Cyril was overwhelmed with feelings of anger and guilt, yet he couldn't pinpoint the reason.
Gazing from the balcony, he couldn't take it anymore.
"Stop!" Cyril shouted from his balcony.
Everyone raised their faces up to see Cyril staring down at them, but Maryann couldn't raise her face up because she was too weak.
"Your Excellency, it is only twelve, not nearly fifty," David stated.
"Dismiss everyone and loosen her now", Cyril thundered as he looked down at Maryann, and she was bleeding from her mouth and her back was nothing to talk about.
It was seriously bleeding and severe.
"Why did he release her?" Cass asked, annoyed, as she exited with Amy and Jo.
Meanwhile, the staff and other workers from the cottage also departed, leaving only Sarah, Lisa, and James behind.
Cyril observed from above as everyone departed, and the guards released Maryann without restraint.
James hurried to catch up with Maryann from underneath the pole, but she fell on top of him instead.
He lay underneath Maryann while Maryann lay on top of him unconsciously.
Cyril became angry and slapped himself to snap back to reality, yet he couldn't tear himself away from the scene, feeling a sharp pang of jealousy in his chest.
Sarah and Lisa ran and lifted Maryann from James.
James sat up and found Maryann on his lap, as Sarah and Lisa tried to lift her.
Instead, James held her head and the blood was still oozing from her mouth.
"Mary! Mary! Mary! Wake up!" James screamed as he shook her, but Maryann didn't open her eyes or move.
"Please give me water," James murmured in anticipation, and Lisa hurried to fetch some water.
Sarah began to whimper.
James looked at Maryann's clothes as she lay on his leg, the back of her top was torn according to the lashes of the whip, the hook of her brassiere showed from the back of her dress that tore almost unhooking when James hooked it back together as she lay unconscious.
Cyril's heart ached as he stood on the balcony, watching James tend to Maryann.
He shook his head, dismissing the notion that he was starting to care about her fate.
He shouldn't care after all, it could damage his reputation, and he didn't even like her.
She was a thief, ungrateful for the life he had saved, and had insulted him outright.
So why should he care? With that, he turned and went inside, giving it no further thought.
Lisa handed the water to James, who then tried to give it to Maryann.
However, the water spilled from the corner of her mouth since she was unconscious and unable to drink.
As James held Maryann's mouth open again, he implored Lisa to pour the water in.
Just then, they noticed Cyril emerging from the White House, accompanied by Bobby and six bodyguards.
Cyril gazed at Maryann in her distressing condition, feeling an impulse to carry her and run to the sickbay in seconds.
However, he refrained because onlookers were present, it seemed improper, and he didn't harbor any affection for her, leaving him to question why he should be concerned at all.
Cyril cleared his throat, prompting Sarah and Lisa to bow.
"Take her to the presidential sickbay," Cyril ordered.
As James lifted Maryann up and was about to leave,
Cyril blocked him and said "Not you."
A guard came forward and collected Maryann from James and was about to take her to the sickbay when Cyril commanded "Run!" and the guard ran.
The trio bowed and chorused, "Thank you, Your Excellency".
❤️💜💙💚💛🧡
Granny Mia lay on the ER bed, gazing at the ceiling with blurry eyes, wondering about her granddaughter's wellbeing.
Disoriented by hunger, she could not tell left from right, nor could she grasp her location or the reason for being there.
All she needed was food and a way to communicate her hunger to anyone nearby.
❤️💜💙💚💛🧡
David Oliver, though outwardly respectable, harbored malevolent intentions.
He was acutely aware that Cyril harbored no affection for his daughter.
His goal was to see her wed before her thirty-first birthday.
He observed a change in Cyril after an incident involving a thief;
Cyril began to absolve Maryann of her misdeeds and punishments.
Since his election, Cyril had remained single, without even a casual-relationship.
David interpreted Cyril's protection of Maryann as a threat to his daughter's claim on Cyril and vowed to prevent any such outcome.
❤️💜💙💚💛🧡
"Mary!!!!!!!" James called out to Maryann as she lay on the ER bed unconscious.
Sarah and Lisa were wailing uncontrollably.
Maryann opened her eyes slowly but her vision was so blurry to the point she couldn't identify figures.
The trio lifted their faces up and saw Maryann open her eyes.
They rushed to surround her immediately.
"Where am I?" Maryann inquired, attempting to sit up, but the pain was too intense.
"You are in the presidential sickbay," Lisa answered, while James kept Maryann from getting up.
"What happened?" Maryann asked. "Why am I here?"
"You collapsed during the punishment," James stated, gripping Maryann's pale hands.
"I need to go. I don't like hospitals," Maryann said as she tried to get up, but James quickly held her back.
"No. You need to rest" Sarah said firmly.
"Were you crying?" Maryann asked Sarah as she saw her puffy red eyes.
"Why should I?" Sarah said as she feigned a smile while using the back of her right hand to clean her eyes.
"No," Maryann asserted, pushing through her pain to stand as they watched her in awe.
"I need to go," she insisted, beginning to stagger toward the door, only to be steadied by James and Sarah who assisted her to the exit.
As the four of them stepped outside.
"Before doing anything else, you have to thank the person who saved you," Lisa said.
Maryann nodded with a smile and expressed her gratitude, "Thanks y'all for saving me. I can't imagine what I would have done if I hadn't encountered you in the cottage; y'all are angels."
The trio's laughter was so intense that Maryann started to doubt her own sanity.
"Did I say something wrong?" Maryann inquired, taken aback.
Still giggling, Sarah responded, "Those are the kind of lines you should reserve for the President, not us."