Chapter 287: ~ 286
Chapter 286
~Octavia~
The peaceful breathing of baby Lael against my chest was the only anchor I had left in this world. I was gently rocking her in the nursery, when my phone rang out that shattered the silence. The screen flashed with Franklin’s name.
I picked it up, expecting a quick check-in between his board meetings. Instead, the raw, breathless panic in his voice pierced straight through the speaker.
"Octavia, there’s been an accident," he choked out, the background noise of the busy city streets humming behind him. "It’s Flynn. He was involved in an accident on his way back from the clinic. He’s alive, but they’re transporting him to the trauma wing right now. I’m heading there."
My heart violently seized against my ribs. A sickening dread pooled deep in my stomach. "Is he okay? Franklin, what happened?"
"I don’t know the full extent yet, but it’s bad. The car is completely crushed," Franklin rumbled, his voice strained to its absolute breaking point. "I need you to stay calm. Stay safe baby."
Shocked and trembling from the sudden escalation of chaos, I couldn’t just sit still. I needed to be with my husband, but my daughter’s safety was my absolute priority.
I hurried downstairs, holding Lael securely against my shoulder. I called Olga, and the head of estate security into the main foyer. I called Grandpa too, because Olga and the security will be there to support him.
"Listen to me very carefully," I told Olga and the security, my voice tight and commanding, leaving absolutely no room for argument. "Flynn has been in a severe car crash downtown. Franklin is at the hospital. I am rushing there to join him. No one enters these gates. No one opens a single door. Olga, you stay with Lael. Martins, I want a full lockdown. Right now."
Grandpa Frederick’s old eyes darkened with an immediate, understanding gravity. He nodded firmly. "Go, Octavia. We have the house safe. Your daughter is safe with us."
Trusting our security team explicitly, I handed a softly sleeping Lael into Olga’s trembling arms and sprinted out to my car.
The hospital’s emergency wing was chaotic. I found Franklin pacing back and forth outside an isolated exam bay, his suit rumpled. The moment he saw me, he reached out, pulling me into a brief, bone-crushing hug before guiding me past the privacy curtain.
Flynn was lying on the gurney, looking incredibly battered. He was fully conscious, but his left arm was wrapped in a cast, heavy white bandages draped over his torso, and a deep, nasty laceration bled slowly across his right forehead.
The second he saw us, he let out a weak, painful groan, trying to shift his bruised body. "Franklin... Octavia... God, I am so incredibly sorry. The car... it’s completely damaged. I completely ruined your car, man."
"Stop talking, Flynn. Just rest," Franklin rumbled, his dark eyes scanning the monitors. He turned to me, his expression unreadable. "The police officers are waiting in the corridor to take the official report, and I need to cross-check our security logs with the dashcam recovery team. I’ll be right outside."
A faint, weak version of his usual sarcastic smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "You know... it’s almost funny," he muttered, his voice raspy and exhausted. "With the way Franklin has been looking at me lately, I thought he’d be glad to see me off the board. But he looked completely terrified when he walked into this room. I didn’t think the big, scary CEO actually cared about me."
"We care about human life, Flynn," I replied quietly. "Just keep your breathing regular."
His smirk slowly faded, his glassy, bloodshot eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling panels as a sudden, solemn shadow crossed his face. The sarcastic facade completely evaporated.
"It was just so weird, Octavia," Flynn whispered, his voice dropping into a hollow, trembling register that made my fingers pause. "The crash... it doesn’t make any sense. I was just driving normally. I had the right of way. I looked up, and this massive delivery truck was just sitting there. He didn’t even try to brake. I swear to you, he actually accelerated. He steered directly toward the driver’s side... it was like he knew exactly who was supposed to be behind that wheel."
I froze.
The terrifying reality crashed over me.
The silver car. It was Franklin’s car. Flynn had borrowed it at the very last second because his own rental was breaking down. The driver hadn’t been aiming for Flynn.
The hit was meant for Franklin.
I stared at Flynn’s bruised face, my breathing turning shallow as a sickening realization settled deep into my chest. Was this aunt Maria? Was she trying to murder my husband to erase the ghost of the man who rejected her? And her twin?
The drive back to the estate was a heavy, suffocating nightmare. Exhausted, terrified, and completely emotionally drained from the hospital ordeal, Franklin and I finally pulled through the gates late in the evening.
We immediately hurried upstairs to the nursery to check on our daughter. Peeking through the cracked door, we saw Lael nestled deeply in her bassinet, her tiny chest rising and falling, a sign that shows she is asleep. Olga was sitting in the corner armchair, fast asleep.
Letting out a massive sigh of relief, we quietly woke Olga, thanking her before sending her off to her quarters. Franklin and I retreated to our master bedroom. Within minutes of hitting the pillows, we drifted into a heavy, dead sleep.
Later in the dead of the midnight hour, a sudden, violent jolt snapped my eyes wide open.
There was no sound on the baby monitor. No cry. No movement. But a fierce, terrifying surge of mother’s instinct flooded my veins, screaming at me to move. My heart began to hammer frantically against my ribs as I threw the heavy duvet off my legs, slipping out of bed without waking a deeply snoring Franklin.
I walked out into the dark, freezing corridor, my bare feet against the cold hardwood. The air grew progressively colder the closer I got to the nursery, a sharp, icy draft biting at my skin.
I pushed the nursery door open.
The sight that met my eyes violently shattered my world into a million pieces.
The massive glass window of the nursery was wide open, the heavy white curtains blowing wildly in the howling, freezing night wind. The room was entirely ice-cold. And right beneath the open window, the pink fleece blanket lay crumpled and completely discarded on the floor.
My breath caught in my throat as I lunged forward, throwing myself over the edge of the bassinet.
The sheets were completely cold. The bed was entirely empty.
Baby Lael was gone.
A devastating, primal agony ripped through my chest, tearing its way up my throat. I clutched the empty pink blanket to my chest, my mind completely breaking as I tore out a blood-curdling, piercing scream that shattered the silence of the entire mansion.