Chapter 502 Confrontation
The lady doc shook her head, "We were too late. The venom's already in his system, and he was floating in the sea for a whole day. That just made it worse."
"What?" Wesley's face scrunched up, "Didn't you say the first stage would take a month?"
"Not anymore," she sighed, "If he doesn't wake up soon, he might be stuck in bed for the whole first stage."
Wesley went pale. He couldn't believe it. He grabbed her arm tight, almost dropping to his knees, but she stopped him.
"Hey, Wesley, don't do this," she said.
Wesley pleaded, "Please, think of something. He just made up with his wife and was about to start fresh. There's gotta be a way."
"Wesley..." She looked troubled, mumbling. She'd known Wesley for years and knew he never asked for help easily. Now, for Francis, he was even willing to beg.
"Don't you know me by now?" she said, "If I didn't want to save him, I wouldn't have let you bring him here."
She glanced at Francis's gaunt, pale face and frowned, "Honestly, we researchers don't want to miss out on a new case like this. Even if you didn't ask, I'd still try, but..."
She paused, "For now, we just have to wait for him to wake up before we can do more."
Wesley's eyes lit up. There was still hope.
But then she added, "Don't get your hopes too high. I'll do my best, but the rest is up to fate."
Wesley's brows furrowed, and he couldn't say a word.
She sighed, "When he got here, I think I heard him say 'Harper,' and then he fell into a deep coma."
After she left, Wesley stayed in the ward for a long time.
No one could know Francis was here; otherwise, both he and the doc would be in danger. Wesley looked at Francis's tense face in his coma and remembered the doctor's words. He cleared his throat, "Wake up, Francis. Harper's waiting for you."
Wesley didn't know if he was imagining it, but Francis's eyelashes seemed to twitch!
He perked up and kept saying, "Harper's waiting for you. Be strong, Harper..."
Wesley kept talking about Harper until his mouth was dry, but Francis showed no reaction.
Meanwhile, in Northfield, Audrey thought that after 48 hours, even if Abigail didn't give up, the cops would have to let her go, so she didn't make a fuss. But just before the 48 hours were up, Abigail pulled out a phone recording. In the recording, Audrey didn't say who she wanted to kill, but it still linked her to the case.
Now, Audrey was stuck in the police station, no way out.
She hated Abigail's guts.
Those secret recordings couldn't be used as evidence, but Abigail had new dirt again, proving Audrey was in on a murder plot.
Audrey was livid. Abigail was clearly trying to keep her locked up as long as possible.
In the end, Audrey had no choice but to ask for a meeting with Abigail. Abigail agreed. She just wanted to ask Audrey if she had any conscience left.
Audrey had been lurking by her side for years, acting all obedient and sensible. And Abigail had treated her so well, yet Audrey could poison her without a second thought and even team up with Ryan to have Chloe kill her only son.
Did these people think that just because they didn't do it themselves, they wouldn't have to pay the price? Abigail would make sure they knew everyone must pay for their actions.
In the detention room, Audrey's hair was a mess, and she looked like hell as she called out, "Mom..."
She choked up as soon as she spoke, trying to use the familiar term to get Abigail's sympathy. Little did she know that hearing this term only made Abigail sick and fueled her hatred.
"Don't call me Mom," she snapped, "Cut the crap. Say what you gotta say."
"Mom, don't do this to me." Audrey ignored her and kept crying, "I'm pregnant with Francis's child."
Abigail suddenly jumped up and smacked Audrey hard. She huffed, "Do you think you can fool me now?"
Audrey's face stung like hell from the slap! She wanted to tear Abigail apart and devour her flesh and bones.
The police stepped in, "Watch it. Do you want this meeting to continue or not?"
Audrey held back her anger and nodded. The police warned them, "First warning."
Audrey was seething but had to hold it in and kept playing the victim, "Mom, believe me, Harper is lying to you. Her kid is not his. Mine is Francis's legitimate son."
Abigail sneered, "Audrey, do you really think I'm as dumb and naive as I used to be?"
Audrey asked, "Mom, what do you mean?"
Abigail replied coldly, "Just a heads-up. I've already got Jonathan's biological sample thanks to his teacher."
Audrey's hands, hidden under the table, trembled. She pretended to be calm, "Mom, you're joking. Even if you found it, so what? I have nothing to do with Jonathan."
She gently stroked her belly and claimed, "This child isn't his."
Audrey thought that as long as she didn't agree to a test, Abigail couldn't do anything to her. But Abigail smiled faintly, "The sample you left at your family's private hospital last time, I got it. It's being tested now. With modern tech, I'll have the results in 24 hours."
"Audrey!" Abigail's eyes were full of pain as she snarled, "I will make sure you, a crazy bitch, pay the price!"
With that, Abigail turned and left without a second thought.
Audrey was so scared her hands were shaking. This was exactly what Abigail wanted.
After Abigail left, Audrey stumbled to her feet. "Be careful," a police officer rushed over and helped her up.
Audrey returned to the detention room, trembling all over. Lying on the bed, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep. She suddenly sat up and muttered to herself, "I can't just sit here and wait."
Late at night, the quiet detention room suddenly erupted with a piercing alarm, followed by the frantic footsteps of police officers. When they opened the door, they saw Audrey lying in a pool of blood.
The cops were instantly shocked. One officer shouted, "The pregnant woman in 202 has slit her wrists! Get an ambulance here, quick!"
