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Chapter 4 No

  • It was soon six in the evening, and I arrived at the Hilton Hotel. However, even when the clock struck eight, he remained nowhere in sight.
  • I cursed at myself in the belief that I must have been taken for a ride. Thus, I summoned the elevator in preparation to leave.
  • When the elevator arrived, and I was about to enter, Julien came out the other way, reeking of alcohol.
  • He then removed his shirt and grabbed the remote, and fiddled with it until the financial news channel came up. Afterward, he cast an apathetic eye my way. “Still here?”
  • With my cheek flushed, I started to move my lips almost to a whisper. “Would you be willing to lend me some money, Mr. Starck?”
  • “Oh, right. I haven't paid you yet.” He reached over to the wallet on the nightstand, retrieved all the cash he had inside, and flung them at my face. I reckoned that there could be roughly two or three thousand in all. “Surely, that has to be enough? Though we didn't agree on the fee beforehand, I suppose that that's how much you are worth at best.”
  • The fact that he had taken me for a prostitute was infuriating, but I kept my own anger in check because I still had to plea with him for my mother's medical bills.
  • “Mr. Starck, I was wondering if I could loan a hundred thousand from you? I need it urgently, but I promise that I'd pay you back,” I asked meekly with my head bowed.
  • He regarded me before he turned around and seized me painfully by the jaw.
  • “A hundred thousand? You're a married woman and also a cold fish. Now, you're asking for one hundred thousand a pop? What makes you think you're worth that amount?” he mused cruelly.
  • “Please don't demean me this way. I'm not the sort of person you think I am. I...”
  • Mid-sentence, I was curtly cut off. “That's all you'll be getting. Do you want it, or not?”
  • I gathered up the notes scattered all over the floor, piece by piece, with my head bowed low before I slid them into my bag. Julien watched all of this in express disapproval.
  • Had it not been for my mother, I would not have accepted his money at all, but beggars couldn't be choosers. The harshness of my circumstances did not offer me the luxury of preserving my own wretched pride.
  • Julien was fully absorbed with the news program that was running onscreen. He had nary a glance to spare when I slung my bag over my shoulder and made my way out.
  • I caught a cab after I exited the hotel and raced straight for the sanitarium as I had to submit every bit of money I had, lest my mother got tossed out.
  • When I arrived, I saw a tearful Mom seated outside the doors. The sanitarium had chased her out after they thought that I was not going to show up.
  • My tear ducts burst like a dam, and the ensuing catastrophe soiled my cheeks when I went over to help her back onto her feet. Mom grabbed hold of me when she recognized me. “Nat, Nat.” Apart from calling my nickname, she did not seem capable of saying anything else.
  • “You can relax now, Mom. We'll be able to stay on now that I've got the money. I'm going to go make the payment right now, so don't go anywhere. They'll no longer ask us to leave once that's done.” I eked out a smile and brushed the wetness away from underneath my eyes as I spoke.
  • Post-payment, I was informed by the staff that my defaulting on payments, which amounted to more than two thousand over, still disqualified my mother from continuing treatment.
  • Mom remained outside. On her feet with her face plastered against the glass pane while she waited, she peered longingly to the space beyond to be led back in. Cognitively impaired, she was akin to a poor, homeless urchin who had all her hopes riding on my shoulders. Yet, I was hapless to do anything.
  • The waterworks resumed anew once more. While I fretted over what to do, the slender frame of a man entered with one of the sanitarium's directors following close behind. The latter positively looked like he was a bundle of nerves.
  • “We weren't expecting for you to come by for an inspection this late at night, Mr. Starck, but I'll go gather our personnel for a meeting right away.”
  • That man turned out to be Julien. Was he not at the hotel? Could he have quietly tailed me here? Come to think of it, that seemed far from likely.
  • Julien's inflection was almost bitingly frosty. “Whose idea was that to evict defaulting patients?”
  • “We seek for your understanding, Mr. Starck, for how some patients have consistently failed to make their payments obligations. Quite often, they were unable to settle what was owed in the end, and these bad debts are just nigh impossible for us to recoup...”
  • “Have Dr. Frommer come see me,” Julien bellowed.
  • I could tell that Julien ran the place or was at least one amongst many who did. For me, it was almost like I had snagged upon a lifeline. I dashed over and implored, “Please save my mother, Mr. Starck...”
  • Julien entered the office alongside that director and acted like he did not know me, then slammed the door in my face, almost striking my nose in the process.
  • Distraught, I came back out and hugged Mom in tearful despair. It would seem that I had no choice but to have Mom discharged. Perhaps, I would bring her back at a later time after I had secured the means to do so.
  • One of the staff came out while I was preparing to assist Mom toward our departure. “Get Hope Mackenzie to the ward, and have her ready to be placed on a drip.”
  • Under the impression that I must have misheard, I regarded that staff, eyes gawking and stupefied.
  • “Dr. Frommer was the one who personally gave the go-ahead, so please hurry up and help her inside. He himself has already received a tongue-lashing, so please don't cause me to lose my job.”
  • Unlike before, the attitude of the staff toward me suddenly became exceptionally cordial.
  • Positive that it must have come down to Julien's success working his magic, the ecstatic me promptly agreed.