“Everything’s arranged well, and there isn’t an issue anymore. You can handle the rest by yourself, Mr. Adrian,” Chris mentioned to Adrian after they left the big building.
“Alright, Chris, thank you once again,” Adrian replied with a smile.
“It’s my duty, and you paid me too.” Chris shrugged, then smiled bitterly as he looked behind him. “Speaking of which, I still have to apologize to you.”
“Apologize?” Adrian looked behind him too and found that Jacqueline was teasing her daughter from time to time. That morning, it turned out that the babysitter could not make it, and since their daughter was a clingy little fellow, they had to bring her along.
“It’s okay, accidents always happen in life. Besides, she didn’t disturb us in any way, right?” Adrian waved his hand casually.
Once they went on the street, Chris went to get his car, whereas Adrian stayed to talk to Jacqueline for a while.
“He’s always like that. When he’s doing something, he’ll be so immersed in it, and he won’t listen to anyone—not even me.” Jacqueline was frustrated when she spoke about her husband’s work as a lawyer.
“That’s very normal because every man tends to act arbitrarily, especially when his wife has the same profession as him.” Adrian later changed the topic. “Hey, Emma, how many cars have you counted already?”
The little girl who widened her eyes to count the cars on the street quickly turned around, and rolled her brown eyes for a while before she replied cutely, “I forgot.”
Her voice was soft and pleasing to the ear. Adrian instantly put on a surprised look as he exclaimed. “Wow, this is rare, it’s her first time talking to me.”
The little fellow immediately did a silly face, then turned to bury her head in her mom’s shoulder.
“We’re leaving now, Mr. Adrian, goodbye,” Jacqueline mentioned with a smile when she noticed her husband’s car at the street junction.
“Goodbye then.” Adrian nodded and walked her to the car’s direction.
However, after only a few steps in, a deafening explosion was heard. Without warning, a red double-decker bus charged diagonally into Chris’ car, resulting in an enormous impact that caused a huge dent, and his car was pushed onto the pavement amidst the shattered glasses that flew around.
“Ah!” After a brief moment of being at a daze, Jacqueline shrieked out loud, then ran toward it while carrying her daughter.
Adrian who came back to his senses quickly yelled at her, “Come back, Jacqueline! Don’t go there!”
Unfortunately, it was too late. The bus that went onto a flower bed after crashing the car had no signs of stopping at all. Screeching sounds filled the air as it began crashing into other things, and one of the people who were in its path was Jacqueline who was carrying her daughter.
Upon facing the bus that was already close within reach, Jacqueline only managed to do one thing. She threw her daughter behind, then was struck by the bus, which sent her flying over ten feet away.
Adrian who initially wanted to run to the side, instinctively pounced forward instead to catch the little girl. The huge impact instantly caused him to lose balance, yet the bus was still accelerating in his direction. At that crucial moment, he was unusually calm, so he fell backward, then rolled on the ground with the little girl for a while until his back hit a cement board. Following that, the bus whooshed by in front of him at a high speed.
A few more crashes into some cars later, the bus was finally brought to a halt. It took a few seconds before Adrian finally recovered from the fright, and apart from a hurting back, he was drenched in a cold sweat, and his forehead, elbows, and knees were burning from scratches.
“Damn it…” He cursed softly. Subsequently, he quickly checked if the little girl in his arms was injured, but she stared at him with a pale face as though her soul left her body.
“Emma? Are you okay, Emma?” Adrian breathed heavily as he tapped the little girl’s cheeks, but she did not respond. He later looked around him, then gritted his teeth as he forced himself to sit up. The street was chaotic at the moment, such that screams and quick footsteps were heard everywhere. Fortunately, a kind Samaritan helped him up. “Are you alright, sir?”
“Please call the ambulance, I’m not sure if the child is injured,” Adrian mentioned, then looked around him bitterly. ‘Jesus, how did this happen?’
========================================
Adrian sat quietly outside the operating room. He looked at the red light outside the room from time to time, as well as at the little girl in his arms. He was overwhelmed. Following the incident, he had changed into a new set of clothes, and the scratches on his forehead and his nose bridge were treated. While he only suffered minor injuries, the Watson family was in a terrible state.
Due to a shattered skull, Chris passed away as soon as he arrived at the hospital, and Jacqueline was trying to be saved in the operating room at the moment but was in a critical condition as her internal organs were terribly damaged. On top of that, Emma had not spoken a single word since. She was expressionless, and she stayed in Adrian’s arms without wanting to go anywhere. When someone tried to pull her away, she would react so drastically that Adrian was forced to carry her everywhere, even when he was doing a checkup. Fortunately, she asked to go to the toilet halfway through.
