Chapter 70 Suspecting Identity
Cliff?
Jessica stared at the word and then at the half-drawn figure in another newspaper. Something in her mind almost instantly connected the dots.
Suddenly, the trailer, which was smoothly driving on the bridge, was hit hard by some unknown force. Jessica heard the screeching of brakes and Harrison's scream. The next moment, Jessica raised her eyes but didn't have a clear view of what happened outside the car. The car and her body seemed to lose weight as they fell down the side of the bridge that had been crashed through.
The trailer quickly plunged into the turbulent river.
A white Range Rover sped by and entered the old neighborhood.
The car stopped at the entrance of the building. Jessica raised her hand and touched the bulky cervical spine stabilizer on her neck. With a stiff movement, she reached out to push open the car door.
Sitting in the driver's seat, Mackenzie looked at her with a worried expression. "Are you sure you don't need me to take you upstairs?"
"No, you should go to the hospital to check on Harrison first. She protected me with her body inside the car at that time. Otherwise, my injury wouldn't be just a simple dislocated cervical spine." Jessica waved her hand. "When you brought me out of the hospital, the doctor was still taking X-rays of her. I don't know the results."
At that time, the car plunged straight into the river. Luckily, there happened to be a worker's boat cleaning up the garbage on the river. They rescued Jessica, Harrison, and the trailer driver.
When the accident happened, Harrison instinctively threw himself over Jessica and protected her on the seat. However, the pressure underwater and the force of the fall caused the car to rapidly rotate in the turbulent river. Harrison's arm was severely injured in the collision inside the car, possibly dislocated or fractured. The driver also had a serious injury on his head. Jessica's cervical spine was dislocated, but fortunately, they all survived.
After being urgently sent to the hospital, Jessica borrowed a cellphone from a nurse and called Mackenzie.
Although a dislocated cervical spine was not a serious injury, even the slightest movement caused Jessica excruciating pain. She dared not move at all.
The doctor placed a cervical spine stabilizer on her neck, a very large one. Jessica was now inconvenienced by any movement. The doctor instructed her to wear it continuously, and she could only remove it when sleeping at night if it was really uncomfortable. However, she had to use a pillow to ensure that her head and the back of her neck were aligned. The doctor had many requirements. In short, she had to wear this huge contraption, and judging from her injuries, the doctor said she had to wear the cervical spine stabilizer for at least a week.
This week, Jessica had no choice but to take sick leave from the film crew. Her condition was such that she couldn't even handle the pressure of performing fight scenes, let alone stand behind the female lead as a background prop. She was in so much pain that even the slightest movement of her neck made her question her life choices.
Jessica slowly climbed the stairs. Normally, she would sprint up the five floors in just a few minutes, but today, it took her half an hour to finally reach her front door.
When the car fell into the water and she was rescued, her ID and keys were unaffected, but her cellphone got wet and couldn't be turned on for hours.
Standing in front of her door, Jessica struggled to search through her pockets for her keys. She couldn't lower her head or see which pocket exactly, and even the slightest movement of her arm or shoulder would pull on her neck and cause excruciating pain. She stood there, wishing she could just turn into a statue and be done with it.
Perhaps her fumbling outside the door was too obvious, because before she could find her keys, the door suddenly opened from the inside.
Gabriel opened the door and saw Jessica wearing a large neck brace. She stood there, looking perplexed.
Her hand was still in the pocket, but her mouth hung open in surprise because the door had unexpectedly opened. Added to that was the strange contraption on her neck, making her appear even more peculiar.
"I forgot you were home. I should have knocked," said Jessica, who had just narrowly escaped death. She was a bit disoriented, and her speech lacked coherence as she stiffly looked at him. "Could you please step aside and let me in first?"
Gabriel's calm black eyes gazed at her. "What happened to you?"
Jessica swallowed and didn't have time to explain. As soon as she took a step forward with her awkward posture, she froze in place. It seemed that asking him to move aside wouldn't work, so she simply waved at him. "Don't go, help me inside. I can't move. My back is numb, my whole body is numb! I can't walk!"
After speaking, she stiffly dropped her arm again, feeling the pain from just moving it a few times.
Seeing her in such agony, Gabriel's serene brows furrowed subtly. He reached out and helped her inside.
"Take it slow, I need to turn around first. Let me take off my shoes," Jessica said as she walked, explaining that her shoes were easy to take off, but it would be troublesome to bend down and find the slippers. Before she could finish speaking, Gabriel had already found the slippers in the shoe cabinet and placed them by her feet.
She turned her gaze stiffly, raised her hand to support the contraption on her neck, and fumbled to put on the slippers. Then her eyes suddenly focused on Gabriel. After a moment of thought, she didn't say anything, turned around, and started to walk towards the couch. However, her movements remained slow and stiff. Gabriel's hand reached out again, holding her wrist and guiding her to the edge of the couch.
Until Jessica finally managed to sit down and relax on her home sofa, she let out a long breath while pressing the power button on her cellphone, which she then threw aside. She wondered if it would turn on now.
Out of habit, she tried to lean back, but this movement caused the cervical vertebrae support device to hit the back of the sofa, instantly causing her great pain. She immediately sat up straight, her face turning pale with the sudden pain.
Gabriel, with his dark and calm eyes, watched her. Jessica was wearing a set of clothes that Mackenzie had temporarily fetched for her - a short-sleeved cotton t-shirt and sporty shorts - which exposed the bruises on her arms and legs.
Feeling Gabriel's gaze on her superficial bruises, Jessica hissed in pain for a moment before slowly turning to look at him.
After glancing at each other, their eyes met. She quickly looked away, thought for a moment, then looked at him again, only to find that he was still looking at her. She immediately averted her eyes once more.
This back and forth continued, until she decisively turned her gaze back to him, directly staring at his face. After some thought, she quickly glanced at him twice.
After a brief silence, Gabriel ignored her nervous and repetitive gaze at him and spoke in a low voice, "How did you get these injuries?"
