I Am An Illegitimate Child With A Legitimate Reason For Revenge-Chapter 201: She’s doing well

Maxwell was a dangerous man and that was why he was used as a last minute resort. That was how desperate Raymond had gotten.

Steve walked into the office while Maxwell was leaving and looked at the two in it. Raymond and Paige had this serious look that made him believe that the task had been assigned.

He sighed.

"I’m going to head out and check on the kids." Paige said and made her way out of there.

Once she was gone, Raymond called,

"Steve," Then he looked up. "How is Alexa?"

"Her vitals are normal. Though she hasn’t woken up yet, she’s doing really well." He answered.

"When do you think she’ll wake up?" He asked. "Rachael... misses her mother." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Steve stared silently for a moment. Raymond’s hand was trembling a bit.

"It’s only a matter of time till she wakes up. Don’t worry, she didn’t have brain surgery so she’s likely going to wake up tomorrow or the next." Steve assured and Raymond sighed, hoping his words were true.

Just then, a nurse rushed over and announced that Alexa had woken up.

Raymond immediately stood to his feet and rushed over. Steve followed and watched him from behind. This news must’ve made him a bit relieved. It was good.

By the time they got to the ICU, the nurses were already taking off the artificial respiration and asking questions to make sure she was okay.

Raymond looked from the window. She was finally awake. Her skin was full and she had grown lean so it actually hurt as much as he felt relieved.

"Aren’t you going in?" Steve asked but Raymond remained silent. ’Must be hard on him.’ he thought.

Steve entered the ward and a weak Alexa turned to him. She couldn’t really open her mouth to speak as much as she wanted so she slowly parted her lips and said in a silent voice,

"Hello."

"Hello." Steve responded and placed his hand on her forehead. Her temperature was considerably normal.

He took out his stethoscope and checked her heart directly. It was normal as well and so he couldn’t help but wonder why she was unconscious for so long.

Alexa turned her head and her gaze and locked with Raymond who couldn’t bring himself to walk in.

She watched him and felt his sad eyes.

"I..." she started speaking again. "...had a dream."

Steve looked at her and noticed she was staring at Raymond from the glass window.

"I had a really long dream." She repeated, her eyes suddenly becoming teary.

"Though I don’t know what you dreamt of but what if it wasn’t a dream?" Steve asked her and she looked away from Raymond.

She could literally do nothing but move her head. Her body felt numb and she felt empty.

"What happened?" She finally asked.

"First, we need to move you to a different ward." Steve said and directed the nurses.

While they were moving wards, Alexa looked at Raymond who was yet to move his feet and just stood in one position, staring as they left.

"Won’t you at least say hi?" Steve asked him but he still couldn’t utter a single word.

Steve was a bit concerned. What was he thinking of now?

He wanted to go with the nurses but then Raymond said,

"Let’s hold it off for a moment." Steve looked at him, a bit lost. "For now, before we find out who’s behind all this, do not reveal to her who she really is."

Raymond struggled to say this and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Sorry but I think she already knows." Steve said, surprising him. "Or at least she’s gotten a clue. The first word she said to me while looking at you was ’I had a dream’. What do you think that meant?"

Raymond’s eyes became unsteady and he stepped back. He looked unstable and Steve finally understood why he was being like this.

"You’re scared she’ll blame you, isn’t it?" He asked but Raymond did not confirm or deny his words. "You’re scared that once she remembers, she’ll blame you for not saving her and having her go through all that with Rachael. That’s what you’re worried about, isn’t it?"

"Steve, I can’t run." Raymond suddenly said. "I know it’ll come to that but I want to delay it for a moment. At least, till I know she’s safe from her pursuer."

"Okay." Steve surprisingly answered. "I also think it’s a good idea to keep her in the dark. It’s bad to stress her with too much information while she’s still recovering."

Raymond nodded and watched him leave. He took in a deep breath to compose himself and went in that opposite direction where the kids were.

Steve had the maids prepare something very light for her to eat. Something that would sit well with her current condition.

