billion book
Chapter 10
But the voice on the other end wasn’t Everett’s. It was his assistant returning the call.
Dorothy felt a tad bummed, but she still gave it a try. “I’m Dorothy Sanchez. A classmate of Mr. Lopez. Could you please relay a message to him? I’d like him to call me back.”
“Alright, Ms. Sanchez. Is there anything else?”
“No, thank you.”
After hanging up, she suddenly felt a twinge of understanding towards her mother’s desperate leap from the building.
When you’re backed into a comer by all sorts of unexpected events, you really just feel like throwing in the towel.
The hospital was frigid.
By the wee hours, Dorothy jolted awake on the patient’s chair, realizing she had dozed off out of sheer exhaustion.
She checked on her sleeping mother and tucked her in.
Her phone was flooded with messages from Karen.
“Dorothy, don’t worry: I’ve already called my parents. They agreed to lend you another 200k, so you’ll have 400k. We’ll piece it together bit by bit. 111 reach out to some other friends tomorrow; we’ll definitely reach our goal.”
“Don’t scare me! Reply, Dorothy! Don’t do anything stupid”
“Dorothy, where are you? I’m in Eldorria City, and I’m going to my parents’ place to get the money. We’ve raised 450k so far.”
Dorothy quickly left the ICU to call Karen back.
“You were about to scare me to death, you know!”.
“I’m sorry… I was in the ICU, so my phone was on silent.”
“Don’t despair. Who said there’s no hope? Remember, if money can solve the problem, it’s not a problem.”
Just as Dorothy was about to respond, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a tall figure appearing at the other end of the long hospital hallway.
It was like a deity had descended.
In her ear, Karen was calling out, “Hello? Dorothy! Hello? Why can’t I hear you?”
The man strode towards her, removing his coat and draping it around the frail Dorothy.
“It’s cold at night. You’ll catch a cold.”
His voice was as icy as ever, and his deep eyes were focused on her.
Dorothy momentarily thought she was hallucinating out of despair.
“Who’s that? Hello, Dorothy!” Karen was still talking on the other end.
Dorothy quickly told Karen that she had something to deal with and hung up.
“You… Why are you here?”
“Didn’t you call for me?”
She quickly moistened her dry lips, instinctively smoothing her hair. “Yes, I did… I needed to see you”
But when it came to it, Dorothy realized she didn’t know what to say.
Everett, on the other hand, only stayed silent for a few seconds before speaking, “Have you made up your mind?”
Without hesitation, Dorothy nodded. “I’ll marry you! No, no, I mean, I’m willing to help you out. Can you… help my mom?“
He had never seen Dorothy this flustered before. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, but then he seemed to remember something.
“What about your boyfriend?”
Dorothy fell silent.
“I won’t be the third wheel. You’d better break up with him first.”
Instinctively, Dorothy wanted to say she didn’t have a boyfriend, but wouldn’t that mean she purposely rejected him earlier?
If she changed her mind now, wouldn’t Everett think she was playing him?
So after a moment of hesitation, she just nodded. “I’ll break up with him right now.”
“Ok, it’s late. We’ll get our marriage license tomorrow morning.”