Chapter 22
Nolan’s fingertips brushed against the dark red scar on Alicia’s neck on the bed in front of him. The cotton swab dipped in iodine was dabbed on her pale skin, casting an amber halo.
The weak woman on the sickbed slowly opened her eyes. The once bright and round almond eyes on her thin cheeks now only showed emptiness and paleness.
Nolan’s face was full of worry as he gently said, “Mandy was sentenced to 20 years.”
He folded the verdict into a paper crane and placed it in her palm.
Alicia’s fingertips touched the paper crane folded by Nolan, and the sharp creases of the judgment paper pierced her palm, causing a sharp pain.
Alicia’s eyelashes fluttered as if a dying butterfly, and the scab on her wrist gleamed with enamel in the morning light.
Outside the window, the rain was pouring down, and the Denholm family’s century–old business was collapsing into the mud in this torrential rain.
The news of the Kecith Group targeting the Denholm Group is circulating, with the financial headlines boldly stating, “Mandy sentenced to twenty years for Intentional Injury, Arson, Financial Fraud“.
“The stock price of The Daston Group fell below the issue price this morning.”
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Nolan cooled the warm oatmeal by blowing on it, the spoon clinking against the edge of the bowl with a crisp sound.
Nolan looked down at his reflection in the oatmeal, suddenly remembering the document signed by the board of directors last night – the Kecith Group had acquired a 42% stake in the Denholm Group.
“The Daston family will hold a press conference tonight.”
Alicia suddenly convulsed, curling her fingers as the sharp edge of the paper crane’s wings pierced her palm.
Nolan gazed at the crisscrossing scabs on Alicia’s wrist, the dark red scars entwining like a curse around the delicate hands that once held a paintbrush.
He tucked the blanket around the fragile paper figure in front of him and said gently, “Ally, don’t be afraid, I’m here with you.”
It wasn’t until Alicia fell deeply asleep again that he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
When the warning light in the ICU went out at dawn on the seventh day, Alicia was pressing her thumb against the needle hole oozing blood in her elbow.
The disinfectant mixed with the morning dew permeated the corridor, she watched as the city outside the glass curtain wall gradually woke up, the spire piercing through the light blue mist, like a surgical knife stained with rust.
“Ms. Walsh, please excuse me. The nurse pushing the blood plasma refrigeration cart brushed past, the metal wheels rolling over the dried bloodstains in the floor tile cracks.”
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Alicia stared at the reflection of the Kecith Group’s LOGO on the nurse’s badge, suddenly realizing that the private hospital had been renamed a few days ago.
Three days ago, this place was crowded with journalists holding long guns and short guns, and the flashlights imprinted the figure of the Daston Group couple bowing ninety degrees on every white tile.
The commercial empire that controlled half of the shipping routes in the Metropolitan Area is now collapsing along with the faint vital signs in the sterile chamber.
The moment she pushed open the isolation chamber door, the buzzer suddenly emitted a piercing alarm.
AN
Marcus’s chest heaved violently, the IV tubes inserted into his clavicle shaking wildly with each movement of his body.
The man’s chapped lips oozed blood droplets, spreading tiny blood flowers on the transparent breathing mask.
She took out the paper crane from the pocket of her protective suit. As the paper crane landed in Marcus’s palm, the morning light happened to penetrate the double–layered radiation–proof glass, cutting their shadows into sharp fragments scattered on the ground.
TH
“The blood oxygen saturation is 65%! The nurse rushed in, causing a gust of air that swept away the paper crane.”
Alicia stared at the man’s sunken eye sockets through the glass curtain wall, where once reflected the twinkling starlight, but now only the faint blue light of the monitor was flickering.
The
When the oil leaves wrapped in autumn rain hit Nolan’s umbrella, he was staring at the cleaner sweeping the newspaper with Mandy’s
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mugshot into the sewer.
288 Vouchers
The umbrella ribs suddenly trembled, and he saw Alicia walking towards him on the broken headlines scattered all over the ground. A piece of wrist exposed under the windbreaker still showed bruises from the continuous blood draws.
“Ally, why did you still choose to give blood to Marcus?”
Nolan tilted the umbrella towards her, the rainwater on the handle rubbing against the cuff of his tailored suit.
#FIM
They walked in silence down Linden Avenue, where the massive advertisement for Daston Jewelry was being taken down from the shop window. The ruby necklace around the model’s neck still shimmered faintly.
“I was selfish, I wanted him to live, even to a ripe old age…..”
Nolan’s hand holding the umbrella suddenly tightened, and Alicia’s slightly cold fingertips covered his knuckles, which had turned white.
“I just wanted him to keep living with the part of Callie.”
Nolan’s brow relaxed as his gaze met hers in the rain curtain.
Nolan opened the car door, and the radio in the car was playing the news about the Daston Group’s stock being suspended.
E
LIFE
Alicia played with the paper crane she had picked up from the sterile chamber, and suddenly threw it towards the rolling dark clouds outside the window.
The wipers scraped a fan–shaped trajectory on the windshield, as if a surgical knife had cut open the texture of the entire city.
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Alicia looked at the medical center shrinking in the rearview mirror and suddenly chuckled.
“Goodbye, Marcus.”
This whispered sentence was drowned out by the roar of the engine, turning into raindrops and disappearing forever.
