Her Lion Billionaire (7 page)

Chapter Seven

Charlotte avoided Jeremy whenever she could after that encounter. It was hard to do. Jeremy had a knack for ambushing her when she least expected it. She didn’t breathe a word about what she saw in Jeremy to Daniel. She wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it to Daniel without sounding like a tattletale. Moreover, she was an outsider. She’d met Daniel less than two weeks ago. Daniel and Jeremy had been brothers since forever.

Curiously, Jeremy seemed intrigued by her ability. Last evening, he’d deliberately trapped her in the elevator as she was going down for dinner.

“I’d like to have a word with you, and it’s a secret.”

Jeremy’s visibly forced smile didn’t make her feel any better. She was alarmed. “Yes?”

“If I touch you, would you be able to tell my future?” Jeremy edged closer.

“Please don’t do that.” Charlotte shrank into a corner.

“Why not? I bet my brother did more than touch.”

“He’s different.”

“Different how?” Jeremy pressed.

“I like him.”

“And you don’t like me?”

She regretted her choice of words. “I don’t like to be touched by strangers. Look, I can’t tell fortunes, okay? If I could, I’d have won the lottery by now.”

“You sell yourself short, Dream Eater. Do you realize how rare you are? Shifters like us are plenty, but there’s only one Dream Lord reigning at one time, and I heard they live a very long life. Almost immortal. And for them to have a half-breed child who walks in both planes—our world and the dreamscape—that’s the rarest of the rare.”

“You’re making too big of a deal out of it. I’m not that special.”

“Convince me.” Jeremy offered his hand. “Read my future.”

“No thanks.”

Jeremy cocked his head to the side. The glint in his eyes had turned dangerous. “Oh? Did you see something the other day?”

Charlotte racked her brain for a second, looking for the best excuse to get her out of this situation. If she told him she didn’t see anything, she bet he wouldn’t believe her. Jeremy was too smart for a grade-school fib.

“Well?”

“I’m not sure I should tell you this,” she began.

Jeremy looked even more interested. “What did you see?”

“You and your girlfriend aren’t going to last long. Sorry.”

He quieted, digesting the information. “That’s what you saw? You sure it wasn’t something else?”

“You’re going to meet someone new and you’re going to cheat on her. The breakup won’t be amiable.” Charlotte hoped he’d bought her lies. “Can I get out now? Daniel is waiting for me downstairs.”

He watched her for a few seconds before he hit the green button on the elevator. The car lurched downwards.

She couldn’t have been more relieved when the door slid open. She hurried out to find Daniel. She felt like she’d just escaped a lion’s mouth.

As the weekend drew closer, Charlotte felt relieved that Daniel’s meeting would be over the next day. That meant she wouldn’t have to face Jeremy any more. She was restless about the vision she saw. Jeremy planned to do something to Daniel.

She couldn’t trust her vision one hundred percent, because she wasn’t sure if it would come true. The vision she saw about her and Daniel hadn’t exactly panned out completely. What if she was wrong? If she told Daniel and it turned out to be a false premonition, she wouldn’t be able to face him again.

As the morning shifted to noon, Charlotte decided to take a walk to clear her head. She trudged into a nearby park. For some reason, she couldn’t get rid of the bad feeling that had plagued her since morning.

She was in deep thought when she heard a screech of brakes. By the time she paid attention, she only saw the windshield of a car.

Everything went black.

The sales director had just begun his presentation when Daniel’s executive assistant informed him that he had an urgent call from Anika. Daniel frowned. His sister knew he didn’t like being interrupted while he conducted his business. For her to interrupt him like this, it had to be important.

Daniel took the phone from his assistant and said, “Please hold.” He stood up and said to everybody, “Excuse me, gentlemen. I have an urgent phone call to attend to. In the meantime, Mr. Bennet will act as my stand in.”

There was murmuring as Daniel left the conference room. Once outside, he took the call. “Daniel speaking.”

