Chapter 88
Chapter 88
The rumours about the King and Duke's presence in the hospital spread like wildfire, and gossipers somehow managed to find out that the future Queen was being treated there. Chats were sent. Calls were made. News feeds were updated. Soon, journalists started publishing short articles about whatever little they know from their sources.
When Greg saw the news on his notifications bar, his eyes widened in shock. He left his drink at the refreshments table, and left the dining hall in quick paces as he skimmed through the article, trying to find out how Lucianne was hurt. When he got nothing from the list of useless articles except for the name of the hospital where Lucianne was admitted into, he threw his phone on the passenger's seat of his car in frustration and drove faster than he had ever driven, beating all the traffic lights along the way
When Greg entered the hospital, he asked a nurse where the Queen was before making his way up. He didn't need to read the room labels when he saw the whole party gathered outside OR 1.
Christian was the first to notice his presence, and asked in disdain, "What are you doing here?"
Everyone's heads snapped in Greg's way. Xandar's expression was the most
homicidal at that moment. But Xandar never scared Greg. The Duke locked eyes with the cousin he hated before he asked in anger, "What the f*ck happened to her?"
Christian spat, "That's none of your business. Get out of here."
Greg turned to Christian, who he saw as nothing but an annoying pest at the moment, as he said in a low tone, "It's everyone's business. She's our Queen."
"We don't need this to spread anymore than it already has, Greg! Just leave us alone!" Christian shouted.
Greg scoffed at Christian's assumption that he was looking for something to talk about. He tried to not tear-up as he said as calmly as he could, "I couldn't care less what you think I'm here for but I won't leave until someone tells me what happened to her."
Just then, the operating room door opened, and the same doctor emerged from it. She then explained, "Your Highness. Your Graces. The Queen is showing positive signs of recovery."
The tearing alliance members suddenly stopped sniffling as they cleaned the tears on their faces to concentrate on what the doctor was about to say next. "In the last hour and a half, her vitals were malfunctioning when we started the blood transfusion. And there wasn't any improvement even with the new blood we were giving her. We thought that we were going to lose her. But two minutes ago, her heart rate started picking up again. We think she may be....healing herself. We don't know how but she seems to be doing it. Just a moment," she knocked on the glass window twice, and one of the doctors checked the monitor plugged into Lucianne before he signaled a two digit number at her.
The doctor outside with them then said, "It's still picking up. It's a good sign. If she continues to heal at this pace, she'll be able to breathe on her own again soon. Uh, your Grace," she looked at the tear-strained Annie and asked, "You mentioned that the Queen took out the knife she was stabbed with. We need to contain that knife. Where is it now?"
Annie tried to remain composed as she said, "Sh-She threw it b-back at the man who threw it at her. It stabbed into his bottom. He fell, and I called an ambulance when I was driving here but I don't know what happened to him after that."Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.
The doctor's eyebrows furrowed, "You called an ambulance from this hospital?" Annie nodded.
The doctor's eyes widened, and she took out a phone and quickly dialed a number before waiting for the recipient to pick up the call, "Dr Karr, was a man with a knife in his bottom admitted recently?" After a short moment, she said, "That knife is most likely coated with a lot of Oleander. Not as little as the team suspects. Tell those in the lab to exercise the highest level of caution. No one is to touch the blade. The concentration is probably high enough to burn right through the gloves and their skin! Their faces should be at least ten inches away when they're holding it to run tests. We don't want anyone to faint or go blind."
After she was hung up by her panicked colleague, Greg's infuriated voice rang through the corridor, "HOW THE F*CK DID OLEANDER GET INTO HER SYSTEM?! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?! HOW COULD YOU LET IT HAPPEN?!" The Duke's onyx eyes bore into Xandar's,
Xandar was already holding onto all that rage at himself in his chest for the past hour, and what Greg just said erupted the bubbling infemo as he growled and shouted back, "DO YOU THINK I WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN?! SHE'S MY MATE! DO YOU THINK I'LL BE ABLE TO SURVIVE WITHOUT HER?!"
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HER!"
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Christian shouted with a growl. He glared at Greg and said, "You wanted to know what happened? Now, you do. Leave."
Greg threw him and Xandar another death glare before disappearing from their sight. He took the stairs to the floor below, and asked a nurse where the man who stabbed Lucianne was being treated. He made his way there, grateful that it wasn't on the same floor as where Lucianne was so he didn't have to bump into his cousins and the alliance members again. He peered through the window to memorise his face. When a nurse emerged, he asked, "What's the status?"
She looked at him in confusion before she asked, "Are you a family member?"
"No." He answered flatly.
"We're not supposed to reveal our patients' information to..."
"How about this? He stabbed the Queen with that knife you just removed from his as *. I'm the Duke. I want to know this scum's status."
The nurse was surprised as she uttered apologetically, "I'm sorry, your Grace. I didn't realize. The man's vitals have failed. We tried to save him with a blood transfusion but it didn't work. He succumbed to the poison on the knife. We're removing life support from him now. We couldn't save him."
"Where's the knife?" Greg asked.
"In our lab. They're running tests. We just got a call that the concentration of Oleander may be lethal but we won't know exactly how lethal until we get the results,
your Grace."
Greg took one more hard look at the corpse before he asked, "Have you been able to identify him yet?"
"Yes, your Grace. His name is Harrison Brown. But there wasn't a next of kin listed in his bio so we're still wondering if anyone would come claim his body."
Greg nodded before thanking the nurse and went on his way. He made a call to a familiar number. After two rings, the recipient picked up, and Greg said, "Harrison Brown. Blonde. Six-and-a-half feet. About 165 pounds. I want to know everything, especially who he's been in contact with in the last three weeks."
"Yes, your Grace."
Greg hung up and drove home before drowning down two bottles of scotch. After
that, he let his tears flow, and he threw an empty bottle at the kitchen wall with force before he gave way to his weakening feet as he fell to sit on the floor. His eyes reddened, and he thought about all the things he was going to do to avenge Lucianne if his contact told him that Harrison Brown was a hired assassin.
After an hour, his contact sent him a document. And after skimming through Brown's profile and finding nothing useful, he went through the call history. His contact took the liberty of identifying the callers whom the scum had been in touch with in the past few weeks. But Greg's eyes were only fixed on the one name he knew. He growled ferociously in his kitchen as he muttered menacingly to the name on his screen, "I told you to do nothing. Now, you've dug your own grave."