Chapter 315: YOU ARE NOT A MURDERER!
At the hospital where Benita had been admitted, Ivan and Rhoda followed the stretcher carrying their daughter from the ergency room back to her ward.
Ivan passed a handkerchief to his wife to clean the tears from her eyes.
"Why would she want to take her life?" She asked in between sobs.
"It’s okay, isn’t she fine now?" Ivan consoled, draping a hand over his wife’s shoulder as he guided her to sit on the chair beside the bed.
Fresh tears rolled down from Rhoda’s eyes as she stared at her daughter’s almost bony structure in bed.
"What if the nurse had not seen her in ti? By now I would have been childless, Ivan. What would I have possibly done?"
"You don’t need to think too much about that. You have to be strong for our daughter and be grateful that she was saved," Ivan comforted.
Rhoda folded her two hands together and placed them in between her laps, shook her legs as her mind went back to one hour ago.
She had just walked into the ward and saw her daughter staring into space. She stood there for about five minutes, yet Benita had not realized that she had entered the ward.
She didn’t even feel her presence at all as she was completely lost in her thoughts.
As a mother, that crushed her heart so much and when she couldn’t bear it anymore, she went to her and gently tapped on her shoulder, it was then Benita’s eyes showed a bit of recognition.
The next thing Benita said shocked her.
"Mom, I’m really tired and want to rest, but I’m also hungry. Can you get
sothing to eat?"
Hearing this, Rhoda was beside herself with excitent. "Of course, my child. What do you want to eat? Mom will get soone to buy it for you imdiately," she had said at once.
"No mom, I want you to get it yourself," Benita insisted. "I don’t trust anybody here. What if they want to harm
because I’m a murderer?"
"Stop talking nonsense my child, YOU ARE NOT A MURDERER!" Rhoda emphasized each word with force and conviction as if she wanted it engraved on Benita’s mind for the rest of her life.
"But like you said, we can’t trust anybody, so I’ll go get you sothing myself. Wait for
here, I’ll be back shortly," she had said as she happily hurried out of the ward.
They’ve been pleading with Benita to take sothing after the IV was removed since yesterday, but she had adamantly refused to take anything, so when she took the initiative to ask for food today, it was already a miracle. That ans she was getting better, right?"
If she had known that Benita actually tricked her to leave so that she could do such a horrible thing, Rhoda would not have stepped out. At most she would have asked soone to watch over her. Why didn’t she suspect anything when she suddenly asked her to leave?
The scene she had t when she ca back with the food, played before her again.
As soon as she ca out of the elevator on the floor where Benita’s ward was, she heard so voices coming from the direction of Benita’s ward and she suddenly felt nostalgic.
She hurried along the corridor to get to the ward as fast as her feet could carry her as she couldn’t shake off the feeling .
The closer she got, the more her heartbeat increased and the feeling beca more profound. Just as she got to the entrance to the ward, she heard a voice saying,
"Quick, we have to take her to the ergency room imdiately."
She looked on in shock as her daughter who had just spoken with her was put on a stretcher and wheeled in her direction. She didn’t know when the food she went to buy fell from her hand and scattered on the floor.
She only ca to her senses when a nurse asked her to move aside from the doorway for the stretcher to pass.
She grabbed one of the nurses, "What happened to my daughter?"
The nurse had no choice but to stop and the five-word sentence she released shocked the living daylight out of Rhoda. "She tried to commit suicide."
"What?!" Rhoda exclaid, raising her two hands to grab her chest.
"Here’s the note she left," the nurse handed her a piece of paper, shook her head pitifully then hurried after the rest.
"I can’t take it anymore, I can’t bear the sha. It’s best I end it all. Sorry mom, sorry dad. I failed you after all."
After reading the note, Rhoda was in a daze and just as her world began to crumble before her, she heard a voice from the side.
"Rhoda! Rhoda! What are you doing to yourself? I’ve told you to stop thinking too much. See, Benita is waking up," Ivan pointed to Benita while gently shaking his wife’s arm.
That succeeded in jolting Rhoda out of her reverie.
Her eyes were laced with weariness as she looked at her husband."What did you say?"
"Benita is waking up. See, her fingers just moved," Ivan repeated.
Rhoda followed his words and true to his words, she saw not only Benita’s hands move but her eyes also flickered open.
Imdiately, she reached out and grabbed Benita’s hand.
"Baby, do you want to send
to an early grave? Didn’t you for once think of , your poor mother and how I would feel?" Rhoda’s tears rolled again, dropping on Benita’s hand.
"Stop this Rhoda. This is not the ti for this," Ivan gently rebuked. "Benita just woke up," he said and pulled her body away from Benita.
**********
At the Central District Police station, taking long strides, Kilian strolled into the commissioner’s office and as the door opened Randy turned from the window to face Killian, his expression dark with anger.
"I trusted you Kilian," Randy said, his voice filled with disappointnt.
"So what suddenly happened to change that?" Kilian asked casually.
"How can you still be so calm after I told you she almost committed suicide? What did you do to that girl, Killian Hols?"
Kilian knew Randy was actually angry this ti around. He only called him his full na when he was at his limit, just like now.
"I did what should be done to people in her category," he responded.
"And you expect
to believe you?"
"I don’t expect you to believe , but it would be best if you choose to, because I see no reason why you shouldn’t"
"Is a suicide attempt by a girl your n interrogated not enough reason to doubt you?"
Standing across from Randy, Killian had both a bewildered and defensive look. "What has that got to do with my n?"
"What do you think will drive a young girl to commit suicide after spending half a week with a group of n that were not there to say hi to her?"
Killian’s jaw clenched as he struggled to find the right words. "There could be other reasons... "
Randy interrupted, his tone sharp with accusation. "Like what? Enlighten , Killian. Because right now, it looks like you actually overstepped your bounds."
"Of course, things like psychological trauma, guilt...." Killian’s eyes suddenly widened in disbelief as he trailed off.
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