Chapter 103: Waking up in the hospital

15 years ago...

It was raining heavily with loud thunder rumbling in the night sky of Mirage mesa City. It had been announced that a storm was coming on this fateful night and everyone were to take shelter in their homes to avoid accident. The breeze and rain on that night was so heavy that the houses with poor construction began to collapse, with trees falling over buildings.

However, as this chaos was taking place outside, inside the Rodrigos’ estate, it was another chaos that was happening. Inside the house, some men in black suits could be seen holding down a woman as she cried to her husband, pleading with him not do what he was about to do to his daughter.

The man, Kelvin Rodrigo, who still looked quite younger than how he looked in the present day laughed darkly, and his dark laughter made the two little girls who were sitting in the corner with their nanny, cry loudly for their mother to console them but Ella had no ability to do so because she was held down by her husband’s bulky bodyguards.

"Please, Kelvin. Don’t do this to Mariana, she’s just a little girl." Cried out the woman.

"Oh my dear Ella, when you say Mariana, I get confused on which of the girls you are pleading for. I will not hurt my real Mariana, but the other fake Mariana who is a made up thing from the laboratory for my business, you can’t stop me from doing what I plan to do today. She was made for this." Remarked Kelvin as he crouched down before his pleading wife and used his fingers to stroke her flushed cheeks but the woman jerked her head away from him and said,

"You are a monster! I gave birth to the two girls, they are my children even though you made your doctors insert things inside my system to clone Mariana but to me she’s still my child and not your play thing!" Cried out the woman in desperation as she tried to struggle out of the men’s hold but it was useless as she was just a petite woman being held by men twice her size.

"Don’t worry, Ella. I won’t kill her all I want is for her to serve her purpose in life. She will be just fine if you don’t interfere with my business, my love." Said Kelvin as he stood back to his feet and turned back towards his best team of doctors who were already standing in the room waiting for his order. "Take the girl and make it quick. Once the storm calms, we have to leave the country to deliver those things."

As he gave his orders, one of his men walked up to the two girls sitting in the corner with a young woman who was their nanny. The men already knew which of the girls to take as she was the one glaring at them with her little brown eyes while hugging her nanny, who was crying with the other girl tucked under her arm.

When the little girl saw that they were approaching her, she began to pull away from her nanny and backed further into the corner as she already knew what they would do to her, again. She began to slightly tremble as she gazed towards her mother who was also crying and trying to kick free.

"M-mama, I don’t want to go with them. Please don’t let them hurt me again!" Cried out the little girl as she was lifted up by one of the men and was being carried towards a secret room in the house.

"Please let my daughter go!"

"Mama! nanny Eliza, help me from these monsters! I don’t want to go with them please! Mama!" The little girl’s cries echoed in the halls of the secret rooms along with a loud thunder sound that made her flinch in fear.

The girl watched as the monster, known as her father walked into the room the men put her in with the other men in white who she already knew were going to do the things that would make her cry and beg them to let her go. With her body shaking violently, she watched in pure horror as they tied her to a table and the men in white began to take out their equipments.

"Papa, please help me..." She cried out again while pleadingly looking at the man she knew as her father but had never treated her as his daughter like he did with her twin sister.

Kelvin Rodrigo walked towards the trembling girl with a smile on his face. He then raised his hand and began to lightly stroke her head, "Poor thing. I am not your father because I don’t even consider you a human. You are something made from chemicals and you were made to serve my purpose in life. I hate to break it to you, young one, but don’t ever call me papa because I am not. Now close your eyes and let them do their job."

The girl shook her head from side to side and then cried out,"I am human, mama said you are my papa and you love me. Please take me out of here, I will be good and I will never_"

Before the girl could complete her words, Kelvin raised his hand and smacked her hard on the face that made her head jerk to the side with blood rolling down her nose. The girl could barely cry out from the pain that overwhelmed her little face. She bit down on her lower lip to hold back her cries.

"If you ever think I will love something that’s not of my seed, then you can keep dreaming. Open that stupid mouth of yours to cry again, and I will make sure I sew your lips and you will never be able to speak again." He warned in a low dangerous voice that made the girl tremble.