“Danny, thank God, finally! I’m at Harborview Hospital right now. You have to come. Charlotte’s had an accident, and she’s in the surgery.”

“Slow down, sis. I’m not quite following you. Charlotte is supposed to be at the hotel. Tell me from the beginning.”

“Charlotte and I were supposed to have lunch today. I came to the hotel a little after eleven. When I rang to the room, nobody answered, so I waited in the lobby. But then the hotel manager came to say that there had been an accident. Charlotte got hit by a car in the park. I rushed here with the detective from SPD.”

Daniel’s heart stopped beating for a second. He felt as if he’d swallowed lead, and he was unable to find his voice as his brain registered the news. “Charlotte had an accident? She’s in surgery?”

“Yes. You have to come! Now! Harborview Hospital. Come quick!”

“I’ll be there.” Daniel disconnected.

His assistant was loitering a few feet from the conference room, looking anxious. She broke into a sprint when Daniel called to her. He gave her the phone. “There’s been an emergency in the family, and I will be indisposed for a while. Let Vice President Bennet know that I want him to act on my behalf in negotiating the Miramax contract.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Have Prescott bring the car around the front.”

“Yes, sir.”

Daniel smoothed his suit jacket as he headed towards the elevator. His other assistant trailed after him while asking him a barrage of questions. Daniel didn’t feel like answering any at the moment and hushed him away. He was deeply perturbed. And worried as hell. How the hell had something like this happened? Getting hit by a car twice in a month… it was almost surreal.

His chauffeur, Prescott, was waiting by the time Daniel exited the building. “Harborview Hospital,” said Daniel.

“Yes, sir.”

“And please hurry. It’s urgent.”

“Very well, sir.”

The ride to the hospital was rather uneventful. He called Anika twice on the cell, but there were no new developments. His sister was still waiting for the outcome of the surgery.

He arrived at the hospital twenty-minutes later, and Anika jumped from her seat when she saw him.

“Oh, Danny.” Anika hugged him. “This is terrible.”

“How is she?” Daniel asked.

“No changes yet.” Anika introduced the two gentlemen with her. “Danny, this is Detective Harper, the man handling this case. And this is Captain Burke from Seattle PD.”

They shook hands. “How do you do?” said Daniel, keeping his professional demeanor.

The captain and the detective exchanged pleasantries with Daniel. “I’m sorry to have to meet you under such circumstance, Mr. Addington,” Captain Burke added.

“When did the accident happen?” asked Daniel.

The detective flipped open his notepad. “The accident happened at 10.45 AM in Mansfield Park. There was a witness—an elderly woman walking a dog saw a white pickup truck cutting through the park. The driver tried to avoid a girl on a bike but overcompensated and hit Ms. Winters.”

Daniel unconsciously ran his hand through his hair. He did that often when he was deeply disturbed. “Did the driver leave the scene of the accident?

“The witness said the driver stopped at first but when he saw how bad Ms. Winters’ condition was, he took off. An hour later, we recovered the abandoned truck in Westlake Mall parking lot,” said Harper.

“Have you been able to apprehend the driver?” asked Daniel.

Captain Burke answered this time. “My department is actively seeking the suspect by putting out an APB to our active units. We are doing everything we can to bring the suspect to justice, Mr. Addington.”

“I appreciate your cooperation and the help from your department in this time of need, Captain.”

“It’s our duty, Mr. Addington. We will let you know as soon we have any new developments.” The detective nodded. “Good day, Mr. Addington. Ms. Povitch.”

They waited for any news on the surgery. In the meantime, Daniel called Marcus, the security executive who was in charge of his family’s security detail, and gave him instructions to investigate the incident. Having two accidents in less than a month was hardly believable, and it couldn’t be dismissed as a simple coincidence.

Daniel and Anika waited for several hours until the surgeon emerged from the OR. They were then ushered into a small consultation room.

“How is she, Doctor?” asked Daniel impatiently.

