Chapter 14
The officer’s words echoed in his mind, incomprehensible, as if spoken in a foreign language.
“What… did you just say?” Erick’s voice was barely audible.
The officer repeated the words, but Erick refused to process them. He stumbled forward, grabbing the man by the collar. “You’re lying!” he shouted, his voice raw and broken.
“Sir, please calm down-”
“Don’t tell me to calm down!” Erick roared, his face contorted with anguish. “She’s trying to scare me. That’s all this is!
Bianca’s furious and she’s sending you here to punish me. Where is she? Tell me where she is!”
As Erick released the officer’s neck, his breaths came in ragged gasps. Without another word, he turned toward the
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staircase, his legs trembling beneath him. His vision blurred, but he forced himself to climb, desperate to escape the suffocating grief. Yet, barely two steps up, his foot slipped.
The world tilted. Erick tumbled down the stairs, his body colliding with the hard edges of each step. Gasps and cries erupted around him.
“Mr. West!” the housekeeper screamed, rushing forward.
One of the officers moved to assist, but Erick waved them off, his face pale and drenched in sweat. He gritted his teeth, forcing himself upright despite the shooting pain in his shoulder.
“Mr. West,” one of the officers began cautiously, his voice softer now, “your wife is at Arlington Hospital.”
Erick froze. His pupils contracted sharply as the image of the blood–soaked stretcher he had passed earlier at the emergency
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entrance surged into his mind.
“No,” he whispered, shaking his head violently as though trying to dispel the thought. “It’s a coincidence–it has to be.”
His voice faltered, his conviction. crumbling under the weight of the officer’s solemn gaze. Erick stumbled toward the door, his movements frantic and unsteady.
“Bianca’s not dead!” he shouted to no one in particular, his voice laced with
desperation. He pointed a trembling finger at the housekeeper, who was sobbing quietly in a corner. “Stop crying! She’s fine! She’s just mad at me!”
But the mournful faces surrounding him told a different story, their silence deafening. Erick’s chest heaved, his breathing erratic. He fled the house as if the walls were closing in, his mind. consumed by denial.
Outside, Sabrina was waiting by her car, having trailed him all the way from the
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wedding. Her perfectly styled hair was disheveled and her face was red with anger
and worry.
“Erick!” she called out, her voice cracking. She rushed toward him, her heels clicking against the pavement. “What is going on? Why are you acting like this?”
Erick brushed past her as if she were invisible. His only focus was the car parked in the driveway. He yanked the door open and climbed in, slamming it shut with enough force to rattle the frame.
“Erick!” Sabrina screamed, banging on the driver’s window. “Don’t you dare leave me
here!”
But her protests fell on deaf ears. The tires screeched as Erick sped off, the engine roaring like a beast unleashed. Sabrina hurried to her own car, her hands trembling as she fumbled with the keys.
By the time they both reached Arlington Hospital. Erick’s composure had all but
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unraveled. He staggered out of the car, his legs moving of their own accord as he approached the emergency room.
“Please.” he muttered under his breath. his voice barely audible. “Please let this be a
mistake.”
The antiseptic–scented air hit him like a wall as he entered, the fluorescent lights casting an unforgiving glare over the sterile environment. His eyes scanned the room, searching for any sign of Bianca.
And then he saw her.
Bianca lay on a hospital bed, surrounded by medical equipment that was now silent and still. Her face was ghostly pale. her lips devoid of color. Her chest didn’t rise or fall. Beneath her head and torso were dark
stains of congealed blood that spoke of her suffering.
The heart monitor beside her displayed an unbroken flat line.
Erick’s legs buckled and he collapsed at her
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bedside, his body shaking with silent sobs. His trembling hands reached out, brushing. against her cold fingers.
“No.” he croaked, his voice barely above a
whisper. “No, this isn’t real. Bianca, wake up. Please.”
Behind him, Sabrina entered, her breath hitching at the sight. Her face turned ashen and she took an involuntary step back. “How… How could this happen?” she murmured, her voice tinged with disbelief.
Erick didn’t answer. His hollow eyes
remained fixed on Bianca as the memories of her laughter, her warmth and her tears flooded his mind.
A doctor approached cautiously, holding a clipboard. “Are you the relatives of the deceased?”
The word “deceased” pierced through Erick’s heart like a dagger. He turned his head sharply, his eyes blazing with fury.
“She’s not dead!” he bellowed, his voice
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reverberating through the room.
Before anyone could respond, a sharp crack echoed as a hand struck Erick’s face. Elisa stood before him, her expression icy and unyielding.
“Wake up, Erick!” she hissed, her voice filled with venom. “You killed your wife and your child. Are you satisfied now?”
Erick’s body trembled. He looked back at Bianca, his mind reeling as the undeniable truth pressed down on him like a crushing weight.
A single tear slipped down his cheek, followed by another, until the dam broke and he was consumed by heart–wrenching sobs. He buried his face in his hands, crying out her name repeatedly.
“Bianca, I’m sorry,” he choked. “I should have stayed with you. I should never have let you go out alone.”
The sound of his despair filled the room, drawing the attention of the hospital staff
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and other visitors. A nurse approached hesitantly, offering tissues, but Erick didn’t
notice her.
Elisa, standing nearby, watched with cold detachment. In her eyes, this was only the beginning. She knew the truth–the real truth–that would shatter Erick completely.
Her phone buzzed with a notification. She glanced down, her eyes narrowing as she opened the video message.
Just as she began watching, Erick looked up, his face streaked with tears but filled with grim determination.
“Who crashed into Bianca’s car?” he demanded, his voice low and dangerous.
Elisa paused, her lips pressing into a thin line. The cold resolve in Erick’s eyes told her everything she needed to know. Whoever was responsible, he would stop at nothing to make them pay.
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