Angelica stirred from her sleep and Adele rose to her feet, leaning over her mother as her face distorted, slowly waking up.
"M-mom…?" She asked, waiting patiently for her eyes to open, and only then would she be relieved. It has been two days since the surgery and Adele had feared she slipped into a coma, well, until now.
Angelica finally opened her eyes, wincing slightly as the light attacked her senses. Everything was too much. Not to mention her throat was too dry and her mouth felt sour. Just what in the name of the lord was happening here?
"Adele…?" Her sight finally adjusted and she managed to see her daughter hovering over her. What was going on? The last thing she remembered was …
Without warning, the memories came in a rush making her wince and she lifted her hand to press down on her temple. Her head was throbbing badly and the last thing she remembered was taking a bullet for Daniel… oh no.
"Adele…." She looked at her daughter now, the guilt appearing on her face. She had intended to see Daniel and then slip away, Adele would not know at all. But then there was an attack and she instinctively took the bullet for him. Now, she was in the hospital and her daughter knew all about it.
Adele was not going to forgive her and the fear made her want to sit up and ask for her forgiveness. But strange enough, Angelica couldn't move a muscle. No, her hands but it had to do with her lower body. It was as heavy as lead. Almost unresponsive.
Real fear crept into Angelica this time and she lifted her gaze to her daughter, asking cautiously, "A-Adele, why can't I feel my legs?"
She watched Adele open her mouth but no words made their way out, instead a tear slipped down her cheek and she hurriedly wiped it away, turning her face away.
Angelica stiffened, her heart freezing over. She knew her daughter and Adele's heart was as hard as stone. The girl never cried, but right now, there was that pitiful look in her eyes when she looked breath.
She sucked in a sharp breath, "God no…." Angelica was able to make connections without Adele revealing the truth. She knew her body and right now, it felt… useless. Her legs were not alive. Something must have happened to her. That bullet.
"Please, tell me this isn't real…." Panic rose in her chest, tears rolling down her cheeks now. There was no way she was paralyzed, right? It was not possible. She had a lot of things to do. She had her daycare to run, and then her grandchildren. How was she going to take care of them? She would be nothing but a burden to Adele as well. Dear God, she must hate her now.
"You should calm down, " Adele told Angelica, especially when she saw her close to hyperventilating.
But she was not listening and kept panicking, screaming, and shouting in a wild outburst. Adele had no choice but to ring the intercom and in the next minutes, the nurses and a doctor filled the room, and gave them space to do their work.
It took a few minutes to get the situation under control by sedating her mother. The doctor turned to her, explaining that an outburst like that was pretty normal for most patients and that it would take her time to adjust to her new reality. She just had to be patient with her.
Adele thanked them on their way out and when she was all alone, sank into her seat, defeated. She ran her hand through her scalp and yanked on her hair hard. Truth be told, she was tempted to leave this woman alone, after all, she brought this on herself. If only she had listened to her and stayed away from Daniel, then this wouldn't have happened.
But she couldn't. No matter what she did, she was still her mother. She only made poor choices and nobody was above mistakes. But then, what was she going to do? She was pregnant with Quadruplets as it is, she couldn't juggle along a paralyzed mother. God, why was life so unfair to her? What did she do so wrong? Adele wanted to break down in tears. It was just overwhelming.
However, before she had the choice to curl up and bawl her eyes out, her phone beeped with a message. Adele checked her phone, quickly wiping at her face. It was from Victor. He needed her. Wonderful. They couldn't even cut her some slack. Although she hoped deep down it was news about Daniel because she needed to let off some steam and he was the perfect candidate. She would kill him.
With one final look at her mother, Adele left the room only to find Victor waiting outside the door for her.
He looked at the door with a sympathetic expression, "How is she?"
"She finally woke up only to have a meltdown." Adele sighed, "Doctor says she would need time to adjust to her new reality."
Then her gaze flickered to him, uncomfortable with the pitiful look in his eyes. She asked him, "And what about you? Shouldn't you be in bed recovering? Marcel would be mad when he sees you moving about?"
Victor winced mentally at the thought of being in bed all day, however, he remembered the reason for coming here and told her, "Well, that's the problem because Marcel won't be here to scold me."
Adele narrowed her eyes at him, "What are you talking about?" She could already sense something was wrong.
"I just got information an hour again that Marcel was taken by his most trusted soldier, Luka."
"Impossible." Adele breathed.
"We think he's been working for Daniel all this while."
"Well, well," Adele mused, "I shouldn't be surprised anyway, after all, Daniel does have a way of poisoning the mind. What's the plan?"
"I communicated with Samuel and he thinks they have been able to find Richardo's location."
"What are we waiting for then?" Adele cracked her knuckles, eager to get this over with, "Let's go bring back Marcel."
And kill Daniel.
