Chapter 120: Chapter 120: The Burden of Truth

The double doors of the surgical wing swung open and the middle-aged doctor stepped back into the waiting room his face lined with deep exhaustion.

He scanned the area until he spotted Alexander who was sitting calmly with his legs crossed completely detached from the hospital’s chaotic environment.

"Are you a relative of either of them?" asked the doctor, stopping directly in front of him

"You could consider me as such" stated Alexander, his voice perfectly even "What is going on?"

"The condition of both women is incredibly critical" explained the doctor, sighing heavily as he looked down at his clipboard "Mrs. Jessica suffered an acute myocardial infarction, her body is under immense strain right now"

"She requires further cardiovascular testing and will likely need surgery" said the doctor "Though we are continuing to monitor her closely in hopes of stabilizing her without immediate intervention"

"And Ashley?" asked Alexander, his dark eyes narrowing slightly

"She is in much worse shape" stated the doctor, his tone turning even more serious "She has several fully fractured ribs extensive internal blood clotting and an active hemorrhage that we haven’t been able to precisely pinpoint yet"

"We need to perform emergency exploratory surgery right now to repair the internal damage before she goes into hypovolemic shock" said the doctor

"Is her condition really that severe?" asked Alexander

"Yes, sir, it is" confirmed the doctor grimly "She has sustained an immense amount of trauma, Ashley has already signed the medical consent forms for both herself and her mother, but she asked me to hand this paper directly to you before she was sedated"

The doctor reached into his pocket and handed over a folded piece of notebook paper.

Alexander took the note and opened it.

Written in a frantic trembling script was a desperate plea for help.

Despite the short amount of time they had known each other Ashley truly had no one else to turn to.

She wrote that there was absolutely no way they could afford the medical bills for both treatments with the money she had.

At the bottom of the page she had scribbled a phone number begging Alexander to find her brother Marcus.

Stating that Marcus would know what to do and how to get the money.

She added that she would deeply appreciate his help.

And that if Marcus couldn’t do anything she begged Alexander to pay for the expenses promising that she would work for the rest of her life to repay him every single cent.

Alexander folded the note and slid it into his t-shirt pocket.

He looked up at the physician his face a perfectly unreadable mask.

"If money is the only issue here, then there is no problem" stated Alexander smoothly "Just save them both"

The doctor let out a breath of relief and nodded.

"We will do everything in our power, sir, excuse me" said the doctor

As the doctor hurried back through the double doors Alexander pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Marcus’s encrypted number once again.

The line ringed twice before Marcus answered his voice thick with raw anxiety.

"Alex? What’s happening?" asked Marcus instantly

"Your mother and your sister are in critical condition" stated Alexander, walking toward a quiet empty corner of the lobby "Ashley left me a note begging for your help, I’m going to read you the contents"

Alexander detailed the entire note.

He was explaining her desperate plea the mention of his name and her absolute terror regarding the mounting medical expenses.

On the other end of the line the sound of Marcus’s heavy shaky breathing echoed through the receiver.

"Please, Alex, save my family" choked out Marcus, his voice cracking with a wave of intense guilt "Pay whatever the hospital asks for, I will give you every single dollar back, I swear it, just don’t let them die"

"You know the money is the least of my concerns, Marcus" stated Alexander, his voice dropping into a low grounding register "I only wanted you to be aware of this"

"Despite everything that has happened and how much she claims to hate you they still think of you when their lives are on the line" said Alexander "It’s not impossible for you to win them back, we just have to take this slow"

Alexander pulled his phone away from his ear and slid it back into his pocket.

He lifted his left hand his eyes scanning the face of his blue Rolex.

It was already almost eleven o’clock in the morning.

"Looks like I won’t be making it to school today" murmured Alexander to himself, a subtle cold smirk touching his lips "I just hope I can leave this place in time for my appointment with Aria"

"That chubby girl has exactly what it takes" murmured Alexander "It’s going to be incredibly fun making her completely addicted to my dick"

He unlocked his phone and quickly opened his messaging app.

Scrolling down until he found the contact for Sophie the class representative.

Even though it was already far too late in the morning to properly excuse an absence he typed out a brief message asking her if she could inform the administration that he wouldn’t be attending classes today due to an unexpected personal emergency.

He pressed send staring at the screen for a moment.

After just a few seconds the phone buzzed in his hand.

"Ok" read Sophie’s short clipped response.

Alexander slowly locked the screen.

But as he stared blankly out the large glass windows of the hospital lobby a subtle shift in the air caught his attention.

He felt a strange lingering tension creeping into his chest.

Alexander initially thought he was simply shortening the distance between his goals and managing the chaos effectively.

But something about the atmosphere felt strangely off today.

He opened his contact list again and scrolled down until he found his cousin’s name.

After a brief pause his fingers moved smoothly across the keyboard typing a message to Amy.

"Amy, it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that things are much harder to explain than they seem" typed Alexander "But I am always going to trust you"

"If you ever need anything, you just have to tell me" typed Alexander "I am here for you guys no matter what, and I won’t abandon you"

He pressed send watching the message deliver before sliding the phone back into his pocket.

He was waiting in the quiet tension of the hospital corridor.