According to the doctor, the little girl was overly frightened, and it was a natural response for her to hold onto Adrian without letting go. Ideally, she needed to vent her emotions as soon as possible, or she might not go back to normal.
Adrian could not help but sigh, and he shook his head as he looked at the little girl.
Soon enough, the operation room’s door was opened, and an exhausted doctor in a green gown walked out. Adrian quickly approached him. “Doctor, what’s the situation?”
“I’m sorry, we tried our best, sir.” The doctor sounded very down. “I’m sorry, your wife…”
“No, no, no, she’s not my wife…” Adrian shook his head as he wanted to correct the doctor, but he was quickly stunned. “Did you mean that… Doctor, you’re saying that she… She…”
Right then, a hospital bed with a white bed sheet was pushed out by a few nurses.
“I’m very sorry, if she was sent here 5 minutes earlier…” The doctor later tapped on Adrian’s shoulder. Even if Adrian was not her husband, he figured that they must be related since he had been waiting outside.
Adrian fell silent. After the hospital bed disappeared from the end of the corridor, he sat back down with a dispirited look. The little girl in his arms remained expressionless, and her eyes were dull. He subconsciously sighed, and an indescribable feeling arose at the thought of her parents being gone from the world.
Upset? Sympathy? Pity? Adrian did not know what the feeling was. To put it in an exaggerated way, every person who was reborn would directly or indirectly cause the “death” of thousands or ten thousands of people, and he did not have the energy to be dejected for all of them. Nevertheless, it was different this time, because he witnessed their deaths. Especially Chris’ dented car due to the accident, and Jacqueline’s look when she laid in a pool of blood, those scenes were very clear to him. As composed and as rational as he was, he was still human, thus it was unavoidable for him to be absent-minded.
‘Forget it, I shouldn’t think about this now, I should find a way to return Emma to her family.’ Adrian felt troubled again when he thought about the little girl. ‘She can’t be hiding in my arms forever, can she?’
All of a sudden, footsteps were heard, and two elders in their sixties who were escorted by a doctor and a police officer appeared.
“Hello, Mr. Cowell,” The doctor greeted him. He was the one who did a checkup for Emma earlier.
“Hello, Mr. Shaun, what’s the matter?” Adrian asked, then glanced at the two elders.
Before the doctor replied, the old woman approached Adrian with tears with the intention to take the little girl in his arms. “Oh, Emma, my poor Emma. Are you okay?”
The little girl instantly struggled and was unwilling to leave Adrian.
“Emma, my baby, it’s me. I’m grandma, and I won’t hurt you, nobody here will hurt you,” The elder said anxiously, and tears began streaming down her face.
Upon hearing her, the little girl’s dull eyes finally glowed again. She stopped struggling, and she looked at the elder with a puzzled look.
“My poor baby,” The elder mumbled sadly and finally carried her away from Adrian’s arms.
Seeing as Emma was finally leaving, Adrian sighed a breath of relief but was also feeling slightly down at the same time.
“Thank you, Mr. Cowell. I’m Russell Watson, Chris’ dad. They told me about the situation, thank you for saving my granddaughter.” While Emma’s grandmother soothed her, another elder reached his hand out to Adrian with a sorrowful look.
“This isn’t something worth praising, I only did what everyone would’ve done in that situation.” Adrian sighed. “As for your son and his wife… I’m sorry.”
The old man nodded his head heavily, then looked at his wife. “We’ll be making a move then.”
Adrian responded by gesturing with his hand.
Subsequently, Russell hooked his arm around his wife’s, then they bowed at Adrian slightly before they walked away with Emma. Everything was fine at first until they got further away, where the little girl began moving restlessly, and she would not calm down no matter how her grandmother comforted her.
The little girl suddenly looked past her grandmother’s shoulder to stare at Adrian, and she reached her hand out to make noises. As they got further away, she wiggled more and expressed her distress and hopelessness through those brown eyes.
“Alright, Emma, don’t worry, everything is fine now.” Her grandmother kept consoling her, but it was to no avail.
Finally, the little girl began wailing as though she was stabbed by a knife, and she struggled while making loud noises. Given the situation, her grandmother could only put her down, but as soon as her feet touched the ground, she dashed toward Adrian and began crying hysterically. At that moment, the others looked at each other as they did not know what to do.