Shawaty’s Betrayal

Chapter two

The near miss

was thrown face-front into the steering wheel. My heart was still pounding from the near miss, and I could feel a sharp pain in my head.

In that anger, I shoved open my car door and walked right to where she squatted. I raised my hand to hit her, and she screamed, tightening her hands over her face.

“Please don’t hurt me.”

I looked at the poor, traumatized girl squatting before me with my hand still in the air. She was terrified. I loosened up a bit.

“You should always watch the road,” I said, bringing down my hand.

I bent down to help gather her groceries that had scattered on the ground.

Although it was my fault, I still had to blame her for not seeing my recklessness. Cars blew their horns, people shouted, and we caused major traffic, but it was none of my business, being that I was the kind not to care about other people’s opinions.

After gathering the groceries into her bag, I stood up and stretched out my hand to her.

“Take my hand. Stand up,” I said.

She lowered her hands from her face, and slowly, she took my hand. I pulled her up.

“Dust yourself,” I growled, walking off to where the car had roughly halted.

I opened the passenger seat, put in her groceries, and slammed the door behind me.

“Get in. I’ll give you a ride.”

She looked at me as if she had seen a ghost, secretly admiring the luxurious car.

“I should get in?” she murmured.

I didn’t answer her. I just got into the car. Not long after, she slowly opened the door and came in, gently shutting it behind her.

We did not say anything for some minutes. I was trying to catch my breath, and she was… well, she was doing her thing.

I noticed her nervously twiddling her fingers, as if she wanted to say something but was too shy.

“I am sorry,” she murmured.

I could feel my shoulders ease, my grip on the steering wheel loosen. I hadn’t felt this soft hearted in a long time, and I didn’t like that feeling. My tension slowly melted, and I could feel my breath returning to normal.

“It’s fine. Where are you headed? I’ll drop you off,” I answered.

“I am going to Beijing Tongren Hospital.”

I froze, the words she said striking hard. My brows knit together.

“What could she want there?” I asked myself.

“Alright, I’ll take you there,” I replied after a while.

Judging from her dress, she looked like someone from a poor background, and the groceries in her bag weren’t expensive.

I turned the car around and raced off in the direction of the hospital. Again, we said nothing to each other on the road until her phone rang loudly, cutting through the silence.

“Brrring! Brrring! Brrring!” The phone vibrated in her bag.

She dipped her hand inside and brought it out. It was an old model phone, very old.

“Hello,” she pressed the phone to her ear.

“Yes, it’s me. I’m the one,” she said, her lips tightening.

From the way she talked and her facial expressions, I could sense something was wrong.

“Ok sir, I’ll be there very soon.” She dropped the phone.

I wanted to ask what was wrong, but I decided not to. We were just strangers, no need to meddle in her affairs.

“Please, sir, could you go a bit faster?” she said gently, though tense.

For a girl this poor, she was extremely good at her diction. I wondered if she had gone to school. Hearing her plea, I pressed the accelerator and drove off at a higher speed.

In no time, we arrived at the hospital. Not waiting for me to park, she opened the car door and ran inside, leaving behind her groceries.

After I had parked the car in the garage, I got out, took the groceries, and went after her. I walked into the hospital, confused about which direction she had run.

After asking around, I found her sitting on the floor close to a patient ward. I walked down to where she was and squatted.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I took off my suit.

I could see tears dropping down her cheeks, her face melted in pain, yet she didn’t say a word.

I left the groceries with her and went to find the doctor in charge of that section.

“Excuse me, Doctor,” I said, stopping him in his steps.

The doctor turned around. Seeing me, his eyes widened, surprised at who he was seeing.

“Mr. Fang, good day, sir,” he bowed.

“Good day, Doctor. The girl squatting at room 49 in the emergency ward, what’s the issue?” I enquired.

After I and the doctor had talked for a while, I discovered her mother was supposed to undergo major surgery, but the cost was expensive.

“So how much is the cost, Doctor?” I asked, hanging my suit over my shoulder with a finger.

“It’s 1.3 million yuan, sir.”

Her mother was diagnosed with heart failure, and the surgery was to insert a pacemaker to help power up the heart. I turned and glanced at the girl on the floor afar, with tears covering her face. After some careful thought, I took a deep breath and turned back to the doctor.

“Ok, Doc, I’ll make the payment right away. Meanwhile, take the documents to her to sign so you can kick off the surgery immediately,” I said, then turned and walked straight into the hallway.

I went to the counter and made the payment. I was worked through some paperwork, and after that, I left the hospital, heading for the garage.

When I got to where my car was parked, I couldn’t find my key on me.

“Could I have dropped it with her alongside the groceries?” I murmured to myself.

After a while of thinking, I walked back into the hospital to where I had left the girl. Walking down the hallway, from the far end, I saw her running towards me.

“Was she planning on hugging me?” I thought to myself.

Before I could answer, she closed the distance between us and wrapped her hands around me. I froze, stiff, forgetting what I had come for and unsure if what I was experiencing was real. No one besides my mother had ever hugged me. A strange yet comforting warmth spread through me.

I felt her sweaty body on my clothes, her hands wrapped around me. I couldn’t move. I was stunned. No one apart from my mother had shown me so much affection. Everyone always thought of me as a heartless monster, but she didn’t seem to care. Maybe she didn’t know who I was. At a point, I found my hand tapping her hair, and I muttered,

“Everything will be fine. Just stop crying,” I said, patting her on the head.

After a while, she fell asleep. I carried her to the sofa in the ward where her mother was and laid her there. I put the groceries close to the sofa and dropped some money too. Then I took my keys and left.

On my way out of the hospital, I stopped in front of a ward. I peeped in through the small glass opening on the door and saw a feminine figure lying still on the hospital bed.

I pressed the door handle, opened the door, and went to her bedside. She was all I had in the world. While everyone saw me as a heartless monster, she saw me differently.

“I love you, Mom,” I said, patting her hair.

My mother was in a coma after suffering an accident. She had been trying to run away from my father, who had been maltreating her. That was the main reason I wanted to become President of the company.

“I’ll get revenge, Mom,” I murmured in tears.

I couldn’t stand the sight of my mother in such pain, so I left. Walking back to my car, I was full of rage and thirst for revenge. Even if my father was dead, I wanted to go down to hell and sink him deeper. I entered my car, turned around, and headed home.