Chapter 34
Scott Lawson.
He was the second person in Naomi’s call history, so of course Charles would catch sight of it almost immediately.
Naomi, oblivious to this, pointed at the screen and added, “You probably need to scroll down a little more to see my dad’s name.”
Naomi rarely ever talked on the phone except to her family and colleagues. She did not have many friends, and even with her best friend Amelia they usually chatted by text message or video call and rarely phoned each other. Therefore the only few people on Naomi’s call history were her family and
colleagues.
Charles snapped out of his stupor. “Okay.”
He scrolled down a little further and finally saw the name “Dad“. He pressed the call button, then sat down next to Naomi and brought the phone to her ear.
Naomi grinned at him appreciatively and waited for the call to go through.
Her father’s voice soon rang out, “Hello?”
“Hi, Dad.”
“Hello, darling. Are you on your way back? How long do you have left? Your mother and I are already making dinner.”
Naomi informed her parents of roughly what time she and Charles would return home before departing, so Dean came home early from work that day to help Donna prepare dinner.
Naomi hesitated. She knew she had to tell her parents the truth; otherwise, she would not be able to explain her late return, but she did not want her parents to worry. Besides, she needed her parents to come so that Charles did not need to take time off work to look after her.
She hesitated for a few moments, then finally said, “Dad, something bad happened here at Azalea. Hills. Charles and I ran into a girl who met a bad accident and we helped send her to the hospital, but while on the way, I injured myself too. I need you and Mom to come here.”
Although she tried to play it off as nonchalantly as possible, Dean was still worried to hear this. ” Injured yourself? Where? You’re at the hospital now? which hospital? Your mother and I will be there right away!”
With that, Dean scampered into the kitchen and shrieked, “Donna, stop cooking. We need to get to the hospital right away!”
Donna was in the middle of washing some vegetables and immediately turned the faucet off when she heard the panic in Dean’s torie. “The hospital? For who?”
“Naomi, of course!”
“Naomi’s at the hospital? What happened?”
“We’ll talk about it on the way there. Just go pack your things! We need to
“O–okay!”
ve right now!”
With that, Donna sprinted into the bedroom and began frantically tossing clothes into a suitcase. Meanwhile, Dean said into the phone, “Where were you injured, Naomi? What’s going on now? what did the doctors say? Your mother and I are going to be there very soon!”
Naomi was rather flabbergasted at the twist of events and tried desperately to stop her father multiple times, but he was oblivious to her cries. She finally said, “Dad, I’m fine. I burned my arm, but otherwise, I’m okay. Don’t worry.”
She knew her parents would be worried sick so she tried to sound as healthy as possible.
“Your arm? How did you get burned? Naomi, is Charles there? Can I speak to him?” Dean suddenly recalled that Naomi was not alone. He decided it would be better to speak directly to Charles instead.
“He’s here, Dad.”