Crossroads

Chapter 55

“Wait, just a moment…”

Stephanie abruptly halted the taxi, but soon, a tinge of embarrassment crossed her face as she said, “Never mind, please continue.”

“Miss, you seem a bit pale,” the taxi driver remarked, casting a concerned glance her way.

Phanie offered a strained smile and assured him, “I’m alright.”

Her gaze drifted to the left window of the car, her expression tinged with disappointment.

A fleeting uncertainty gripped her, ‘Was it him, or was it not?”

“Why am I even concerning myself with him?” she murmured, her head bowed in frustration.

Upon returning to her suite in Royal Park Hotel, Stephanie checked the time. It was already eight in the evening.

Restless, she suddenly recalled something and rushed to the bed, grabbing the hotel phone to dial the internal line. “Hello, has anyone visited me during my absence?”

Despite the polite response from the hotel staff, her disappointment deepened. “Oh, I see. Thank you.”

She was even worried that he might miss her while she was out at the milkshake shop and had rushed back for him.

“Wait, why would I be worried that he missed to catch me here?” she thought.

An inexplicable stir of emotions coursed through her, leaving her bewildered.

“What is he so busy with?” Stephanie pondered, perched at the bed’s edge, eyeing her suitcase hesitantly. “Should I wait for him to return to Havencrest with me?”

Finally, after washing her face in the bathroom, she made a resolve. If Dominick failed to contact her tonight, she’d secure a flight back to Havencrest the next morning.

“Is it work or another’s company that consumes him?”

Knowing Dominick’s demanding schedule and the weight of responsibilities atop his shoulders, Stephanie couldn’t help but empathize with him. She often saw him working late into the night in his study

She was his wife, but

it she grappled with expressing

ssing her concern for him amidst his hectic life.

Lying on the bed, Stephanie scrolled through her phone, hesitating with something. “Would I disturb him now if I called him?”

Suddenly, a sharp pang

gwracked her abdomen, causing her to double over and drop her phone.

“Ouch, it hurts…” Stephanie winced, her complexion drained as she clutched her midsection.

Labored breaths escaped her as the pain intensified.

Beads of cold sweat dotted her forehead as trembling overtook her frame, thwarting her attempts to rise

Stephanie gasped, grappling with the agony. Perplexed by the sudden onset of discomfort despite her normalcy throughout the day, she mumbled, “Why is this happening

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Chapter 55

she turned her blurred

Dominick…

and helplessness gripped her heart, yet his name

the bed,

needed to reach

weakened. With a

bleeding from being bitten, she crawled forward in

dial his number.

voice, weak and trembling, called out his

Park Hotel. I’m not feeling

The call connected, but it was

intimacy. “Dominick is busy

doesn’t have time for you right now. Is there anything you

call was

felt something

clutching the phone tightly in her right hand, feeling utterly hopeless and humiliated. With another wave of pain in her stomach, she wailed

her face turned ghostly white, her eyes widening in

her breath, unable to suppress the frantic thumping of her heart, she was met with a horrifying

one thought echoing in her mind, and it was

was overwhelmed with fear, forgetting the pain in her body as a greater terror engulfed

her

for the phone again, and even her breaths became uneven. Panic seized

me, save

shouting into the phone, “Jessica, give the phone to Dominick! Give it to him! My child!

Chapter 55

I can raise my child by myself…” Her

lives. Please, I beg you, save me…” She choked on tears as she pleaded in a trembling

save my

phone you have dialed is turned

repeated, each iteration plunging Stephanie’s heart into

“Save me…

the dark red pool between her legs as the heavy scent of blood filled the room. Was that

screen, her trembling fingers poised to dial

it remained motionless, her eyes tightly

illuminated the

the entire

“Save my child…”

“What’s wrong?”

that moment in the hospital emergency room, a woman lay on the bed, her voice

have something urgent

no missed calls. Yet,

me alone in the

She scrambled from the bed without

the hospital for observation

right arm tightly, her voice faint with pleading,

don’t leave.”

her tear–stained face, his expression a

“It’s your duty to accompany your girlfriend. Sir, you should stay with her. Plus, you

a twist of fate, his car collided with the one driven by Jessica at a turn while he was answering a call

He looked up at the

Jessica before meeting Dominick’s stern gaze, calmly stating, “She’s fine physically, with a minor concussion and a

How could I rest?” Jessica tore up in anxiety. “What if

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Chapter 55