She crouched down and started basic first aid to stop the bleeding. But it was useless; the blood kept flowing, indicating a deep cut.
Soon, paramedics arrived with a stretcher and carried Audrey onto the ambulance. As the siren wailed, Audrey's tightly clenched hands finally relaxed. A faint, triumphant smile appeared on her lips.
By the time Harper heard the news, it was already noon the next day. But she had no time to worry about it because her studio was in major crisis mode. The entire supply chain, from raw materials to production lines, was disrupted, and a huge batch of orders couldn't be delivered on time.
Worse still, finished products in the company had been completely trashed by two intruders during the night and were beyond repair.
Facing a flood of urgent orders, Harper quickly set up a joint after-sales department to negotiate refunds with clients. But many issues couldn't be fixed with refunds alone. Some clients needed the products for events or celebrations, and there was no time to make new ones. Even double compensation wasn't cutting it for those customers.
Harper had no choice but to split up with Jessica and the execs, visiting clients one by one to apologize and offer compensation to show the studio's sincerity. She decided to triple the compensation amount directly.
Preliminary estimates showed that the value of the destroyed orders was about $400 million. And they would have to compensate $1.2 billion. Elodie Studio had only made a total profit of $300 million since its opening. This gap was impossible to fill.
The police reported that the thieves had been caught. But those two were dirt poor, with no money to compensate, and willingly went to jail. Harper had known from the start that these two thieves were just scapegoats; the real culprits were Ryan and his crew. Harper had ruined their plans, so they weren't gonna let her off easy.
Jasper was furious and transferred all available cash flow from his company into Harper's account. But Harper didn't take it; she couldn't let Jasper's company get into trouble too. She could only use the money Elodie had left for her wedding.
In the afternoon, Harper had been waiting at the entrance of a media company for almost three hours. It was the height of summer, and the manager said they would come out but never did, leaving Harper waiting outside.
Harper knew they were deliberately making things difficult for her, but she had no choice. Even so, she had to wait with a smile. She couldn't let the hard-earned reputation of Elodie Studio be destroyed overnight.
After a long wait in the scorching sun, the manager finally strolled over. She was holding a coffee, looking all leisurely.
"Hello..." Harper had just started to speak when the entire cup of coffee was suddenly poured over her head and face.
This woman was Audrey's good friend and had been instructed by the Hernandez family to make things tough for Harper. She covered her mouth, pretending to be shocked as she exclaimed, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you..."
Harper knew she was lying. She had already greeted the woman; how could she not see her?
Harper calmly wiped the coffee off her head and face, handed over the document, and said, "Ms. Brin, please sign this compensation agreement."
Lyric Brin took it and glanced at it carelessly, then said unhappily, "Ms. Murphy, I don't think we can forgive your mistakes. I need it next week, and now you tell me it's destroyed and can only compensate three times the amount. That's not enough."
Harper had encountered more than one difficult person today. She said sincerely, "Ms. Brin, we have two options here: compensation or providing a substitute product."
Harper handed over a tablet and added, "This is also an international brand. We can buy finished products from them for your emergency use."
In fact, this brand was much more well-known than Elodie Studio, with a long history.
Lyric tossed her hair and said disdainfully, "Ms. Murphy, you offered quite a new option, but we've already announced it."
Lyric showed a picture of the announcement. Harper's sharp eyes noticed it happened at noon. She frowned and said sullenly, "Ms. Brin, we called your company at 9 AM to inform you of the situation. With that, you still released the announcement at noon. What do you mean by that?"
Lyric's face changed, and then she said calmly, "I didn't know. The call probably wasn't made to me."
She was clearly shirking responsibility. And she started to be unreasonable as she blurted out, "What's wrong with you?"
Lyric said impatiently, "It's clearly your fault. You come here without an apology, and how dare you reason with me and throw that attitude in my face!"
"I think our attitude is fine." Harper asked calmly, "Then how would you like to resolve this, Ms. Brin? Please give me a plan, and I'll see..."
Before Harper could finish, Lyric interrupted harshly, "Get on your knees."
She flicked her hair, looking smug as she added, "Then I'll see what that makes me feel."
Harper looked at her and huffed, "Ms. Brin, do you really have to make things difficult for me?"
"When did I make things difficult for you?" Lyric widened her eyes, muttering softly, "Who told you to offend the Hernandez family."
Harper heard it loud and clear. Without another word, she put away the contract and said, "Sorry to bother you, Ms. Brin."
With that, she turned and left.
"Hey!" Lyric spoke up in a panic, "What do you mean? You're just gonna leave?"
Harper stopped and said, "Yes, since you leave me no room for negotiation."
Lyric rolled her eyes and hissed, "When did I do that? Apparently, you don't show any sincerity."
Harper, with one hand in her pocket, covered in coffee, showed no sign of fear as she barked, "I believe I have show enough with my offer, yet you, Ms. Brin, didn't bother to hide your hostility"
Lyric scolded, "You're really impatient. Fine, if we can't talk, I'll post this on social media right now to tell everyone how untrustworthy Elodie Studio is!"
Harper watched her turn and said coldly, "Ms. Brin, do you really want to make the wrong decision at this point?"
Lyric turned back and asked, "What do you mean?"
Harper smiled, "Do you really think the Hernandez family can rise again?"
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