Elsie did not say a word and walked in with her head down.
Susan and the butler followed worriedly. When Elsie reached Maury’s room, she knocked on the door.
Maury called out, “Come in.”
Elsie opened the door and said, “Dad, it’s me.”
Maury was also surprised, “You’re up?” Not long after Maury lay down, he heard Elsie’s voice and sat up in bed, “The doctor said that you might not wake up.”
Although Maury didn’t like Elsie and Beverly, Elsie was his daughter after all. Now with the car accident, all of this his resentment against Beverly melted away.
“Are you hungry? I’ll ask Susan to make you something.” Maury put on his coat and stood up, saying, “Come and sit down. Are you cold? You’re wearing too little.”
Elsie nodded.
“What would you like to eat?” Maury said to Susan at the door, “Go and make something for Elsie.”
Susan said, “Miss Elsie can only eat porridge. I’ll make light porridge.”
“Alright.” Maury said.
Elsie sat down. The room was dark. Elsie sat down on the side of the bed, looked at Maury, and said, “Dad, I found myself alone in the ward when I opened my eyes. I was really scared…”
When the butler heard this, he shook his head, sighed, and closed the door.
“Where’s the nurse? Wasn’t she there?” Maury was angry, “I hired a nurse to take care of you 24/7. How could you be alone?”
Elsie was silent and just looked down at the document in her hand.
Maury asked again, “Why did you come out alone? What did the doctor say? Can you be discharged now?”
“I don’t know. I just wanted to go home, so I came back.” Elsie’s voice grew fainter, “Dad, don’t you want to see me?”
Maury was stunned by her question. How could Elsie ask such a question? Elsie was spoiled, confident, arrogant, and always bullied Emily. How could that wild Elsie ask such a humble question?
Maury thought that he went too far this time, so Elsie felt insecure and asked such a question. He sighed, “Of course I do. I’m glad to see you wake up. I’m finally relieved.”
Maury didn’t need to worry that there was no successor to the Britt Group.
But Maury didn’t say that out. Elsie could wake up. Maybe Emily could also return to normal. Then he could hand the Britt Group to Elsie and Emily someday and he could rest assured.
“Really?” Elsie asked.
“Of course!” Maury picked up the blanket and draped it over her, “Are you still dizzy?”
“Yeah, a little.” Elsie stood up and said, “I’ll go back to my room and get some sleep.”
“Alright. I will go and see you later.” Maury pressed on his temple. His head hurt these days but he didn’t show it. When Maury saw Elsie out of the room, he lay on the bed and exhaled deeply.
Perhaps Maury was getting old. He felt feeble and weak.
While Maury was sleeping, he heard someone crying. It was Elsie. Maury felt as if he was dreaming. He saw Elsie handing over test papers to him one after another and said, “Dad, I didn’t do well in the exam. The teacher asked for your signature.”
Maury took the pen and kept comforting Elsie, “It’s nothing. It’s just an exam. You can do well the next time. Don’t worry. I won’t blame you…”
Maury kept signing.
When Maury woke up, he found that he still had a pen in his hand.
It was not a dream?
Maury sat up blankly and went out of the room. He found that the door to his study was open. Maury pushed the door and went in. He saw Elsie standing at the desk, holding the company chop, and stamping it on some documents.
“What are you doing?” Maury took a step forward and said, “Did your school also ask for a seal?”
With that, Maury came back to his senses. He realized that something was wrong and strode briskly forward, “What’s in your hand?”
Elsie took the document, shook her head, and stepped back, “No. Nothing.”
Maury got a bad feeling, “Show me what’s in your hand!”
Elsie wanted to run away, but Maury grabbed her wrist. Maury got the document, opened it, and found it was a contract about corporate acquisition. He flipped through a few pages. It said the acquirer was Britt Group while Maury was the authorized representative. It had his signature and thumbprint, and it just got stamped.
Maury glared at Elsie and questioned, “Who gave this to you? Who?”
“Dad, give it back!” Elsie pushed Maury and tried to snatch the document.
Maury was furious and was about to curse. But he lost his breath, blacked out soon, and fell to the ground.
Elsie hurried to snatch the documents and ran out. She looked back after running a few steps, “Dad?”
Elsie panicked and wanted to feel Maury’s breath, but before she could do that, she heard Susan’s scream from the door.
“I didn’t do it. That’s not my problem.” Elsie cried and rushed to the door. Susan reached out to her, but she pushed Susan away. Elsie rushed downstairs in panic and met the butler. When the butler saw that Elsie got a document, he reached out to stop her. But he was pushed by Elsie and fell down the stairs.
Elsie ran out while crying, “I’m sorry…”
Just as Elsie ran out of the gate of the Britt’s, she fell to the ground for exhaustion.
A car stopped right in front of Elsie. The man in the car reached out and took away the document in her hand. Then he closed the door and the car drove away without a trace.
Elsie got up and chased after the car for a few steps. She crawled and cried, “You must keep your word! You must keep your word…”
Susan screamed on the second floor of the Britt’s, “Mr. Maury…”
Elsie stood up trembling. Before she could enter the Britt’s, she saw the butler limping out with tears all over his face. He spoke to someone on the phone and cried, “Mr. Maury … something happened to him.”
Elsie blacked out when she heard this.
