Chapter 16 Caretaker
When Jane woke up, it was already dark, and Brian was eating dinner at his desk. Jane looked at Brian and wondered:
“Did he work while I was sleeping?”
Brian saw her wake up and quickly said:
“Drink the medicine on the table and have dinner.”
Jane saw a potion on her dinner table, she felt a little hungry, so she obeyed. Jane was very hungry, she hadn’t had a full dinner like this since she got here, so Jane ate them all quickly and didn’t leave any leftovers.
After a while, when he saw that Jane had finished dinner, Brian slowly stood up with a cane, and grumbled again:
“Jane, come here help me.”
Jane rushed to catch Brian, she took him to the bathroom at his request while Brian cursed as he walked:
“What a mess with this lame leg, damn it.”
Jane hastily reassured him:
“Don’t get mad, it will heal quickly.”
Brian coldly replied to Jane:
“I know, I’m expecting it to come soon, I can’t live in this state forever.”
Jane did not want to continue arguing with Brian anymore, she remained silent, helping him into the bathroom. Jane helped him sit to one side, gently took off his shirt with her hands, she took off his shirt while blushing , when she saw Brian’s muscular body and hard abs hidden behind his elegant shirt. Next was the pants, Jane carefully opened it up deftly so as not to touch his wound too hard, then used her hand to wrap a layer of plastic around the area to prevent it from getting wet. Brian looked at her without blinking, sometimes with a slight smile on his lips, he stroked her hair lightly:
“I’ve never seen a girl like you.”
Jane did not react, made warm water and helped him into the bath, she was about to leave when he grabbed Jane’s hand and said:
“Didn’t you give me a bath?”
She was a little embarrassed now.This is from NôvelDrama.Org.
“I think you can take a bath by yourself.”
Brian held onto Jane’s hand tighter and continued:
“That was before, when Regi took care of me. But now things are different, I want you to do it for me.”
Jane shyly replied:
“Yes.”
Brian let go of Jane’s hand so that she could use gently the shower to water his back, Jane felt embarrassed while using a sponge to gently rub his body. While wiping, Jane discovered on Brian’s chest there was a slight faint scar that was neither long nor short, it was medium in size and severed as if someone had caused it when he dodged it in time. She gently wiped the area with a sponge, considerate gesture that made Brian feel a slight flutter in his heart. And right at that moment, Jane accidentally caught Brian’s eyes looking at her, she blushed awkwardly turned to the side to squeeze the water and asked:
“What’s with that scar of yours?”
Brian guessed Jane was a little embarrassed, he smiled lightly and replied to her:
“It happened a long time ago, when I was in high school, a girl had a crush on me, wanted me to be boyfriend but she fished two hands and that action made her current boyfriend jealous. He hit me once and I responded. Then the two of us got into a fight, he messed around and injured me with a knife.”
Jane nonchalantly said:
“You seem to be liked by many girls, don’t you? So have you ever loved someone deeply?”
Brian thought for a moment and replied:
“Yes, but she is a charlatan and a liar, it was wrong for me to fall madly in love with her.”
Jane giggled.
“You seem cute, I thought a rude guy like you wouldn’t fall in love with anyone.”
Brian looked at Jane passionately, he was unintentionally attracted to Jane’s smile, it was so beautiful, it lit up the little girl’s face and made his heart flutter. Brian hastily held Jane’s hand, brought her face closer to look at Jane more closely, and whispered:
“Smile like that, you really are beautiful, my little girl.”
Jane heard that, looking deeply into Brian’s brown eyes made her uncomfortable, like everything about her was now neatly grasped and controlled by him in his hands. Jane moved and asked:
“What do you want to do?”
Brian chuckled, slipped his hand around her waist and held it in his arms, lifted Jane’s face, whispered:
“Do you want to play a game with me?”
Jane asked again:
“The game?”
Brian continued to rub her cheek and replied:
“Yeah, a predator game made by me.”
Hearing this, Jane shivered in fear, curiously asked:
“How is it?”
