Chapter 3 Determined to Leave
1043 Words
"It's just some gastroscopy images, nothing worth seeing."
As she spoke, she quickly opened the bottle of birth control pills, decisively taking one.
Craig's expression remained cold. Just as he was about to question her actions, his phone rang.
He glanced at his watch and, without any hesitation, turned and walked out.
Raina waited until she heard the roar of his luxury car's engine fading away before she closed the door and rushed to the bathroom, gagging.
She desperately tried to spit out the birth control pill she had hidden under her tongue, furiously rinsing her mouth until she almost vomited.
Luckily, Craig had been distracted by the phone call and hadn't noticed that she hadn't swallowed the pill.
After all the effort, she was left exhausted, slumping down beside the toilet to catch her breath.
'This unexpected little one, a result of a nearly expired birth control pill, is it a blessing or a curse?'
*****
The doorbell rang. It was Craig's assistant, Lance Lynn.
Raina quickly washed her face, patted her cheeks to make her complexion look less pale, and then went to open the door.
"Ms. Yeats, please sign this agreement."
Raina offered a sarcastic smile, mocking herself.
She took the agreement and signed her name without hesitation.
Lance took the agreement and left.
*****
As autumn set in, the weather turned bleak, as if a heavy rain could fall at any moment.
Raina packed her suitcase and left the villa she had called home for the past three years.
She took out her phone, intending to call her best friend, Willow Ortega, but the hospital called first.
Helena's heart condition had flared up again.
Raina was rushed to the hospital by taxi.
Helena's heart was severely failing, but they still hadn't found a suitable donor for a transplant.
*****
When Raina saw the hefty hospital bill, it felt as though her world was collapsing.
She had just sworn she was going to leave.
For the past three years, Craig had been paying for everything about Helena's illness, providing the best medical care, doctors, and nurses. Everything had been top-notch.
There was no way she could afford Helena's surgery by herself.
Sitting on the hospital's stairs, Raina clutched her head, feeling overwhelmed.
She held her phone, staring at the contact labeled Craig, and dialed the number with trembling fingers.
One second, two seconds...
The phone rang for a full minute before it was answered, and Craig's voice came through, cold and distant. "What is it?"
Her voice was choked with sobs. "Mon, I... My mom is critically ill. Could you..."
She didn't know whether it was because of the way she addressed him. His tone grew impatient. "I'm busy."
Raina swallowed hard. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you..."
Just as she was about to hang up, she heard Craig say, "I'll send Brooke to take care of it."
Fifteen minutes later, Brooke Eaton, Craig's secretary, arrived at the hospital and paid the bill for Raina.
Raina thanked her politely, "Thank you so much, and please thank Mr. Jenson for me as well."
Brooke gave her a glance, saying, "Mr. Jenson is at Jenson Manor with his fiancée. He couldn't make it, so he sent me to handle this." After saying that, she left.
Raina looked down, her face pale, and said nothing.
'Why did I need to know? Did I have to be treated like this? Did I deserve this kind of torment?'
*****
Late at night, Helena had passed the critical stage and was moved to the ICU for observation.
Raina stayed in the hallway.
Not long after, a bodyguard approached her, bowing slightly. "Ms. Yeats, Mr. Jenson is waiting for you in the smoking room on the third floor."
In the smoking room, Craig sat with his legs casually crossed, nonchalantly puffed on his cigarette. The swirling smoke obscured his face.
Raina gently pushed open the door to the smoking room, instinctively furrowing.
Ever since she got pregnant, she had become particularly sensitive to smells. What she used to find the pleasant scent of tobacco on Craig now felt pungent and unbearable.
Craig looked up slightly, smiling teasingly. "Lance said you signed the agreement right away. I thought you would be tougher."
It wasn't the first time Craig had wounded her pride.
Raina gripped her skirt tightly, remaining silent. She couldn't explain, and there was no way to.
"I helped you out again. How do you plan to repay me?"
Craig's blue eyes were full of playful desire. He patted his strong, muscular thigh. "How about you sit here and... do it yourself?"
Raina's face flushed instantly. She bit her lip. 'He always said things like this. He said such things without a hint of shame. This is a hospital, a public place. How could he say such... shameless things? What if someone overheard it? It would be a disaster.'
"Mr. Jenson, my mom just got out of surgery. I'm not in the mood for that right now. I can't repay your kindness, but I'll surely serve you well in the next life..."
Craig's face darkened. "Do the grand plans you made match up to the standards of my company's designers? Can you really pull it off?"
'It is something intangible, unreachable.'
Knowing she couldn't fool him, Raina slowly approached, handing him a handwritten IOU.
"Over the past three years, all of my mother's hospital bills have added up to roughly five million. Consider this five million a loan from you, Mr. Jensen. I'll pay it back within two months."
"Two months?" Craig raised an eyebrow. "How will you pay it back? By selling off your designer bags? Isn't that still my money?"
Raina had been exposed so bluntly that her face burned with embarrassment.
She quickly tried to cover it, saying, "Anyway... I'll definitely pay it back."
"If you can't repay it in two months, what then?" His sharp gaze fixed on her.
Raina stubbornly insisted. "I will pay it back."
Craig slowly gazed at her, his tone suggestive. "If you can't, we'll stick to the old way, using your body to pay. But how exactly it will be is... up to me."
Craig leaned in close to her ear, speaking in a sultry tone.
- Writer
