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 Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.
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.