Chapter 669 Seraphine Is Not Dead
In the VIP hospital room, George slowly opened his eyes, squinting against the harsh white light. Through the haze, he saw a familiar figure adjusting the IV bag with her back turned to him.
"Emma..." he croaked, "Am I dreaming?"
Emma spun around abruptly and rushed to his bedside, her eyes instantly welling up with tears. "You're awake?"
George struggled to lift his hand, wanting to touch her face, but it fell back weakly. "It's really you."
Celeste, who was resting in the nursing bed, was awakened by George's voice. She opened her eyes and saw Emma, her tense nerves relaxing. She couldn't help but joke, "Looks like I woke up at the wrong time."
"Celeste, thank goodness you're alive," Emma said, wiping the corners of her eyes.
Though Emma didn't fully understand what had transpired between Celeste, Michael, and George, or why Celeste had transformed into George's fiancée, she was relieved to see Celeste alive. Celeste wasn't a bad person; she didn't deserve such a fate.
Celeste felt guilty towards Emma. She had pretended to be George's fiancée out of necessity, and now there was no need to keep Emma in the dark. She explained her and George's cooperative relationship.
George looked like a child who had done something wrong, hanging his head in silence.
Emma looked at him, remembering how he had risked his life to shield her from a bullet. Her heart couldn't stay hardened.
"You both woke up at the right time. I have something to tell you."
She took a deep breath and revealed the secret she had been keeping. "Seraphine isn't dead. Michael has her under control. He threatened me, saying if I came back to you, he'd harm Seraphine."
George's pupils contracted, and he struggled to sit up. "What?"
"Don't move!" Emma quickly pressed him back down. "Your wound will reopen!"
At that moment, her phone vibrated. The screen displayed a text from Michael. "Return to the villa within ten minutes, or you'll never see Seraphine again."
Emma's face turned pale as she handed the phone to George, trembling. "Look."
George read the message, fury blazing in his eyes. "That bastard!" He tried to get out of bed but fell back in pain. "I'm going to kill that bastard!"
Celeste calmly held his shoulder. "You can barely walk right now. How are you going to save anyone?"
"Then what do we do?" George slammed his fist on the bed rail. "Are we just going to watch Seraphine..."
Emma's tears fell silently. "It's all my fault..."
"No, don't blame yourself." George lay back, still trying to comfort Emma. "Emma, you've done enough. It's Michael who's inhuman, not you."
"But..."
"Using a child to threaten a mother, Michael is truly despicable." Celeste closed her eyes in pain. She couldn't believe the man she had loved for over a decade had become so ruthless.
"Emma, you did the right thing. Endless tolerance leads nowhere. He'll only see your kindness as weakness. You don't want Seraphine to be his pawn forever, do you? Let's take a chance."
"Okay, thank you, Celeste."
"There's nothing to thank me for. I once helped him hurt you. Now, this is my belated apology."
"So, what do we do?" George began to think about a concrete plan. His people in Sunterra had been nearly wiped out by Michael, and he himself couldn't even leave the hospital room.
Currently, the only one with any power in Sunterra was Celeste. But some of Celeste's people overlapped with Michael's, making it hard for her to act without him noticing.
Celeste's gaze fell on the business card on the bedside table… Oscar's card. She picked it up and examined it closely, then said, “Maybe we can ask him for help.”
“Who?” George frowned.
“Oscar,” Emma explained softly, “He's the one who helped me evade the bodyguards and sneak into the hospital.”
George sneered, “The Gutierrez Gang's second-in-command, being so kind-hearted?”
“But we have no other choice,” Celeste analyzed calmly. “The Gutierrez Gang and Michael are sworn enemies. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
George was silent for a moment, then nodded with difficulty. “Let's try.”
Emma dialed Oscar's number, her hands shaking. The call was quickly answered, and Oscar's voice came through, laced with amusement. “Emma, I've been waiting for your call.”
“Mr. Gutierrez, I need your help.”
“Regarding Michael and your daughter?” Oscar chuckled. “I already know. Meet me at the hospital's back entrance in half an hour.”
After hanging up, Emma looked at the others uneasily. “He seems to already know about Seraphine.”
“With the Gutierrez Gang's resources, there's little they can't find out,” Celeste said, narrowing her eyes. “But right now, we have to take a gamble.”
Half an hour later, Oscar appeared in the hospital room as promised. He still looked like a harmless college student, but the calculation in his eyes was unmistakable.
“Emma, because of your escape, Michael has moved Seraphine to a new location.” He smiled and handed over a file. “This contains the layout of the new location and the guard distribution.”
Emma took it, surprised. “How did you get this?”
Oscar smiled without answering, then turned to Celeste. “Celeste, I've heard a lot about you.”
Celeste responded coldly, “Cut the crap. What do you want?”
“Money, lots of it,” Oscar replied succinctly, patting the head of the golden retriever beside him. “In exchange, I'll help you rescue the child and…” he glanced meaningfully at Emma, “ensure Michael can never threaten you again.”
George struggled to sit up. “Why should I trust you?”
Oscar shrugged. “You have no other choice.” He checked his watch. “Michael isn't stupid. When he can't reach the guards at the entrance, he'll realize something's wrong. And the place he'll think of first is the hospital. He's probably already on his way. If you want to chat more, you won't have time to leave.”
Celeste suddenly spoke up. “Deal.”
Oscar raised an eyebrow. “Then it's settled.”
He left the room and signaled to the people in the hallway. Two medical staff immediately came in and started to move George's hospital bed.
“Where are you taking George?” Emma asked.
Oscar looked at her like she was an idiot. “We're going to rescue the child. Do you want to leave your husband here? Do you want to hand him over to Michael as a hostage?”
Emma realized she was letting her concern cloud her judgment and quickly followed the medical staff, with Celeste right behind her.
They got into the ambulance waiting downstairs. Oscar hit the gas, and the vehicle sped into the night. In the rearview mirror, a cold smile played on his lips. “The game has begun.”
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
