Horace Hawthorne began to pant heavily as though he had run a marathon. Alia suddenly had a premonition that sothing terrible was about to happen.
True enough, she had barely taken a step forward before her grandfather collapsed in his seat, clutching his chest with a shivering hand. His eyes were wide with fear, but his gaze was focused on Alia. He reached out a weak hand, as though wordlessly calling for her attention.
"Grandpa!" Alia scread out as she darted down the aisle, and Matteo quickly picked up her long trailing skirt so that his new wife — oh wait, the ceremony was interrupted; she wasn’t technically his wife yet — would not trip and fall on her face. The table was in an uproar, as people began to surround the Hawthorne patriarch in an attempt to check up on him.
Annalise in particular started to scream so loudly that it was spreading panic throughout the room. She grabbed at his collar, and to Alia’s panicked eyes, it seed more like she was trying to strangle him instead.
"Father! Father, hang in there! You can’t die!" Annalise wailed, nearly shaking him like a toy. "Father, please!"
Her husband Benjamin whipped out his phone to imdiately dial for an ambulance while barking irritably at Annalise. "Let him go! Are you trying to kill him faster?!"
"Move! Give him space!" A familiar voice yelled out, and to Alia’s surprise, Isaac had rushed over, his tie askew. Dimitri was hot on his heels, ordering people to make way.
Alia could only watch with horrified eyes as Isaac began to examine her grandfather. It was an all too familiar scene, and Alia couldn’t help but recall the ti her father had collapsed similarly. Back then, it was Matteo who gave him CPR to ensure that he would live.
This ti, Alia tried to take comfort in the fact that a dical professional was doing it for her grandfather.
"What are you doing to him?" Annalise scread, trying to pry Isaac away, only for Dimitri to grab her arms. "How can you put him on the floor?"
"He’s a licensed doctor. Calm down and let him do his job!" Dimitri scolded.
Isaac had laid the mighty Hawthorne patriarch on the floor, with one of the seat cushions against his head. Then he started to listen for a heartbeat. Finding none, he started to give CPR. Around him was a circle of vultures, waiting to see if the backbone of one of the most powerful families in Solara would fall tonight.
Alia could only watch helplessly, and Matteo held her tight, pressing a kiss to her temple.
"He’ll be fine," he murmured in her ear. "This won’t keep him down."
Suddenly, there was another commotion happening at the other end of the ballroom. Matteo and Alia whirled around to see Emline trying to sneak away, but the dia were hounding her relentlessly. Cara flashes went off in rapid unison, and even their guests were recording her.
"Emline Hawthorne! You caused your grandfather to have a heart attack! What can you say about that?"
Emline tried to shove them away. "Go away! I’m pregnant, you can’t do this to !"
Annalise, seeing her precious daughter was so close to being pecked to death by the dia vultures hurried over to fend them off for her.
Emline’s face was wet with tears that were ostentatiously highlighted under the cara lights. "I didn’t an to! I wanted to let Matteo know earlier, but he wouldn’t listen to ! If I didn’t let him know now, I would have no chance! Please understand, Mom― I never wanted Grandpa to get a heart attack!"
Reporters latched onto the key points of her words. Emline Hawthorne tried to reach out to Matteo Montgory about the issue of her pregnancy, and she was rebuffed! In a way, Matteo Montgory was responsible for this spectacle today.
"I know, baby, Mom knows you would never jeopardize the family or your grandfather like this," Annalise said tenderly, brushing away her poor daughter’s tears, the very display of a loving mother. "This isn’t your fault!"
As if to echo her thoughts, Catherine’s voice rang through the hall. "That’s right, Emline. A woman cannot possibly get pregnant on her own."
"Mom! Sit back down― what are you doing?" Aiden exclaid in embarrassnt as people turned to stare at them.
Unfortunately for him, his mother stord all the way to Emline, but her arm was outstretched, and she pointed a nasty finger at Matteo the whole ti.
"The fault lies with this scoundrel who took advantage of your innocence and your feelings, and now refuses to take any responsibility for his actions!"
Emline began to weep. "Godmother... Can I still call you that? Even if I’ve been thrown out of the Hawthornes?"
"Of course! If the Hawthornes don’t want such a stellar heiress, the Montgory family will gladly open their arms out for you," Catherine said, as she enveloped Emline in a warm protective hug.
She and Annalise exchanged a wordless glance and Annalise cleared her throat, turning to the reporters.
"Kindly make way for us. We will schedule a press conference with all of you once my father-in-law is out of danger. My daughter is pregnant, and should not have to endure such a shock."
The reporters wanted to protest, but the security guards moved quickly to create a makeshift barricade to allow them to escape. With the main character of their latest scoop gone, they could only turn their cara lenses on to the next best thing.
Matteo Montgory, who was standing in glacial calm, unaffected by the ss that was happening around him.
"Matteo Montgory, what do you have to say for yourself? What are your plans?" They demanded, the bright lights flashing harshly, causing Alia to squint.
"No comnt," Matteo said evenly. As far as he was concerned, this was another one of Emline’s twisted sches, and he wanted no part of it.
"The paradics are here," Dimitri added, with narrowed eyes. "Make way, all of you― or do you want to be complicit in the murder of Horace Hawthorne?"
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