uttered with a smile as he looked at Courtney. He squatted in the ambulance while wiping his sweat. “Speaking of which, are you a new intern? I’ve never seen you around.”
