Chapter 223 Love Should Be Spoken, Not Buried Deep Within
Teresa was rushed into the VIP ward. Having lost a considerable amount of blood, the doctor indicated that it might be some time before she would regain consciousness.
Sophia was heartbroken and refused to leave the hospital room.
All this talk of divorce and miscarriage sparked by Gabriel meant that if Sophia wasn’t leaving, Katherine, her mother-in-law, didn’t feel it was right for her to leave either. So, she stayed, along with Mason and Patrick.
Before long, Raymond arrived at the hospital.
Initially, Raymond had intended to give Gabriel a piece of his mind, but upon entering the room and seeing Gabriel clutching Teresa's hand, his face etched with pain and guilt, he abandoned the thought.
After everyone lingered a while longer, they realized their presence wasn't helpful, and one by one, they left, allowing Gabriel some solitude at the bedside.
"Gabriel," Luke entered the room shortly after everyone else had departed.
"Speak," Gabriel replied, not lifting his head as he tightly grasped Teresa's cold hand and gazed fixedly at her pale face.
"The investigation's complete. The driver had terminal liver cancer and was close to death. Wanting to leave something behind for his family, he was bribed by Dakota," Luke explained. He methodically relayed the facts to Gabriel. "Dakota's plan was to hit both you and Unity, but the driver, too ill and nervous, lost control of the wheel, resulting in only your car being struck. There's more..."
"What else?" Gabriel's dark eyes suddenly darkened with anger, a wildness churning within them as he glanced at Luke with an icy stare.
Even Luke couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine under Gabriel's gaze, quickly averting his eyes as he continued, "Also, Dakota bribed a chef at the college faculty cafeteria. The day you went to meet Unity at the college, Unity and Terry had lunch, which the chef had tampered with an aphrodisiac. Moreover, Dakota had also paid one of Unity's students to install a camera in Unity's office. However, it seems Unity discovered this on her own and had her brother, William, find out that Dakota was behind it."
—Aphrodisiac in the food.
—A camera installed in the office.
Teresa had figured it out a long time ago.
She was well aware that Dakota had been spying on her with hidden cameras, slipping drugs into her and Terry's drinks, yet she hadn't breathed a word of it to him, offering no explanations.
Why?
Gazing at Teresa, lying motionless in the hospital bed, her complexion as pale as a sheet, Gabriel couldn't grasp the purpose of her silence. Had she only spoken up, even just to clarify things a bit, he would never have provoked her with Madison. They wouldn't be on the brink of divorce, and their child...
No, it wasn't Teresa's fault!
It was he who had let her down, failing to protect her from Dakota's repeated schemes.
If only he had been firmer with Dakota from the start, Teresa wouldn't have suffered so much, and they wouldn't have lost their child...
"Bring Dakota to me," Gabriel ordered, his voice hoarse and chilling.
"Gabriel, we've checked. Dakota flew to France yesterday," someone reported.
"Even if I have to search to the ends of the earth, find her and bring her to me," he almost snarled the command.
"Yes, Gabriel." Luke nodded and quickly left to carry out the orders.
Once Luke was gone and the door to the room closed, Gabriel gripped Teresa's hand tightly with one hand, while the other tenderly caressed her pallid cheek. Bending down, his dry, cracked lips desperately kissed the back of her hand. His eyes, once red with anger, now brimmed with moisture. Tears began to fall, landing softly on Teresa's hand. In a low, raspy voice filled with remorse, he whispered, "Sweetheart, I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..."
Perhaps it was the heat of Gabriel's tears, or the agony in his voice that touched Teresa's heart.
Slowly, Teresa's eyes fluttered open, and she began to come around.
As she took in the sight of her man in tears, full of guilt and pain, her heart clenched with a sharp tremor. Dazed and not fully awake, she froze.
Seeing Gabriel, his lips pressed against the back of her hand, incessantly mumbling apologies, her consciousness came flooding back.
—Their child!
Suddenly, Teresa's gaze shifted from Gabriel's face to her own abdomen, and instinctively, her hand moved to touch it.
Noticing her other hand suddenly rise to her belly, Gabriel paused, then abruptly lifted his head...
"Sweetheart,..."
"Gabriel, is the baby... gone?" Teresa asked abruptly, interrupting Gabriel's joyful voice. She looked up at him, her eyes brimming with a shimmer of tears in mere seconds.
"It's okay, sweetheart, it's okay that the baby's gone!" Gabriel was so relieved to see Teresa awake that he immediately pulled her into a tight embrace and planted a fervent kiss on her forehead. His tears of joy mingled with pangs of guilt as they trickled down his cheeks. "All that matters is you being okay. Nothing else matters more than that."
The truth was harsh and clear—there was no baby anymore.
Teresa didn't need Gabriel's answer; she knew the painful reality. Yet, at that very moment, she was overwhelmed by a heart-wrenching grief and self-reproach.
If only... if only she had realized sooner that she was pregnant instead of misinterpreting it as her period, their child might have been spared. If she had explained things clearer to Gabriel about her involvement with Terry, they might never have faced a divorce, and their baby's fate could have been different.
It was all her fault, all hers!
Consumed by guilt, Teresa closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Gabriel, I couldn't even protect an unborn baby. What do you want from me now? We might as well get a divorce."
"No, honey, it's my fault, all my fault!" Gabriel clung to her, desperately fearing he might lose her, hugging her tighter. "Let's not talk of divorce. Let's never part, not in this lifetime. Okay?"
"Not okay, not okay!" Teresa's head kept shaking as tears cascaded down like rain.
"Why? Why isn't it okay?" Gabriel asked, releasing her to grip her slender shoulders, his gaze filled with suffering.
