Chapter 511 That Unknown Man
At Warmorth Hospital in Melrose, Angie had a cold gaze as she kept repeating the scene from earlier.
“Are you Regan’s relative?”
“He’s my uncle.”
“I’m afraid his condition is… not very good. He has advanced stomach cancer. It has been some time since he has been on compassionate release for treatment purposes. He kept refusing us to contact his family, but we have only done it now because…”
The man in the police officer uniform then paused for a bit before changing the subject.
“You should take a look at him. He seems to have something he wants to tell you.”
As the hallway of the hospital emanated wisps of cold air, Courtney tapped on Angie’s shoulder, pulling her back into reality.
“You should go in and have a look.”
Looking up with tears in her eyes, Angie nodded.
The condition of the hospital was not in a great state either as the ward had a slightly moldy smell, making it seem somewhat rundown. Standing at the door, she looked at the man in a daze.
He was struggling to breathe through his mouth while watching the lamp on the ceiling with dull eyes.
Back then, everyone used to call him ‘fatso’ because as his name suggested, he was on the broader side in terms of physique. However, one could only see a shadow of his former self as what lay there was only skin and bones.
This scene made Angie unable to hold back her tears as she covered her face and started to cry.
Hearing a sound, Regan could not help but move his eyeball before shifting his body and head to face Angie, who was still standing at the entrance of the ward. “You’ve come.”
His ghostly face had a weak smile on it and she could even hear that his voice was not as powerful as before. “I’ve come.”
Biting her lips, she then calmed down somewhat.
After all, this was her uncle. Even if he was still alive, it did not really matter even if she only saw him a few times for the rest of her life. Now that she knew that he was about to die, a chilly aura had still gripped her tightly from within.
“Come here.”
As he beckoned, Regan also pointed to a chair beside him. Even though it was such a simple action, it seemed to have taken him a lot of strength to do it. While sitting down beside him, Angie started to tear up again.
“I dreamed of your mother. I’ve had recurring dreams about her lately. I dreamed that she kept blaming me, blaming me that I brought her to that place. She said that she had missed out on the opportunity the first time, so why did she have to miss out on a second time? She still blames me even now. When I look for her soon, I think she’ll ignore me.”
Even at this stage, he still gave himself a mock smile.
Angie did not really understand his words since she rarely heard her uncle mention anything about her mother, as her memories of that woman from when she was still small was slowly fading away.
“It wasn’t all your fault.”
“No. I made many mistakes. I locked her up in her room, not allowing her to look for that man. I even dragged her to the hospital…”
While recalling the past, Regan suddenly coughed badly and tightly closed his eyes due to the pain of his organs being ripped apart while the veins on his forehead popped.
“Stop talking, uncle.”
A helpless Angie automatically poured half a cup of water from the jar beside, but Regan only felt nauseous as he reached out to stop Angie, spilling all the water on the floor.
“I even dragged her to the hospital for an abortion back then, but your mother kneeled down and gave me a kowtow to beg me to not do this. Only then did I bring her out. At that time, she already had you for six months and you were a fully-formed baby.”
Regan continued on stubbornly while Angie kneeled down to clean up the puddle. Stopping for a while, she then continued her action.
It was a loud yet calm voice.
“Why?”
“Because she was still in university back then. Our Colt Family finally produced a university student. We couldn’t let a child ruin our future. But then, I came to realize our mistake as we saw how sweet you were when she gave birth to you. Everyone who saw you adored you.”
When she heard him saying that, she had already sat up with a straight posture with a chill emanating from her body. This was the first time in eighteen years of her life that someone had brought up her origins. Yet, obviously, there was a character missing from the story.
“About that man…” She hesitated as she did not know how to define him.
“I’ve never seen him nor know who he is, but I figured that you have the right to know about this. I’ve been thinking about this for the last few days, thinking about whether I should tell you this or not. Then again, I kept dreaming of your mother and I think that she would have liked you to know that she always loved him.”
Angie only felt her mind becoming blank as all kinds of thoughts inside clashed.
Evidently, Regan had said a bit too much as he was lying there, looking very exhausted. Looking at the drawer beside, he stated, “Open the second drawer and have a look.”
Listening to his instructions, Angie then opened the second drawer on her right hand side only to find a small box lined in blue flannel. The pattern of the flannel seemed a bit faded, giving off the aura that someone had kept it for what seemed like eternity.
“This was your mother’s most beloved item. After giving birth to you, she had never worn it since. You should take it.”
When she heard his voice, she slowly opened the box only to see a gold necklace inside. It was a very exquisite piece as the pendant was shaped like the sun with a smiling face carved on it. It was still considered a rare sight ten odd years ago.
On the way back to the hospital, Angie seemed very lifeless as the atmosphere in the car was very heavy. Ignoring the sudden message from her phone, she turned around and looked out the window.
“He’s your uncle after all. I think you should give Elijah a call.”
“Okay.”
Angie’s soft reply made Courtney swallow her words. As Angie’s fingers absentmindedly moved across the necklace on her, she suddenly felt a shortness of breath.
Courtney found something off when she observed Angie’s expression.
“Is there anything?”
“No. It’s nothing.” Angie smiled. “It’s just that there’s a lot of things going on in my university, so I’m just a bit tired.”
The moment she returned to her dorm, she fell into a deep sleep. When she reopened her eyes, it was already dark as she felt for the phone before doing anything else, only to call the number that she had been wanting to do so.
She had a lot of things she wanted to say. All the troublesome matters she wanted to tell a single person, Elijah.
More accurately, she wanted to pour her thoughts onto him.
The phone rang for ages as the other party stared at it for a long time with a cold gaze before proceeding to answer it.
“Hello?”
Stunned for a second, Angie did not know what to say. Even though it was just a short greeting, she was still able to quickly discern who the person was on the other side. Lilian? Why was Lilian answering Elijah’s phone?
It was at that moment that cold sweat coated Angie’s back.
“Hello, is this Angie?” Lilian sounded very calm as if it was also her job to pick up any calls meant for Elijah.
“I-I’m looking for Elijah.”
“Oh. Elijah is actually taking a shower now. I can help you tell him anything you want to say.”
“It’s fine.”
Without waiting for Lilian to reply, Angie quickly hung up with the feeling that her heart was about to burst out of her chest.
