Arriving at the hospital took unbearably long minutes, and as soon as the cab driver parked by the side, Adeline got out. She rushed up the stairs of the hospital building and pushed open the glass door.
Her hands clenched into tight nervous fists, and she tramped straight to the elevator, making her way up to the second floor. She wandered past a few wards, stomping on every hurried step she took in panic.
Her eyes searched the numbers written on each ward door, and she finally halted in front of the one with the number '08'
She attempted to open the door, but someone suddenly snatched her wrist, stopping her before she could.
"Mrs. Adeline, you can't be here. I suggest you leave and-"
"You!" Adeline was irritated by the mere glimpse of the nurse's face. She was the one responsible for taking care of her mother. "Let go of my wrist! You have not said a word to me since yesterday, and even when I called you several times, you switched off your phone, avoiding it."
The nurse was beginning to fret. "Mrs. Adeline, I know that you are worried, and I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to go in there. Mr. Petrov himself gave orders that you must not-"
"Take your hands off me!" Adeline screamed at her, snatching her wrist. Her chest rose and fell in heavy breathing, and she glared at the nurse as though she could skin her alive. "Listen here, I don't care what Mr. Petrov said. My mother is in there, and I need to see her."
"If you get in my way again, I'll break your hands!" She grabbed the handle to open the door.
But the nurse grasped her wrist, obstinately determined to stop her for whatever reason only she knew.
As though it were instinctive, Adeline punched her brutally right in the center of the face with her free hand, causing her to fall to the floor with a heavy thud.
Her nose began to bleed.
Using this opportunity, she opened the door and stepped inside the ward. She locked it to keep out any intruders, aware that the nurse would attempt to call security.
Visiting her mother was something she'd constantly done, and never once had they stopped her. So why? Why was the nurse hell-bent on keeping her away from—
Adeline's body shook at the sudden sight of the wheeled table that had someone covered in white clothing lying on it. It looked ready to be drawn out of the room.
Her balled fists tightened, and she slowly began to approach the table. The closer she got, the more her body shuddered nervously.
What was she anxious about? That couldn't possibly be her mother under the white clothing, right?
She stood beside the table and intently stared down at the covered body, afraid to uncover it. Her hand twitched furiously by her side, and she extended it, gradually pulling off the clothing to see the body beneath.
Her lashes flickered rapidly in instant distress, and her brown eyes watered, filled with hot tears.
"Oh, god" Her knees gave out immediately, and she dropped to the floor. She threw her arm over her mother's body, wanting to hug her, but the coldness of the corpse had her shivering.
This alone was confirmation that the woman atop the table was dead. And it seemed that she had been dead for a few hours or so.
Adeline quivered, tears beginning to spill uncontrollably from her eyes. "M-mum. Mum," she whispered, gently caressing the woman's face as if she could break her if she were any harsher with her touch.
Her free hand clutched onto her chest, not able to swallow the painful lump that had built up in her throat. "He killed you. H-he really killed you."
She grasped her mother and her eyes dilated in horror.
"I didn't know. No one...no one told me!" Adeline was starting to lose her mind. She released her grip and slipped to the ground. Her knees curled up to her chest, and she gripped onto her hair, looking down to the floor in dismay. "I was too late. No one told me, no one told me anything. T-they didn't."
She rocked back and forth on the floor, fidgeting nervously with her fingers as if trying to calm down. A cynical chuckle fled her throat, and her gaze suddenly went distant.
He did it... They really killed her!
"Dimitri! Dimitri! Dimitri!"
She kept rocking back and forth, her thoughts completely jumbled. Everything, everything had been taken from her.
First, her father, and now...her mother—the only person, the only one she had left. They were both gone, at the very hands of the same person—the sole reason for her mise—
A sudden frantic shaking of the door handle startled her out of her drifting thoughts, and she quickly turned her head.
She glanced at the door and gradually began to stand up from the floor. The force with which they were trying to burst open the door was alarming.
Was it the security? Did the nurse call them?
"Mrs. Adeline, open this door!" a voice thundered, coming off as an order.
But Adeline did nothing. She staggered back, reaching for the vase at a bedside table in the room.
The voice warned again, "We'll break this door down if you don't open up!"
No, that couldn't be the security guards. If she was correct, they had to be Mr. Petrov's private men. The voice warning her—she could recognize it. After all, he was Mr. Petrov's right-hand man, Mikhail. Also, Dimitri's bodyguard.
Adeline quickly looked around the room, her gaze landing on the window. She needed to run from there as fast as she could.
For Dimitri's father to send his private men instead of simply having the security men throw her out, they were surely going to do something to her. And knowing the old man quite a bit, she dared not gamble.
The hinge of the window creaked as she pushed the framed glass open. She threw her legs over, and as soon as she jumped, the door of the ward burst open, six men in black suits rushing in.
One of them with short blonde hair and sharp gray eyes, possibly Mikhail, glanced around the room. His gaze halted on the opened window, and his expression darkened.
"She jumped out of the window. Hurry up and go after her! Don't let her escape!!" he ordered in a thundering voice, turning around and storming out of the room with a furious look.
"We are not going back until we find her!"