Chapter 232: Retrograde Amnesia
「Midnight.」
「The suburbs.」
A black sedan drove through the snowy night.
The snow fell harder and harder. Unlike the city, where the roads were cleared, traffic was sparse in the suburbs, and a thick layer of white had already accumulated on the ground.
Leon Grant slowed the car to a crawl, proceeding with difficulty.
Before long, the car turned onto a small road and pulled up in front of a derelict old building.
The man parked, killed the engine, and got out. Two subordinates in black immediately emerged from the old building to greet him respectfully.
"Gloves. Iron rod."
The two men in black led him inside. One handed him a pair of black gloves, and the other, an iron rod.
He took the gloves, put them on, and, grabbing the iron rod, headed straight for the basement.
The heavy iron door opened with a CREAK. Iron rod in hand, he strode inside.
Upon seeing Jaden still tied to a chair, he didn’t waste a second, swinging the iron rod straight at Jaden’s head.
Jaden was bound tightly, his struggling wrists already covered in red marks. He had been locked up here for days, had eaten only once, and had been given just a few sips of water. His consciousness had long since faded into a haze.
He took a vicious blow to the head, and a warm liquid immediately began to trickle down, but he didn’t feel the pain right away. His entire sense of pain had gone numb.
Through his blurry vision, he made out Leon Grant’s grim face and taunted, "What’s wrong? Couldn’t catch that personal bodyguard?"
"Useless piece of trash! You can’t even handle one bodyguard."
His verbal assault was undoubtedly a provocation to Leon Grant.
The man raised the iron rod and brought it down on his head again.
After several more blows, Jaden’s head slumped to the side, and he lost consciousness.
Seeing the blood smearing Jaden’s face, Leon Grant panted heavily. He reached out to check for breath under Jaden’s nose. Feeling nothing, he tossed the iron rod to the ground and turned to leave.
"Get rid of it."
Leon Grant left the old building, seething with rage. His mind was filled with the image of Nina Halloway pleading with him for Jaden’s sake. He had truly underestimated how much Jaden meant to Nina Halloway.
’If I had known, I should have executed him the day I caught him.’
Leon Grant drove away.
The two men in black who had been standing guard quickly entered the basement. They methodically untied the ropes on Jaden, stuffed him into a large black bag, and carried him away.
The "body" was loaded into the trunk of a car. One man drove it deep into the mountains to be buried, while the other stayed behind, returning to the basement with cleaning supplies to meticulously remove the remaining bloodstains.
Meanwhile, Leon Grant drove back the way he came.
The black sedan stopped at the back door of a bar. He got out and went inside, and one of his subordinates quickly drove the car away.
The heavy snow fell all night long, covering all traces...
「6:40 a.m. The snow stopped.」
A large truck was struggling along the snowy road. The driver wiped some condensation from the windshield with a rag, tossed it aside, and glanced away for just a second. When he looked back at the road, a staggering figure had stumbled into its path.
Caught in the headlights, the person’s head was covered in blood, their face unrecognizable. Filthy from head to toe, they hugged their arms, shivering from the cold.
The driver’s heart leaped into his throat, and he slammed on the brakes.
The bloody figure stood trembling in the middle of the road. Watching the large truck barrel toward him, he was frozen stiff and had no strength to move.
He closed his eyes, resigning himself to the impact.
SCREECH—
The piercing sound of brakes tore through the air.
The driver gasped for breath, staring at the bloody figure standing dumbly ahead, thankful he had braked in time.
He had no idea where the person had come from. They had appeared so suddenly, it had scared the life out of him.
"Are you fucking looking to die?!"
Overcome with a mix of fear and anger, the driver stuck his head out the window and roared at the bloody figure.
The bloody figure opened his eyes. His bloodshot gaze held no relief at having survived, only a hollow numbness.
Seeing that the man wasn’t speaking, just standing in the middle of the road like an idiot without trying to move out of the way, the driver got out and asked him a few questions.
"What’s your name? What are you doing standing here? How’d you get those injuries?"
The bloody man didn’t know how to respond.
He couldn’t remember anything. He only remembered crawling out of the earth, then walking for a very, very long time through the wind and snow, wandering aimlessly...
The driver couldn’t get anything out of him and, suspecting the man was a fool, called the police.
When the police arrived, they discovered the "bloody man" was none other than Jaden, who had been missing for several days. Seeing him covered in blood, with severe blunt-force trauma to his head, they rushed him to the hospital.
「8:00 a.m.」
Leon Grant’s phone rang incessantly. It was a call from one of his subordinates.
He answered groggily.
"What is it?"
"Sir, the target survived."
"..."
’That bastard... He’s that hard to kill?’
’He survived even that!’
"The target was successfully buried last night, but it seems he crawled out of the ground, stumbled onto the main road, and was found by a truck driver who called the police. He’s in the hospital now and has already received prompt medical treatment."
Leon Grant’s brow furrowed. He was about to order his subordinate to find a chance to finish the job when the man added, "Sir, he doesn’t remember anything."
"Are you sure?"
"It seems so. The police questioned him. He has amnesia from the severe head trauma. He’s like a simpleton now."
"Arrange for someone to keep an eye on him."
"Yes, sir."
...
The hospital Jaden was taken to by the police happened to be the same one where Sophie Shaw worked.
Alaric Blackwood was still asleep when he received the call informing him that Jaden had been rescued.
He got up and rushed to Jaden’s hospital room.
Inside, aside from the medical staff, were Jaden’s parents, his older brother, and his fiancée, Stella Yarrow. Everyone was pressing Jaden about what had happened to him, but he just sat on the hospital bed with a vacant expression, only saying that he had crawled out of a hole in the ground, walked through the snow to the main road, was almost hit by a truck, and was then brought to the hospital.
He recognized his family, and when Alaric Blackwood walked into the room, he also recognized him as his best friend.
After a diagnosis and continued questioning from the doctor, it was determined that Jaden’s memory had stopped two years prior, around the time he was engaged to Nina Halloway.
Therefore, he didn’t recognize Stella Yarrow.
"Who is she?"
The man’s vacant, lifeless gaze made Stella Yarrow’s heart plunge into an icy abyss.
She covered her mouth, unable to believe he had lost his memory. Of all the people in the room, she was the only one he didn’t remember.
"I’m your fiancée," she said, her voice choked with sobs.
Jaden looked slightly taken aback. "No, you’re not. My fiancée is Nina Halloway."
Stella Yarrow instantly broke down, crying uncontrollably.
Mrs. Garland was very fond of her and was quite satisfied with her future daughter-in-law. She quickly helped her to a seat on the sofa and soothed her, not forgetting to tell Jaden, "Jaden, you and Nina have already broken off your engagement. Jasmine is your fiancée."
Jaden was baffled. Listening to his mother’s words and the "fiancée’s" sobs, his head felt heavy and muddled. A moment later, he burrowed under the covers and fell into an exhausted sleep.
"Doctor, what’s wrong with my son?"
"Retrograde amnesia secondary to traumatic brain injury."
"Can it be cured? Will his memory ever come back?"
"That will depend on the course of treatment. The patient’s amnesia isn’t psychological; it’s an organic disorder caused by brain damage. He will require long-term treatment and psychological evaluation."