Done speaking to the little girl, he turned towards the two doctors waiting on them. Though they were doctors, but there weren’t registered under any hospital but under him for what he did.

"Get on with the business. Make sure the things stay under her skin until we arrived at our destination with her tomorrow." He ordered, but one of the doctors furrowed his brows and said, "Mr. Rodrigo, we have planted the last one in her stomach, but we can’t do it there again now as the wound has just been closed up..."

"What do you mean? Can’t you plant the thing in another part of her body until we cross the security check at the airport?" He asked, his voice laced with displeasure and impatience.

"We can. Her thigh would do but it might affect the way she walks and the scar would be permanent if not taken_"

"I don’t care!" Kelvin cut off the doctor’s words in fury, "She’s going to be killed anyway after I’m done with my shipments, so why should I care about how she would walk? Get on with it right away and stop wasting time empathizing with something that’s not even completely human!" He rebuked harshly, making the doctor quickly get on with the operation.

Meanwhile, the girl wanted to cry out but before she could, the doctor injected something into her skin and she began to stumble into unconsciousness, but not before she felt the pain of something tearing her thigh and the sound of the rumbling thunder outside the windows. She wanted to cry out but she couldn’t and then she fell into a deep darkness that was filled with pain.

Back at the present day. Mia’s eyes flew open. She was breathing heavily and her heart rate had quickened like she had just ran a marathon from the nightmare she’d just experienced that wasn’t clear to her now that she was awake. All she remembered was seeing people in white clothes hovering over her with the voice of that scary man ringing in her ears like a broken record.

Mia stared blankly at the white unfamiliar ceiling of the room, which she just realized was a hospital. She looked down and saw that she was laying down on a hospital bed with her hand that was attached to an IV drip, resting flat on her stomach.

"Welcome back, Harrison." Came a deep voice from the side of the room that made Mia almost jump out of the hospital bed she was laying on but she quickly controlled herself and turned to look towards the direction only to see that it was none other than Neil, who was sitting on the couch present in the fancy hospital room with a newspaper in his hand. But he stood up seeing that she was awake.

When he stood beside her bedside, Mia noticed that he wore a casual attire. A plain black long sleeve shirt with black jogger pants, his hair looked disheveled as if he had ran his hands through them countless times. His expression was blank, it gave away nothing but his masculine charm. She suddenly felt her heart skip a beat as she stared at him, momentarily forgetting to ask him why she was in a hospital bed and why he was waiting on her.

"If you’re done staring at me, you can tell me how you’re feeling." Said Neil, in a calm deep voice as he looked down at her.

Mia felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment as she quickly looked away from his face and glanced around the hospital room, that she now realized was making her nervous and scared for no reason. But she dismissed the feeling and instead asked, "For how long have I been in here?" Her voice sounded hoarse and dry. And as if knowing that she needed water, he poured water into a cup that was on the nightstand of the bed and handed it to her while replying to her question,

"Three days. The doctor said a poisonous substance was found in your system, which was why you felt sick that day at the event..." Neil’s voice trailed off and his expression slowly changed Into anger as he recalled what had happened on the day of the event and how his freedom was now hanging on a thin thread. He then looked down at Mia, who had finished drinking the water. He took the cup away from her hand and put it back on the nightstand.

"On the day of the event, you mentioned to me that someone was trying to make you back out of the event. Tell me who that person is." He said, his voice calm but his silver eyes were a mask of raw, savage fury that made Mia a little bit wary.

"Answer me, little one. I have a place to be." He urged impatiently as he shoved his hands into his pockets. He needed a name because that person must be behind that video that came up on the event screen. Neil had been the one to take responsibility for her hospital expenses even though he had been warned not to interfere with the girl again. He had also been visiting her in the hospital for three days, he had even been worried that her condition was more worst than the doctor made it sound like but he was glad that she was awake now.

"Um..." She hesitated, but then decided to tell him who it was. "It was Diane Foster." Mia didn’t have to be told but she knew Diane was behind the video that came up on the screen.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read