Mr Grant, Please Be Gentle

She had no idea how long it had been, but suddenly, Blanca heard a clang. The door flung open, and a slender shadow fell in with the light.

Footsteps approached. A strong arm took her up. Blanca opened her eyes drowsily and saw the clear angles of the man’s face, profiled from the side.NôvelDrama.Org holds text © rights.

“Matthew…”

She didn’t have the strength to hold on any longer. Blanca leant against his broad, warm chest, and fainted.

The small woman in his arms was chilled through, with only a wisp of breath. Matthew felt his heart wrench.

If he hadn’t just happened to call Blanca to ask her what she was planning to do that night, he wouldn’t have known she’d had an incident, and nobody knew how long she’d have been kept locked in there.

Even if it had just been two hours, Matthew wasn’t sure if she could get hypothermia from such a thing. At that thought, a deep rage ignited in him.

He glared at Louise beside him. “If anything happens to her, I won’t let you go.”

“Listen to me, Matthew, I … I don’t know what went on; I thought she’d finished and had gone away! Who could’ve thought she was locked down there, anyway!” Louise’s forehead was beading with sweat.

She’d wanted to lock her up for a while longer, then Matthew had come around.

Matthew locked at her coldly. “We’ll discuss this after I get back.” With that, Matthew carried Blanca upstairs. He’d asked a family doctor here already, and carried Blanca straight into his own bedroom.

Louise froze to the stop, then ran up in a panic to the garden, where her mother was tending her plants.

“Mom…” The moment she spoke, tears came spilling down. “You’ve got to help me…”

Right now, Blanca was going through a nightmare. She dreamt of that harsh winter when she was eight.

It had snowed throughout the night, but their gas had broken down. They couldn’t make food, and they couldn’t get warm.

Granny had to take Blanca to the neighbors’ place to get help, but she’d fallen down midway.

Blanca wanted to help Granny up, but she’d only been eight, and she didn’t have the strength. Even with all her effort, she couldn’t do a thing.

Blanca turned to the cars driving down the road and the passersby on the sidewalk, sobbing helplessly, “Somebody come save Granny, somebody help…”

But in that blizzard, the pedestrians kept their clothes bound tight and hurried past. Not a single one bothered to stop and help. The only thing Blanca could do, she found, was cry.

The flurry of the dream replayed the events of the past, sucking Blanca down like a maelstrom.

She couldn’t help but mumble – “Somebody come help us … sir, my grandmother … help my grandmother…”

Looking at her turmoil, Matthew’s brow locked even deeper, and he couldn’t help but stroke her cheek.

The family doctor had left after he gave her a shot for the fever. He’d left instructions and said she had been lucky and it was not too late when she was found. There was nothing really serious with her. She just had to keep warm and rest.

As he saw how she was plagued by nightmares, Matthew held her hand. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

Blanca actually calmed down.

Her memories went on, and the dream continued…

That night, in the wind and snow, she wept for an untold eternity until a black limousine stopped before them, and a young man walked down from the car.

The boy looked at her, then at her grandmother, and told the driver behind him, “Take them to the hospital.”

“Yes, Master.”