Brian replied in a sly voice:
“Very simply, it consists of having two players. It is the hunter and the hunted. And before participating in the game, we will randomly draw to see who is the hunter and who is the prey that is hunted. Next we’re going to have fun playing it according to the rules I laid out.”
Jane asked skeptically:
“So is this game really fair?”
Brian confidently replied:
“Of course, I always want to play an interesting game, something boring is not my style. And even if I am the prey, there are special privileges that the hunter cannot infringe on.”
Jane temporarily believed what he said, she nodded in agreement:
“Yeah, so when does the game start?”
Brian stroked Jane’s hair lightly and replied:
“Tomorrow.”
Jane was about to ask something but Brian stopped him with a quick kiss on the lips, he said:
“They will be answered tomorrow, but you should finish your work for now, okay?”
Jane nodded obediently, she continued to bathe Brian after letting him soak for too long in the tub. After a while, Jane finished bathing Brian, she helped him put on new clothes and helped him out. Brian grabbed Jane’s arm and said:
“That pill box you have to take every day, okay? Don’t forget, whoever you were before, here in Lawrence, you’re my servant.”
Jane took the medicine and replied with a bow:
“Yes, sir.”
Brian was happy to see Jane submissive to him, he held out his hand for her to take so that Jane could take him back to the bedroom. After finishing her work, she went to take a shower and then climbed into bed to sleep, Jane lay thinking about everything she had experienced and sadly cried silently in the night, after crying tiredly, she slowly fell asleep by yourself.
At the same time, Mrs. Matida was startled awake when she suddenly fell asleep because of the fever that had tormented her a few days before. Since Elise disappeared, there was not a single night that she could sleep peacefully, always in her heart always thinking of her baby daughter. She didn’t really know where her daughter was now, except constantly waiting for news of Arthur’s search. Matida woke up and scrambled to sit up, she was not careful, she bumped into a flower vase causing it to fall to the ground and break, a loud noise woke Oswat, he is the son of Arthur and his first wife Blanche. He rushed to Matida’s room, helped her sit up, and asked his stepmother:
“Is mom okay?”
Matida looked at Oswat with tired eyes and replied:
“I’m fine, everything’s fine.”
She suddenly remembered something, did not wait for Oswat to continue. She asked:
“Your father, when will he come back? Did he tell you anything about Elise?”
Oswat sighed.
“I still haven’t heard from my sister. But don’t worry too much, if there is news, my father will report it immediately. And now, you should go to sleep.”
Matida took Oswat’s hand and said:
“You are a good boy, Oswat. It’s good to have children here.”
Oswat hugged her in his arms to comfort her, help her sleep better, when suddenly Arthur’s car came back home, Matida heard that and rushed outside to see if her husband really came back? As soon as she saw Arthur entering the living room, she hugged him and fervently asked:
“Arthur, how are things going? Do you have any news from Elise?”
Arthur took off his hat and coat aside, he gently helped his wife sit down on the sofa to talk, while Oswat had just stepped down, he asked the maid to make some hot tea, and I went to sit down opposite his parents on the sofa. Arthur looked at Matida and Oswat slowly said:
“It all happened quite suddenly, and I didn’t think I would accidentally find Elise’s clue during a business trip two days before. That’s why I said in a hurry on the phone to Oswat that I would come home later to confirm that the information was correct or not? But really, everything couldn’t pass your eyes, when you overheard my conversation with Oswat.”
At this point, Arthur paused for a moment to look at Oswat reprimandingly:
“You are so careless. If you were a little more careful, your mother wouldn’t be so worried and feverish that she had a fever for a day.”
Oswat was embarrassed by his mistake, at which point Matida interceded for him:
“Arthur, you shouldn’t blame him, I just accidentally heard, Oswat took good care of me these past few days, without him I really didn’t know who to turn to during that time. You have to thank the boy, right, Arthur?”
Arthur had a slight smile on his lips.
“Look, Matida loves you very much. I am really happy with that.”
Oswat softly laughed, curiously asked about Elise’s news so that Matida wouldn’t be impatient:
“So have you found any clues about Elise yet?”
