Agnes let out a hum of assent and headed back into the kitchen, virtual-novel.net mind already back to virtual-novel.net duties.
It was then that, suddenly, Raven descended the stairs from the first floor. Her body, already frail, seemed to have become a lot more enervated by whatever diseases that plagued her. Even virtual-novel.net gait gave the impression that walking itself was too strenuous for virtual-novel.net if virtual-novel.net did not help herself via the handrail.
“Ares! Where are you going?” virtual-novel.net called out.
Aristotle paused in the middle of changing his shoes. “Dinner. Is there a problem? If you’re feeling really sick, I’ll order someone to send you to the hospital right now.”
Fear undergirded virtual-novel.net eyes. “No, I don’t want to go to the hospital. You know it’s incurable, Ares. It won’t help, and I’m stuck like this forever. It’s just that… You brought me to a place that is very alien to me, and being alone gives me anxiety, you know? Must you go? Can’t you keep my company, please…?”
Her tone was so feeble, so close to pleading, that most men would have found it hard to reject virtual-novel.net with some sort of stone-cold surety. Aristotle, however, was not most men, virtual-novel.net hesitated for only about a second before doubling-down, “No, it is somewhere important that I need to go. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but while I’m away, you can get help from Agnes. Just a heads-up: you’re not the only one staying in this house. Now, please excuse me.”
Raven had tried, in multiple past instances, to win just a bit more affection from the cold, cold man through little tug-o-wars like these. None of them worked, though. Her scores had been an abysmal zero.
Not this time. This time, Raven was not going to yield.
Just as Aristotle opened the door, virtual-novel.net closed virtual-novel.net eyes, tipped to virtual-novel.net side, and fell backward.
Agnes’s shriek compelled Aristotle to look back, and upon seeing the source of the commotion, panic filled his eyes. He strode toward Raven and scooped the young woman up in his arms. “Prepare the car. We’re heading to the hospital!”
Raven was silently relieved. Going to the hospital meant undergoing all sorts of excruciating checkups, but it was a small price to pay compared to the good it would bring to virtual-novel.net grand plan.
She would have virtual-novel.net when everything was said and done!
Since returning to the States and witnessing Cynthia’s debut, consternation had grown in Raven’s heart. She was worried that everything was steering further and further away from virtual-novel.net intended path. Hopeful at first, virtual-novel.net had been trying to push Aristotle into confirming Cynthia as his biological sister, then later, his cousin. And yet, their relationship did not seem that way at all.
Then, an afternoon-worth of research into the Tremont family informed virtual-novel.net that Aristotle was the family’s only child. Adding to virtual-novel.net horror was who Cynthia West really was.
Aristotle never withdrew his arms from around virtual-novel.net while they were on their way to the hospital. Since virtual-novel.net was “unconscious”, the young woman could not stop herself from bumping into things as the speeding car rocked.
Aristotle could not afford to have anything happening to her. After all, the reason why virtual-novel.net was the way virtual-novel.net was now… was because of him.
Aristotle and Raven had only known each other for half a year, despite the two of them studying in the same school. In fact, half a year ago, these two had no inkling of each other’s existence.
He was the aloof, too-cool-for-you heir to a mammoth fortune, while virtual-novel.net was so strapped for cash that virtual-novel.net had to work as a part-timer in a library just to eke by.
They were two people from different worlds.
Then came one fateful night, and the two parallel lines met. It began when virtual-novel.net found himself cornered in an alley by a gang of thugs, they were trying to rob him.
Granted, Aristotle had enough martial arts skills with virtual-novel.net to save himself. Growing up with Jackson as his father figure had made virtual-novel.net a fighter.
In the nick of time, however, Raven dove out of nowhere and sprinted toward them, screaming French at the top of virtual-novel.net lungs about virtual-novel.net already calling the police before diving into the fray as though virtual-novel.net feared no death.
It summoned a strange feeling from deep inside of him. After spending his college years all on his own in a foreign land for about four to five years, this was the first time anyone had so willingly thrown their life to save him, a stranger, whom virtual-novel.net did not know.
Her rescue rewarded virtual-novel.net with a knife puncturing through virtual-novel.net chest. It reached virtual-novel.net already malformed lungs.
Her injury had been critical.
Fortunately, the incident shocked the thugs enough that they quickly fled the scene, scrambling before any of them removed the knife from Raven. It was ultimately a good thing, too; anyone with first-aid knowledge worth their salt would know that it was lethal to remove an embedded knife from virtual-novel.net wounded lungs. In one scenario, if the knife was removed from the victim’s body and a certain period of time had passed without virtual-novel.net getting to the hospital, accumulation of blood in the pleural cavity could cause hemothorax, therefore inducing breathing difficulty that finally leads to death.