THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 302: He Is A Fighter

"What kind of complications, wasn’t the bullet removed successfully?"

"It was, but this had nothing to do with the bullet. The complication is from his head."

"What about his head?" Panic threatened to consume Lauren as she struggled to comprehend the gravity of the situation.

Her mind went back to the pull of blood she had seen in church where Steffan’s head had been when he was carried from the church.

With bated breath, Lauren turned to Steffan’s family, their eyes reflecting the same fear that gripped her heart.

"We will need to take him for a CT scan to ascertain if there is bleeding or fracture on any part of the brain," she heard the doctor say.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and carry out the scan immediately, if anything should happen to him due to any form of delay, I’ll hold you all responsible," she threatened with an aura that she herself didn’t know she exuded.

"I wonder why they didn’t do that before sending him to the ward?" She mumbled to herself, but it still filtered out to the doctor who had no time to explain as two nurses pushed in a stretcher at that moment and they started moving Steffan who had fallen into a deep sleep on it.

They pushed him out of the ward again but this time to the imaging department where the CT scan machines were located.

"He’s gonna be ok," Candace comforted, clasping a hand over Lauren’s shoulders.

"I know, he is a fighter and will surely pull through," her husband, Stanley Rosse, added.

They all sat back and waited in the room for the doctor to return with Steffan and the result of the CT scan.

Within fifteen minutes, the door opened to signal the end of their waiting.

"What’s the result, Doctor?" Mr Rosse was the first to find his voice as soon as they were done transferring Steffan to his bed.

The scan has been done and we are waiting for the arrival of the neurosurgeon before we can carry out any surgery on him.

"Surgery?"

"Neurosurgeon? Isn’t that supposed to be a brain doctor?" Both Lauren and Sarah Rosse asked simultaneously.

"Yes, from the fall he had, a blood clot had formed in his brain and we need to operate on him to remove the clot before it develops into something else."

"Jesus! Why is this happening to us?" Sarah wailed.

"But before he comes..." the doctor looked around to get their attention, "we need you to sign this form.

Before collecting the form, David Rosse asked, "Who is this neurosurgeon that we are waiting for?"

"He is Dr Whitaker, one of the best hands in the country."

"Dr Whitaker? I hear he is always busy all year round, how can he possibly come at such a short notice?" Stanley asked.

"He is not free, but Dr Janice gave us express permission to use her identity to invite any doctor over if the need be. And as soon as we mentioned her name to Dr Whitaker, he agreed to come immediately. As we speak he should arrive in the next one hour or one and a half hours max, since he’s coming from NYC."

Hearing that, David Rosse collected the form and without further ado, appended his signature at the designated spot.

"Candace dear, who is with the children?" Sarah asked after the doctor left.

"I asked the driver to take them home with their nanny," Candace replied.

"It’s going to be a long wait, why don’t you go home and take care of them?" Monica, Lauren’s mom suggested.

"They’ll be fine," Stanley chipped in.

"Besides, if there’s anybody to go back home, it should be the two of you. You need to rest for a while. We’ll inform you when the surgery is over and you can come keep Steffan company when he wakes up."

"No way, I’ll be here to see to the end of everything," Sarah instantly rejected the suggestion.

"Also, we’ll be worried to death waiting for news from you.

"Let’s all stay here then," David suggested.

"There’s a little apartment for all our senior doctors in the hospital, which your son happens to own one," Dr Sullivan, the chief surgeon of Medstar Hospital informed them.

"Maybe you should all go there to relax untill Dr Whitaker arrives," he suggested.

"That’s a better idea. Candace, take the ladies there to rest. I’m sure Lauren had woken up very early this morning and must be very tired."

"Sorry dad, but I’m not leaving. I’ll be more relaxed if I stay here," Lauren objected as soon as David finished speaking.

"Let her stay, I’ll go with Monica," Sarah said, standing to her feet. Afterall if it was her husband David that was lying on a hospital bed with an unknown fate, she wouldn’t dare leave his side, talk less of a young couple madly in love with each other.

***********

Meanwhile., somewhere unknown, in a dimly lit room, Benita sat bound to a chair, her eyes wide with fear as she tried to make sense of where she was.

The last she remembered was when she was lifted off her feet in the church by two heavily built men and taken to a van that looked like a police van.

"Please, let me go, I didn’t mean to shoot him," she had pleaded, but the cold answer she got was a hot slap on the face.

"Tell that to your fellow inmates in jail," then the next thing she saw was blackness.

She didn’t know for how long she has been out but she was sure this was not a police station.

"Where am I? Can someone hear me?" She yelled to the room which echoed back her words.

Not long after, she heard footsteps and the clicking sound of a switch, and the dark room instantly lit up.

The harsh glare of the overhead light cast long shadows across the room, heightening the sense of tension that hung thick in the air.

"You are such a useless piece of trash," the man that walked in mocked. "It took you so long to recover from a little pinch. What will you do when the real torture starts?"

"Please," Benita pleaded, her voice trembling with desperation. "I didn’t mean to shoot him. It was an accident."

But her words fell on deaf ears as the man glared back at her with cold, unyielding eyes.

"You expect me to believe that?" the man sneered, his voice dripping with contempt. "You had a gun in your hand, and you pulled the trigger. That’s not an accident."

Tears welled in Benita’s eyes as she shook her head frantically, her heart pounding with fear.

"I swear, I didn’t mean to hurt him," she pleaded, her voice barely above a whisper. "I loved him. I would never do anything to harm him," but her protests only seemed to incite the man further.

At the door, Benita caught sight of another man who loomed by the door frame and decided to redirect her plea to him. Maybe this one will be a bit kind hearted and listen to her.

"Please, brother, ask him not to do anything to me. I regret what I did."

"Tsk!" Who is your brother?" the man spat out and she only felt the sound of a breeze before another slap landed on her broken cheek.

Her dull brain registered the second man’s presence by her side after her dizziness cleared a bit.

’When did he get to my side so fast when he was clearly by the door just now?’

She didn’t dwell on the thought for long as another bout of dread took over as soon as the two men circled around her like vultures sizing up their prey before attacking.

"Who were you aiming at, then?" The second man demanded, his voice sharp with anger. "Was it his bride? Everyone saw that you were clearly there to sabotage their wedding?"

Benita’s breath caught in her throat as she struggled to find the words to defend herself.

She knew that no matter what she said, no matter how hard she tried to convince them of her innocence, they would never believe her.

She had only meant to threaten them with the gun so that they don’t get married. She never meant to shoot anybody. Up till now, she didn’t know how the bullet got into the gun.

She had only requested for a gun and she could clearly remember that she had checked it before embarking on her journey to the church from her friend’s place.

But who would believe her now after the stunt she pulled in that church? She appeared to have been very brave and afraid of nothing but she alone knew how she had felt when facing all those people, especially the Rosse’s family.

She fringed when she remembered the look she saw in Aunt Sarah’s eyes and knew that things will never remain the same between them again. ’I hope nothing happens to Steffan,’ she prayed silently.

She was ruthlessly called back from her reverie when a kick landed in her stomach.

"How dare you zone off at such a time and place. It’s like you think we are playing games with you."

"Well it so happens that I am also in the mood for games," the other man laughed Satirically.

"No, no, you aren’t playing games," Benita’s eyes widened in horror as the man approached her with a hand on his belt.

******* 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Note: CT is abbreviation for Computed Tomography and a CT Scan is a kind of test that uses X-rays to create detailed cross-sectional images of the brain and other parts of the body including the bones and the muscles.

So a brain CT scan will help the doctor to quickly assess traumatic brain injuries, bleeding, skull fractures, and other acute conditions on the brain.