“Grandma!” Tyler yelled when he saw Rose beginning to topple over. Then, he rushed to grab hold other before she collapsed to the ground.
At this moment, Mary happened to be making her way downstairs. Upon seeing Tyler holding onto Rose, Mary demanded in shock, “Young Master Tyler, what’s going on? Is Old Mrs. Fuller okay?”
“I don’t know what happened, but she fainted,” he explained with an ashen face.
Mary hurried over and helped to lay Rose on the floor before performing CPR on the older woman. As she did so, she urged, “Call an ambulance, Young Master Tyler.”
“Oh, right!” He snapped out of his frantic daze and glanced around before he spotted the phone that had slipped from Rose’s grip and landed on the floor earlier. Then, he bent to pick it up.
Coincidentally, the call with Sonia was still ongoing and her alarmed voice filled the other line as she shouted, “Grandma? Grandma!” She had heard the phone clattering onto the ground as well as Tyler’s anxious cries on the other end and instantly knew that something had happened to Rose. She only grew more panicked when Rose didn’t make a single sound over the phone.
Sonia had no idea what was going on. Since she was not with Rose, it meant that she could only clutch her phone with trembling hands and anxiously call out for the latter while hoping desperately for some response. Alas, all that greeted her on the other line was not Rose’s voice, but Tyler’s trepidation as he said, “Sonia, Grandma has just fainted.”
“What do you mean she fainted?” Sonia bolted upright in bed. She was just about to press for details when the call ended with a decisive beep.
Thinking that Tyler might have accidentally hung up, she called the number once more only to find that the other line was busy.
Sonia let out a groan of frustration and set her phone aside. Worry and panic weighed on her as she wondered whether Rose had collapsed after learning that she had terminated her pregnancy. If that really is the case, then it would be my fault if anything bad happens to Grandma!
Meanwhile, over at the Fuller Residence, the ambulance Tyler called for arrived as quickly as it could. The paramedics eased Rose onto the stretcher before they brought her and Tyler to the hospital.
That night, it seemed as if the Fuller Family was thrown into predestined chaos; three out of the four family members had collapsed, leaving a helpless Tyler trying to shoulder the burden alone. If Mary hadn’t been next to him throughout the process, he had a feeling that he would black out too.
After all, he was only a boy in his late teens whom Rose, Jean, and Toby had sheltered. For the most part, he was coddled and free to do whatever he pleased. Never once had he thought all three of his pillars would crumble before him.
Presently, Titus was unsettled as he returned to the Gray Residence. At the sight of him, Julia’s eyes lit up and she hastened to greet him at the threshold. “Honey, you’re home.”
“Welcome home, Dad,” Rina said cheerily while walking up to him.
Titus nodded sullenly and as Julia helped him over to the armchair, he said, “It’s good to be home.”
“I’ll get you a drink, Dad.” With that, Rina poured tea into a cup and handed it to him.
He took the cup, his expression softening as he pointed out, “How very thoughtful of you, Rina.”
The girl smiled unassumingly and lowered her gaze, hiding the dark gleam in her eyes.
There was something incredibly gratifying about being praised. Rina had spent the last twenty-six years of her life being subjected to abuse and she never understood parental love until she arrived at the Gray Residence, whereupon she discovered how potent and enthralling it was to become the object of parental affection. Why can’t such wonderful parents be my biological family?
“How did it go, honey? Has Toby agreed to reinstate our partnership and the engagement?” Julia asked nervously, clutching her hands together like she was in prayer. “If the engagement were to resume, would he choose Tina or Rina?”
Upon hearing this, Rina became tense and watched Titus with wary eyes.
Titus, on the other hand, tightly clenched the cup in his hand as his features twisted into a grimace. If the cup wasn’t made out of glass, he would’ve squeezed it into pieces.
“No, he has not!” he finally bit out through gritted teeth, rage and spite
coloring his voice.
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