Caleb Rhodes squeezed her ice-cold hand, agreeing to her every demand. "We’re not going. We’re going ho."
A thin blanket was quickly brought up. He spread it on the bed, then placed Nina Wynn on top and wrapped her up, carrying her downstairs as gently as if he were cradling an egg.
Perhaps it was his overpowering and dignified presence, but the old man guarding the door downstairs didn’t dare ask why he was carrying soone out.
And true to his word, he didn’t go to the hospital. He drove straight to the door of an old traditional dicine doctor’s clinic.
The old traditional dicine doctor was startled when he saw Nina Wynn’s condition and imdiately began his diagnosis.
"Two of her ribs are broken. It’s hard to say if any internal organs were damaged, but in her current state, she’s definitely infected. If she doesn’t get treatnt, she will die."
He looked at the barely conscious Nina Wynn with great concern. "I’m a practitioner of traditional dicine; I don’t perform surgery. Her condition is too severe. The doctors here and I can’t treat her. You’ll have to find soone more qualified."
Just then, Nina Wynn tugged at the corner of Caleb Rhodes’s shirt. She didn’t speak, only gazing up at him with unfocused eyes before shaking her head.
Caleb Rhodes understood what she ant. He said to the old doctor, "I see you have an operating room in your clinic. We’ll need to borrow it."
In less than half an hour, Elysian City’s top surgeon had been transported by helicopter to the small clinic.
The top specialist, a man in his fifties, was also taken aback by Nina Wynn’s condition and decided to operate imdiately.
But her injuries were too severe, and too much ti had passed. Furthermore, this was a traditional dicine clinic, lacking both the proper equipnt and the intensive care unit that would be needed afterward. Surgery was impossible. The specialist had no choice but to recomnd an imdiate transfer to a major hospital.
But Nina Wynn’s hand hardly loosened its grip on the corner of Caleb Rhodes’s shirt. Her face was as white as a sheet of paper, and she looked so fragile it seed she would shatter at the slightest touch.
Caleb Rhodes glanced at the private hospital across the street, then took Nina Wynn’s hand. "Nina, let’s go to one of our own hospitals, alright?"
Nina Wynn’s lips moved, but not a single word ca out. She just gazed at him, her life hanging by a thread.
The atmosphere was tense and oppressive, and the air seed to reek of death. The palms of both the old doctor and Willson Lawson began to sweat as they watched Caleb Rhodes with nervous anticipation.
Caleb Rhodes kept his patience and said in a low voice, "It’s my hospital. I’ll have them clear everyone out. No police. Nothing to be afraid of."
Nina Wynn’s fingers weakly closed around Caleb Rhodes’s thumb as she breathed out a single word. "Okay."
As if he had been granted a pardon, Caleb Rhodes whipped his head toward Willson Lawson and ordered in a low voice, "The hospital across the street. Go handle it. Now!"
An hour later, Nina Wynn was wheeled into an operating room at the hospital across the street.
When the surgeons opened her abdominal cavity, they realized how dire the situation was.
A broken rib had pierced her liver. Although it was only a small puncture, too much ti had passed, and the injured organ had already begun to fester.
Her entire abdon was severely infected.
It was an exceptionally difficult surgery. The four top surgeons who had been flown in worked for a full seven hours.
Throughout those seven hours, Caleb Rhodes waited outside the operating room, his silence terrifying.
He smoked with a frightening intensity. In just three or four hours, he had already finished two packs of cigarettes out on the balcony.
Through the swirling smoke, Willson Lawson could see that Caleb Rhodes’s eyes were bloodshot. Only soone like him, who had followed Caleb for a decade, could understand the murderous rage contained within that gaze. It ant another bloodbath was coming to Elysian City.
A frightening chill shot up his spine, and he couldn’t help but shudder.
Before he could say anything, Caleb Rhodes spoke. "Buy this hospital."
Willson Lawson thought he had misheard. "Third Lord Master?"
Caleb Rhodes’s voice betrayed no emotion, as if he were discussing sothing mundane. "Offer them double the market price."
Willson Lawson didn’t understand why he wanted to buy a hospital. Besides, the Nash Group already owned hospitals far more advanced than this one. They were only borrowing this place temporarily; buying it was completely unnecessary.
"Third Lord Master, this hospital has no real investnt value. It’s too small, the equipnt is outdated, and we still have to fly specialists in from elsewhere..."
"You talk too much!" Caleb Rhodes’s voice was sharp and frigid. "Go negotiate. Now!"
Willson Lawson didn’t dare say another word. He could only agree and left imdiately.
Seven hours later, Nina Wynn was moved from the operating room directly into the intensive care unit. Caleb Rhodes didn’t even get a glimpse of her.
One of the specialists, a man nad Landon who often operated on the country’s top figures, was very familiar with the Rhodes Family. He shook his head as he ca out of the OR. "Third Lord Master, I did my best. That was the most difficult surgery I’ve perford in years. If she had been brought in imdiately, it wouldn’t have been a major issue. But now, with the widespread infection in her internal organs... her chances are slim. I’m sorry."
Caleb Rhodes said nothing, only continuing to smoke fiercely.
He lit a cigarette, finished it in two harsh drags, and crushed it out in the ashtray. His voice was raspy. "Professor Landon, that’s not good enough. She’s very important to . Nothing can be allowed to happen to her."
Professor Landon’s expression grew troubled.
He couldn’t afford to offend the Rhodes Family’s Crown Prince, but the young woman was truly at death’s door. Widespread organ infection has always been a difficult dical challenge with no miracle cure. It usually cos down to whether the patient’s own body can fight it off.
"Third Lord Master, with this type of severe infection, we have to see if the patient can make it through the next four or five days. If she can pull through, she should be out of the woods. If she can’t..."
He didn’t finish the thought, changing the subject instead. "I’ve already administered the best antibiotics we have—a specialized drug typically reserved for the top brass. I will personally stay here and monitor her for the next few days. Third Lord Master, this is the full extent of my ability. Please don’t make things difficult for ."
For a man known as one of Veridia’s top surgeons to say such a thing ant the limit had been reached. Caleb Rhodes didn’t press him further. He simply said, "Thank you," and walked out.
The entire floor where Nina Wynn was staying had been cleared out. The hallway was deserted and unnervingly quiet.
The ICU door, which should have been sealed shut, was now cracked open just a sliver. Through the gap, he could see the person on the bed, her body hooked up to a mass of tubes.
She was already so thin and small, but now she looked even more pitifully so. Her face was so pale it looked lifeless. If it weren’t for the faint rise and fall of her chest, Caleb Rhodes would have thought she was already gone.
It was the third day, and Nina Wynn still showed no signs of waking up.
In the past forty-eight hours, she had gone into respiratory arrest three tis. Twice, they had to resuscitate her with a defibrillator.
Caleb Rhodes had watched with his own eyes as her small body convulsed from the shocks, jolting up before falling limp, her vital signs all but gone.
For the first ti, he felt how fragile life was. He was learning that so things couldn’t be held on to, no matter how much he wanted them.
Yet, when his gaze fell upon her delicate face, his desire to completely possess her was sohow even more intense than before.
Just then, Willson Lawson hurried over.
"Third Lord Master, I’ve retrieved all the files and video footage."
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