Arthur mused, recounting the story to both listeners:
“While I was on my way to the port of Ilan, my ship stopped at a stop, where there was a small tavern for guests to chat. I also have a friend who works there, his name is Shaw, so I also sat there and talked with him for quite a while. And while Shaw was mixing the wine, a thin man came and secretly gave him a small piece of paper inside, then the guy left quickly. And I curiously asked Shaw about it, it turned out that it was one of the traffickers, wanted to ask Shaw to find young girls and Shaw would get a good reward. I also thought that if by chance Elise was in that situation, I asked him about her.”
Then Matida asked:
“So how did he respond?”
Shaw told me that:
“A few days ago, traffickers stopped here, they talked about a white-haired girl who was sold by a gambling father. She stood out from the rest of the girls, so they were impressed by that and discussed it a bit.”
Oswat happily asked his father:
“So is that Elise?”
Arthur lit a cigarette and smoked:
“Most likely, but things are still pretty vague. I can’t be sure to draw any conclusions soon. Because during the past ten years, the news about Elise’s gain and loss have been intertwined, many times it has been verified that it is not her. But the information about her being taken away is correct, only the woman did not give her name, because she only worked seasonally on the train. And she disappeared silently with Elise.”
Oswat felt a little confused and asked:
“I don’t quite get it, at least someone saw her take Elise away. So why don’t we ask someone to describe her appearance at that time to quickly find my sister.”
Matida sighed and replied to Oswat:
“Unfortunately, the person who saw her disappear was an old woman on the train, she was traveling with her family and too bad she suffered from senile dementia so the identity verification was very vague, unclear. That confuses the police and puts them at a dead end of the investigation. Because of that, I was bored for a week, when everything came to a standstill. Time went on and on and the search that your father organized is still going on quietly to this day.”
Arthur quickly reassured his wife:
“But this time it will be different, I went to the island where the white haired girl Shaw talked about. And fortunately, I was able to verify that the white-haired girl was Elise, and also found the family to adopt her.”
At this time, Matida couldn’t help but be moved, she exclaimed:
“Really? Is it true that they adopted Elise?”
Arthur affectionately replied:
“Yes, she was raised by a poor family who worked as a fisherman and sold fish to seafood merchants. And Elise was abused and forced to work hard by them.”
Matida could not keep her composure, she cried and said:
“Oh, my god, has my daughter lived such a miserable life? Elise, my poor daughter.”
Arthur shook his head.
“Her fate was miserable, as the person who took her away had a husband who was addicted to gambling and an evil step-wife. She was seriously ill, so there was no other way to give it to them to raise.”
Angry Matida says:
“If she couldn’t afford to raise a child. Why did she take my Elise away. She really is a crazy and selfish woman. She didn’t take my daughter to the police station. If she takes Elise there, she’ll see me again and not have to live such a hard life.”
Arthur patted Matida tightly in his arms to soothe his wife’s anger, he calmly replied:
“Come on, Matida. Everything has happened, even if you blame them, it won’t solve the problem. The important thing now is that we quickly find the whereabouts of the human trafficking ship that carried Elise.”
Oswat continued:
“Yes, mom shouldcalm down. I believe we will find Elise soon.”
Matida listen ed to the encouragement of her husband and son, she calmed down, Matida quickly wiped her tears, said:
“Then let’s hurry and find her. No, I shouldn’t be here, I have to change my clothes and go out with your father to search.”
Arthur heard this and stopped:
“No Matida, you are still unwell, stay at home and wait for my news.”
Matida impatiently, resolutely said:
“No, I can’t be here now. I have to find my daughter.”
Matida did not wait for Arthur to answer, she quickly went upstairs to change clothes, when suddenly a headache came again, making her dizzy and fell to the ground. Arthur was able to catch her in time, worriedly asked:
“Matida, Matida,…”
He looked at Oswat and urged:
“Quickly call Dr. Henry here for me.”
Oswat ran to the living room and dialed number, call to the Bolltons, a deep voice spoke into the phone:
“Yeah I get it. I will be there soon.”
Henry looked at the girl sleeping soundly on the bed with her wounds covered, he gently covered her with a blanket and left quickly.
_________________