Chapter 59: Misunderstanding [2]
"Hey...are you okay?" Knox asked Shawn, his voice laced with worry. But after looking at the poor guy’s state, he suddenly wanted to slap his mouth for asking a stupid question.
Apparently, Shawn’s father collapsed from a cardiac arrest. Steve mentioned that if Shawn’s older brother, who was a doctor, weren’t present at the time, without immediate treatment, their father would have died. He was taken to the hospital afterward and his heart almost stopped beating. Fortunately, the old man seemed unwilling to pass the bridge of the afterlife yet and fought back. He was then taken to the ICU for further observation and hasn’t regained consciousness yet.
The family was in the waiting lounge outside the intensive care unit, but Shawn was in the hallway near the nurses’ station, slumped on the chair with his hands on his face. He tried to follow his family, but his sister, Shana, blocked him and blamed him for their father’s accident. It was such a tearful commotion that Steve ended up tearing the furious Shana from Shawn and asked Knox to take the omega somewhere.
"I-It’s my fault..." Shawn stated after a few minutes of silence.
Knox rubbed the omega’s back. Will insisting that it’s not his fault make him feel better? He was an outsider and didn’t know what happened. But it’s not also the right time to probe. Silently, he sat beside Shawn while Knoa sat on his lap, sadly looking at his babysitter with watery eyes and downward lips. He looked suppressing his cries as well.
He ruffled Knoa’s head, and the little kid looked up at him. "Stay here with Uncle Shun. I’ll get him some drinks, hm?"
Knoa nodded obediently, "Okay...Papa...is Uncle Shun, okay?"
Shawn straightened his back before Knox could answer Knoa. He wiped his eyes and forced a smile, "I’m fine, baby. Uncle Shun is just sad that I can’t see my father."
Knoa asked innocently, "Why? Uncle Shun is a good boy...like Knoa," the little kid turned to his father with a look asking for support, "Right, Papa? Uncle Shun’s Papa wants to see him, too, right?"
Knox smiled, "I’m sure."
However, Shawn let out a bitter laugh. He avoided their gazes and stared at his palms. With a shaky voice, he declared, "I’m not a good boy, Knoa. I don’t listen to him. Even when they kept calling me to go back home, I ignored them because I knew they’d just keep pestering me to do something I don’t want to do," he swallowed the lump on his throat and covered his forehead and sighed regretfully, "This happens because I put him into so much stress and anger. If only...if I just..."