“I’m Dr. Huang, Chief of Medicine here. Ms. Winters is stable at the moment. She’s in the ICU while we’re continuously monitoring her condition. Are you her family?”

Daniel and Anika traded gazes. “She is my fiancée,” said Daniel firmly. “Charlotte doesn’t have any immediate family, save her mother, who is currently being treated at Bellevue.”

“Bellevue?” The doctor looked interested.

“Yes. Bellevue psych ward. She’s been in there for the past three years, but she’s been in the hospital for almost twenty years.”

Depression. Suicidal tendency schizophrenia. And attempted murder on her daughter when she was only four years old. Daniel remembered the passage from Charlotte’s dossier. Mary-Anne Winters had suffered a nasty episode that had prompted her to jump into a freezing river with her small child, hoping that death would reunite their family again.

“I see. I assume Ms. Winters’ mother isn’t capable of making decisions regarding her daughter. The reason I asked is because I need to contact the person who can act as her legal guardian.”

“That person would be me,” said Daniel in an irritated tone. “Would you tell me how Charlotte is doing?”

“Stabilized. For now. However, she will need a kidney and liver transplant in the next seventy-two hours.”

The news hit him like a brick wall crumbling to the ground. His sister gasped and clawed his arm with her manicured nails.

“Kidney and liver transplant?” echoed Daniel. He was numb.

“Ms. Winters sustained numerous grave injuries when that car hit her. The impact shattered her rib bones and fractured her left clavicle. There’s a fracture in the ulna and radius bones of her left arm. Fractures in the fibula and tibia of her left leg. Her left ilium bone is also broken, but we were able to reconstruct it with pins. Both of her kidneys are damaged from the impact. One is only twenty-percent functioning, but we have to remove the other. Because she suffered so many bone fractures during the accident, some of them damaged her liver. We are keeping her on dialysis, but she needs those organ transplants. Fast. Within seventy-two hours preferably.”

Daniel had a hard time finding his voice after hearing the extent of her injuries. When he finally spoke, he was surprised to find that his own voice sounded angry. “Due to my fiancée’s grave condition, isn’t there a donor program available to save her life? If it is about money, I assure you that—”

Dr. Huang cut him with a wave of his hand. “What makes this particular case complicated is that Ms. Winters has a very rare blood type—AB negative. Only one percent of the world’s population shares the same blood group. I checked with my colleague in the organ donor registry, and there is no suitable donor for Ms. Winters at present. We are hoping that Ms. Winters’ immediately family have the same blood type and are willing to become an organ donor.” The portly doctor fixed his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “If I may inquire, what condition does her mother have that means she has to be treated in Bellevue?”

“She’s unstable. Emotionally,” said Daniel diplomatically.

“And how about her current physical condition?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t met her in person, but I can find out and forward the information to you immediately.”

Dr. Huang thumbed the file in front of him. “Given that you have the power of attorney over Ms. Winters, if her mother—Mrs. Mary-Ann Winters I see is her name—is a suitable donor, we should schedule the surgery as soon as possible. When can Mrs. Winters be here?”

Daniel calculated. “Tonight. There is paperwork I must complete.”

“Understood.” Dr. Huang gave him a stack of documents to sign. “This is my direct number. Please contact me when you have an update on the patient transfer. On behalf of Harborview staff, we are looking forward to working with you, Mr. Addington.”

Daniel got up and shook the doctor’s hand. Anika did the same.

“Can I see her, Doctor?” asked Daniel.

“Yes, but she won’t be conscious for the next few hours.”

“That’s all right. I just need to see her.”

Daniel Addington prided himself on controlling his emotions. However, when he saw how bad Charlotte’s condition was, he almost lost it. The woman he loved was in a private room, as Daniel had requested. Her broken body lay supine on the hospital bed. A few different machines recorded her vitals. In addition to the highly trained staff in the hospital, Daniel had requested that his own family physician monitor Charlotte’s condition in person. Dr. Hartford was en-route from La Guardia Airport at that moment, taking the earliest flight with his own staff.