Alia exchanged a worried glance with Matteo. This ti, Matteo was right by her side as she made a mad dash for the hospital room. They flung open the room door to see Joshua straddling Alia’s father while he wrapped his hands around his neck, strangling him.
"Let go of him!" Alia scread, terror clouding her vision. She leaped forward and threw her entire weight against her uncle to shove him aside. Joshua Kentwood blinked in surprise, but before he could react, he found himself falling to the floor at the unexpected force.
"What the fuck!" Joshua exclaid. "Who’s this bitch―"
"Joshua!" Twin voices belonging to Lewis Kentwood and Martha Kentwood rang through the room.
"Dad, are you alright?" Alia cried out worriedly, helping her father off the floor.
Up close, she could see the darkening bruises on his face. His previous wounds hadn’t healed yet, and topped with what Joshua Kentwood had added, her father looked like a walking grape― swollen and purple.
There was blood running down the corners of Michael’s lips, and his nose seed oddly cracked out of place, most likely broken. One of his eyes was half-hooded and swollen, while various cuts also littered his body.
Even with Alia and Matteo supporting him off the floor, Michael Kentwood still swayed left and right as though he were a leaf in the breeze.
"What did you do to my dad?!" Alia yelled, appalled when she realized the state her father was in.
Joshua countered, "What did you do to mine?" However, there was no heat in his words, only prideful mockery. "You and that punk sent my father — your grandfather — into the hospital. I rely paid back in kind."
"We did nothing of that sort," Alia said through gritted teeth. "Look at him!"
She gestured to Lewis Kentwood, who had jumped out of the hospital bed when he realized Joshua had been attacked. The apples he was snacking on prior to Michael’s entrance were still left on the small table adjacent to the bed.
"He looks fit as a fiddle to ." Alia scowled. "Forgive if that doesn’t look like soone who just experienced a heart attack."
"This lousy hospital," Martha Kentwood tutted under her breath. "Where are the doctors and security? They’re allowing random people to interrupt a patient’s rest."
"Random people?" Alia echoed before coldly laughing. "I see you’ve dropped the act then, Grandmother."
"Please," Martha replied. "I have no granddaughter like you. We offered you a kind way out― you’re the one who decided that familial ties aren’t what you’re seeking in life."
"Not when your son decided that it was appropriate to coerce into giving him money, then beat up my father!" Alia yelled.
"You ungrateful wench!" Martha Kentwood barked, pointing a finger at Alia. "What is wrong about asking for a little bit of money? Lewis and I raised Michael to his twenties. Do you think raising a child in Solara is cheap? He ran off and got married without telling us his wife was a rich heiress!"
"I didn’t realize she was one until after we got engaged," Michael coughed out through a mouthful of blood. A splash of red hit the floor, quickly leaving a garish crimson stain.
"Dad!" Alia exclaid in horror. "Hold on, I’ll get you to a doctor―"
"You owe it to us." This ti, it was Lewis Kentwood’s turn to add his two cents in. "All this wealth could’ve offered Joshua better conditions to find a new wife after that useless bitch died. What was her na again? Geraldine? Giselle?"
"Germaine," Alia gritted out. She glared at Joshua. "And I suppose the story was false as well? Your loving parents don’t even seem to rember her."
"Who cares?" Martha Kentwood said, rolling her eyes. "It was all your father’s fault Joshua had to marry that poor skank after! My baby boy deserves a much better wife than that sullen-faced witch he married." She then muttered under her breath, "If she hadn’t birthed a son, we would’ve kicked that bitch out long ago."
She hadn’t the ti to stay here and bicker with this family of crazy people. Alia tightened her grip on her father and turned around after casting Matteo a glance. He rely nodded before turning with her, leaning most of Michael’s body weight on himself instead of letting Alia do the heavy lifting.
With her father literally off her shoulders, Alia reached for the door, only to withdraw with a yelp of pain when a sandal hit her hand. She hissed, holding her hand against her chest before glaring at where the sandal ca from.
Martha Kentwood smiled at her haughtily, folding her arms across her chest.
"Oh no," Martha said. "You’re not going anywhere until you cough up the money needed, including covering the fees for this hospital stay."
"You can leave at any ti," Alia said. "My grandfather looks perfectly healthy."
"He is, but where else are we going to get such good food?" Martha said with a cackle.
"They serve multiple dishes per al here," Joshua added. "I guess that’s what happens when you get admitted to a hospital in the city."
"You’re ridiculous―"
Before Alia could continue to argue, Matteo kicked the door open and left the ward with Michael in his arms. The sudden sound caused Alia and the rest of the Kentwoods to turn, flabbergasted that he had just fled like that.
"That’s Matteo Montgory, isn’t it?" Joshua said with a laugh after he finally recovered. "Guess your wedding will be called off soon. So much for a chicken turning into the phoenix―"
Then, in the span of that minute, Matteo returned. This ti, he brought a couple of doctors and nurses in tow, Michael Kentwood missing. He t Alia’s gaze and offered her a firm and assuring nod before his gaze turned cold and he looked at the Kentwoods.
"Last I checked, this hospital is owned by the Wales family, isn’t it?" Matteo asked the doctors and nurses without even turning to look at them.
"Y-Yes, Mr. Montgory," one of the nurses replied. "We―"
"Call the hospital director," Matteo said, "and if needed, the CEO. As a shareholder, I would like to know why there are freeloaders allowed to stay in this hospital, especially when they’re not sick, and instead, disturb the peace of other patients. Last I checked, I invested in a hospital, not a freakshow."
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