Chapter 85

The clipboard in Andre’s hand hit the floor with a dull clack. His phone might have nearly followed it if his last two fingers were not still wrapped around it. The man just looked like he had been struck by lightning.

All the joy from the successful sale earlier vanished, replaced by a raw, naked terror that made him look close to twenty years older in an instant.

"I... I’m coming," Andre managed to force out. "I’m coming right now. Please... Please don’t let my baby girl..."

He didn’t even finish the sentence as he turned to run, his movements clumsy and uncoordinated. He didn’t have a car, and he looked like he had been taking the bus to save money, and in his panic he seemed to have even forgotten where the exit even was.

He stumbled against a display stand, almost crashing into an expensive Mercedes Benz, but Alex quickly stepped into his path and caught him by the shoulders to steady him.

"Andre! Look at me and breathe."

Andre’s eyes were wide and unfocused, darting around in a blind panic.

"My daughter... She’s in the... Hospital... I have to go... Oh God, the bus is too fucking slow!"

"Just calm down okay. I’ll drive you there with my car. It’ll be much faster that way than finding a taxi."

"I... I can’t ask you to do that, sir," Andre stammered, even as he allowed Alex to lead him toward the door. "You just bought that half a million dollar car... I don’t think it’s right to carry someone like me... W-what if I stain it or spoil something?"

"Get in the car, Andre!" Alex commanded, not leaving any room for argument.

They stepped out into the bright afternoon sun, where the white Lamborghini was now sitting idly, with its perfect V12 engine purring with a low, menacing rumble that vibrated through the pavement. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

A valet held the door open, looking confused as to why a salesman was scrambling into the passenger seat of the expensive car he had just sold.

Alex slid into the driver’s seat and felt the faint nostalgia of riding a car. But he focused back, buckled his seatbelt and gripped the steering wheel. Just as he was about to drive off he remembered that he didn’t know which hospital Andre’s daughter was in.

"Which hospital is your daughter at?"

"Central City hospital," Alex choked out with his hands buried deep in his hair, as he began to sob. "Please hurry up. I won’t be able to forgive myself if anything happens to my baby girl. She’s all I have in this life..."

Alex nodded. In a way he could understand the man’s pain, but still that didn’t mean he wasn’t clearheaded enough to know that he couldn’t waste such a perfect opportunity that the universe had provided for him to gain Andre’s loyalty.

He made sure to shift the gear into position first before driving off. The roar of the Lamborghini filled the street with an astonishingly deep purr that turned several heads for three blocks straight.

Within seconds, they were already weaving through the city traffic with speed that surpassed that of flash himself. As Alex drove the car he couldn’t help but feel the need to be amazed at how it felt to finally drive a freaking Lamborghini.

Now this was what he was talking about! Just driving a car like this with a speed that bordered on insane was probably every man’s dream.

And the best part was that even though the speed was really high, he was still able to drive with a precision that was borderline supernatural, utilizing his enhanced reflexes and sharp vision to find gaps in the traffic that shouldn’t have even existed.

[Go faster, Alex! Let’s see how fast this baby can gooo!] The chibi urged while sitting on the dashboard and looking out the windshield with wide eyes, before coughing to correct herself.

[Cough. I mean go faster so that we can save a poor pitiful soul that is in need of our help]

’Yeah right.’ Alex thought while rolling his eyes.

He glanced sideways at Andre who was just staring straight ahead with his lips moving in an inaudible, desperate prayer. He shifted his eyes away and focused back on the road, mentally going through the plan he had just created this very minute to enact, once he reached the hospital.

Soon the hospital building was beginning to come into view. It was like a stark white monolith against the bright blue sky. Alex didn’t slow down until the very last second, slamming on the brakes as he pulled into the parking lot. The car screeched to a sudden halt as he pulled up, with the scent of hot rubber filling the air.

"We’re finally here. Let me..."

Andre didn’t even wait for Alex to finish, he immediately rushed out of the still rising car door, shouting his daughter’s name, before disappearing through the sliding glass doors of the hospital.

Alex didn’t mind it. After all just knowing that your sick daughter was already in the intensive care unit was enough to make any person lose their g*ddamn mind.

He turned off the car engine and calmly followed Andre’s faint shadow while ignoring the flirtatious glances he got from some really pretty nurses and female patients in the building.

Andre meanwhile, continued sprinting down the hospital corridors like a man running against time itself. He accidentally pushed against a petite nurse in his haste but moved forward without an apology leaving the young nurse a bit pissed, before she shook her head and continued pushing a trolley full of medical stuff.

His mind was only focused on his daughter who was struggling for her life in that accursed room. Alex followed behind at a steady pace in stark contrast to Andre’s frantic movement.

His eyes automatically scanned the environment, taking in every single detail without much effort, but his focus still remained on the trembling man ahead of him.

Soon Andre finally reached the ICU corridor in less than a minute. Without even slowing down for a single minute, he rushed toward the double doors with his hands already reaching out to push them open.

Just as his hands reached for the handle, a middle aged doctor in a wrinkled white lab coat stepped out with bloodshot eyes that looked heavy with the unmistakable fatigue of someone who had been fighting a losing battle for far too long.

The doctor sighed softly while removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose before looking at him.

"Doctor! Andre gasped, his voice cracking like dry parchment. "My Lily... is she... Can I see her now? The nurse said she crashed, she said..."

The doctor placed a palm on his shoulder to calm his excited expression before speaking.

"You’re really lucky Mr Stuart." He said carefully. "We were able to stabilize her. The allergic reaction to the new chemotherapy strain was really severe, but we were lucky that we caught it in time. Her heart rate is back to normal, and she is resting now."

Andre let out a long breath.

"Thank God. Thank you, doctor. Thank you so, so much."

"Don’t thank me yet," the doctor interrupted, his voice becoming solemn and serious. "There is something you need to understand, Andre."

Andre’s relaxed nerves instantly tightened again.

"The cancer has progressed faster than we anticipated. The treatment is no longer as effective as it was before. Sorry but her body is... now deteriorating at an accelerated rate. We even had to re-evaluate her prognosis."

Andre shook his head slowly, as if refusing to process the heavy words.

"No... no, that’s not possible! You said... You said we still had more time, so what the hell are you saying?"

"I’m sorry," the doctor said, looking down at his clipboard because he couldn’t bear to meet the father’s eyes. "Based on the rate of deterioration we just saw today... She has about one month left. But my recommendation is that we stop the aggressive treatments and move her to palliative care. We should focus on making her as comfortable as possible till her final days."

After the doctor finished speaking there was absolute silence. At that moment it felt like the entire corridor had just been emptied of the word called sound.

Andre just stood there, frozen. His eyes stared blankly at the doctor, but it was clear from his broken expression that he wasn’t seeing him anymore.

From three months to just one. That was all that Lily had left to live.

Slowly his back hit the wall, and he slid down with one hand covering his face as his shoulders began to tremble.

"No..." he whispered. "No... no... no..."

He pressed his forehead against the wall, trying really hard to hold himself together, to keep the damn tears from falling down his blurry eyes. But they still came anyway.

"She’s just a child..." He muttered under his breath. "She hasn’t even lived yet... She hasn’t even gone to college... She hasn’t even..."

His voice failed him completely as he buried his face into his hands, with his shoulders heaving with silent sobs that seemed to tear through his very chest.

The joy that he had gotten from the possible commission from the Lamborghini sale he had made today, had been snuffed out in an instant, leaving him in a darkness more profound than anything he had ever known in his entire life.

It was in this moment of absolute brokenness that a shadow fell over him.