Chapter 40
Chapter 40
“Can you go faster, please?” Hazel urgently implored the driver, the tension in her voice reflecting the urgency of the situation.
She had bolted out of the company’s building in a frenzy, frantically flagging down a taxi as if she were a woman possessed.
Seated In the cab, she was restless, her mind was filled with self-blame, and feeling helpless. she gripped her wrist tightly,
thinking. “This was all my fault; I should have been more. sensitive.” Daisy had been acting clingier than usual that morning.
Instead of listening to her maternal instincts, Hazel had allowed impatience to get the better of her. She had been completely
engrossed in work, barely paying attention to her daughter. The weight of her perceived negligence crushed her, and she buried
her face in her palms.
The demands of her work at Tesco had been all-consuming, requiring her to shuttle back and forth between two companies. She
offered a desperate plea to the goddess, “Dear goddess, please let my baby be okay. Daisy, please be alright.”
“Drive faster, please!” she urged the cab driver once more, her impatience evident in her tone. The driver responded, “I’m driving
over the speed limit, ma’am. Any faster, and I’ll be pulled over.” Nervously, she grabbed her phone, dialing the number that had
called her earlier, though her calls went unanswered, fueling her anxiety even further.
Finally, the cab pulled up at the hospital, and Hazel practically leaped out of the vehicle, paying the fare in haste before sprinting
into the medical facility. Inside, her anxious voice rang out, “Excuse mel”
The receptionist turned her way, and Hazel inquired with a voice breaking with anxiety, “A little girl was brought in?” After
providing the nurse with her details, Hazel couldn’t wait for the elevator, so she mounted the stairs in twos, following the given
directions.
Entering the brightly painted children’s ward, Hazel’s b*dy sank into a chair next to the frail form of her daughter. A staff member
from Tiny Tots, the school Daisy attended, greeted her. This woman had been the one to call and inform Hazel about her
daughter’s health emergency. She had even called for an ambulance and waited at the hospital for Hazel to
arrive.
In a concerned tone, the staff member asked, “Does she have any pending health issues? I noticed she was quite dull at school
today, and then she suddenly started hyperventilating. Hazel nodded in understanding and sighed deeply. “Yes, I know, that’s
how it usually is,” she admitted. “She has a heart condition.”
Hazel expressed her gratitude with a heartfelt “Thank you very much,” all the while holding onto her daughter’s small palm. Daisy
lay asleep, connected to medical equipment for breathing.
Meanwhile, at Tesco, the board members and Starlight workers filed into the office, the tension palpable as they settled down in
anticipation of the briefing. A few moments later, Ethan, entered the room, and his mere presence signaled the commencement
of the meeting.
Ethan’s brows furrowed as he scanned the room, unable to spot Hazel anywhere. A growing sense of concern nagged at him.
Where could she be? His frown deepened even further when he noticed Chloe, Hazel’s co-worker and assistant, stepping
forward to take the lead in Hazel’s absence.
Chloe was about to commence the briefing when Ethan interrupted abruptly, his voice carrying a sense of urgency and a little
hint of annoyance “Where’s the leader of this
project? He thundered. His question hung heavy in the room.
Chloe stammered as she tried to explain. “She had an emergency. There was something really important. Her voice trembled as
she spoke under the intensity of Ethan’s disapproving glare. In the midst of her explanation, Ethan’s phone buzzed with a
notification, throwing him momentarily off balance.
The message he received was shocking and disruptive: “Daisy was rushed to the hospital.“ The words he read seemed to freeze
time for a moment. Without a second thought, he stood up abruptly, as if in a daze, and started making his way robotically out of
the boardroom, leaving the other members bewildered and even leaving Axel, taken aback as he followed him
Chloe, still trembling from the intense encounter, remained in the room, and her relief was palpable as she sank into a chair after
hearing the female assistant, Gigi, announce. “Meeting adjourned” In the wake of Ethan’s sudden departure, questions and
confusion buzzed throughout the room as the participants attempted to comprehend what could have provoked the CEO’s
unexpected and unsettling reaction. The man was always cold and collected.
Ethan rushed swiftly to his exclusive elevator, heading down to his reserved parking lot. As he hurriedly opened the car door and
settled inside. Axel arrived offering to take the wheel. He exited the vehicle then settled into the passenger seat
As Axel carefully pulled out of the driveway and onto the expressway. Ethan urged him, “Cleveland. Step on the gas” Axel
nodded and accelerated, making their way through the familiar route with a heightened sense of urgenty
Having purchased Tiny Tots Ethan could be updated of everything happening there. Although he had restrained himself severally
from visiting the school, trying not to get too attached to them
“I have no business there. He’d said to him self several times whenever he had the urge to see them. So he had avoided
updates about the school and Daisy and Liam. The sooner he got those adorable faces off his mind the better for him. But still he
made sure he was updated if there was an emergency.
He sighed with relief. At least he’d know whenever something was wrong. Despite his efforts to detach himself, Ethan’s
eyebrows furrowed in concern as he wondered what could be ailing the little munchkin. The anxiety and uncertainty weighed
heavily on his mind during the drive. Axel, from his position behind the wheel, kept glancing at his boss through the rearview
mirror as they sped toward the hospital
Axel kept his focus on Ethan through the rearview mirror as the car sped toward the hospital. He had witnessed when Hazel
hastily exited minutes before the briefing. She was on the verge of a breakdown after receiving a call. And now with Ethan
suddenly exiting the boardroom after receiving a text he put the events together concluding further that something must have
happened to the twins.
However, he felt concerned. Axel considered the potential consequences of Hazel
encountering Ethan at the hospital. Ethan had no business being there, and it might lead to an awkward situation. He sighed,
realizing that things could indeed get messy. She might discover he Ethan owned her kids school and if she dug deeper things
would get even worse. He repositioned his glasses with the rim glancing once at Ethan’s worried expression.
Fortunately, it was Cleveland, one of Ethan’s affiliated hospitals, which provided an
opportunity to craft a plausible excuse for their presence.
“We’ll simply act as if we came for some other business and happened to find her there,” Ethan mumbled, clearly deep in
thought. He gazed out of the window, his hands occasionally clenching and unclenching. Now he was calmer, he sat there
questioning his unerratic behavior, the way he’d suddenly rushed to the hospital, wondering, “What was I thinking?”
“Except I wasn’t thinking.” He mused further inwardly. The moment he saw that Message he lost all sense of reasoning.
Axel sensing Ethan’s uncase adjusted his thoughts to other matters trying to profer a believable solution saying, “Cleveland got
the new equipment, and the dialysis machines. were replaced as per your instructions. He continued, “So, it’s just a routine
check to see if everything is working fine with the new equipment. Perfectly normal. Although Ethan had at several times
sponsored new machineries and equipments for Cleaveland, he never went in person to examine or check. So even though it
was out of character, it still wouldn’t rouse suspicion.
Ethan nodded in agreement and gratitude, relieved that they could use the new equipment and their scheduled check as a cover
for being at the hospital. “Thank you, Axel,” he
muttered, appreciating his Assistant’s quick thinking.