"What happened?" Alexa asked after the meal. She felt a bit more energetic and her lips were removing the way she wanted.

She was still sitting up in the position the nurses had helped her in and she said, "I feel a bit empty."

"You had one of your lungs removed." Steve said and her eyes widened in shock.

"What?"

"A part of your lung was critically infected and thankfully it was just one and was not too far spread into your system but it was bad so we had to take it out." He sat on the chair next to her and added, "Usually, the patient needs to consent to this first but with how you stayed unconscious for os long, we feared your system was too unstable to ignore any further and just went ahead with it."

Of all the things Steve said, the only thing Alexa was able to pinpoint was the word,

"We?" She asked and Steve blinked.

"What?"

"You kept saying ’we’ so I kept wondering who the ’we’ were?" She asked and he shook his head.

"I was referring to myself and Raymond." He said. "I needed his consent to carry out the surgery."

"Oh." She exclaimed and looked down. The look in his eyes when they locked their gaze was sad but she couldn’t understand why he was sad.

"So, how do you feel now that you’ve eaten?" Steve asked her.

"A lot better, thank you." She said and he noted it down. "Is he...?" She paused and Steve looked at her, wondering what she was trying to say. But then, she lightly shook her head and changed the direction of her question. "How is Rachael?"

"She’s doing well." Steve answered and perked up his glasses. "Would you like to see her?" He asked but she shook her head, to his surprise.

"I think it would be better if she didn’t see me like this." She said, "Not yet."

Steve was at a loss of words. Sometimes, he just couldn’t grasp what people were thinking when they said things like, ’I think it’s best if he never sees me’ or ’She is better off without me’.

It was a complex feeling he couldn’t understand. Both parties were hurting. Both parties wanted to see each other but they would rather stay away with the word ’best’ describing their separation.

This was why he didn’t want to fall in love. He couldn’t grasp it and though he was doing a good job as a father, he had never thought of a scenario where he would have to keep his son from his mother just because he thinks ’it is best’ they stay apart.

Both parties would just keep hurting and the wound would only spread further around the heart.

Here was a mother who didn’t want her daughter to see her in this condition and though it was reasonable knowing how much Rachael would cry after coming in, she didn’t have to say it like that.

Did she know how much Rachael tried to hold in her tears while waiting for the day her mother would open her eyes?

"I still think you should still see her." Steve said and concluded his observation. "For now, you won’t be able to eat any heavy food, won’t be able to get out of bed either so feel free to call out to anyone if you feel uncomfortable."

He said and attempted to leave when Alexa caught his coat.

"How... how has she been?" Alexa asked. "Did she cry?"

Steve looked toward the door and smiled.

"I think you should ask her yourself." He said and Alexa looked up to see Raymond walking in with Rachael in his arms.

Rachael’s eyes immediately grew teary as she saw her mother. It wasn’t the fact that her mother looked terribly weak, pale and lean that made her tear up. Rather, it was the fact that she had been holding herself back from going to see her and the tears she held in for too long.

"Mummy." She got down from Raymond’s arms and ran to her, her tears streaming down like there was no tomorrow. "Mummy."

She got to where Alexa was but her intuition said she just couldn’t jump on her mother. Plus, Raymond already told her to be careful since her mother was still a bit weak after being asleep for so long.

"Mummy." Rachael cried, gripping her skirt. "You’re awake. That’s *sniff* great." She smiled through her tears but that did not stop her from crying more.

"Rachael." Alexa called, feeling her own eyes tear up. "I’m so sorry, baby. I made you worried, didn’t I? I’m so sorry."

"Welcome back, mummy." Rachael said as she kept crying.

"Thank you, baby."

All she could do at this moment was stroke her head and manage a smile.

"Mummy is okay now." She said and Rachael cried even more. She rested her head on the bed while Alexa stroked her hair.

Left for her, she would’ve taken Rachael in her arms and hugged her tight but with her current condition, she probably wouldn’t be able to handle it.