A visitor

"Knock, knock…" Chris called out as he stood at the room door.

For a moment, Jackson blankly stared at the wall. Then he slowly turned his head and said, "Come in," while staring back at Chris and the file in his hand.

After shutting the door behind him, Chris walked over to Jackson, pulled a chair closer to the bed, and sat down.

"How are you feeling?" Chris asked.

"Thanks for the concern, but I am sick of such questions. Let's talk business." Jackson responded.

A brief laugh escaped Chris's lip. Then he took some papers out of the file and lay them out on the table beside the bed frame. Afterward, he brought out a pen from in his pocket and handed it over to Jackson.

It took a while for both of them to go through the documents, and after countless back and forth discussions, Jackson finally wrote his signature on the line at the bottom of each page.

"It's nice doing business with you, partner." Chris said with satisfaction on his face.

"Likewise," Jackson replied.

He then waited for Chris to put the documents into the folder and sit back in his chair before Jackson said, "I am glad that we got this done. But it's not the reason that I wanted you here."

Chris immediately rested the folder on the table's smooth surface and turned his attention back to Jackson.

Then he faintly smiled and asked, "What is it then?"

"I need a lawyer."

"For what?"

It grew silent for quite a while. Then Jackson deeply sigh and said, "I want to divorce my wife."

A minute or two passed before Chris could grasp what Jackson was asking him to do.

"Steven is not stable right now, and knowing the kind of woman that my mother is, she wouldn't be willing to assist me even if I cry blood. So you are the only one I trust to do this for me." Jackson slowly said with grief in his tone.

"You look much better than you did yesterday. I am sure that you will be out of this hospital pretty soon, so why can't you wait to get out of here before divorcing her?" Chris asked.

A part of him knew that there was more to this than Jackson was letting on, and Chris wanted to make sure that he wasn't missing something important.

"Looks can be deceiving. The sooner the better." Jackson replied as he gave Chris another uneasy glance before turning his face to stare at the wall.

For a few seconds, the plain paint brought a bit of awkward comfort to his troubled heart which left a faded smile on his lip.

"Why the rush?" Chris asked, feeling a bit nervous about their conversation.

"Can you do it or not?" Jackson replied with a sense of annoyance.

The look of stress in his eye had Chris in an awkward position. He then allowed himself to sink into his thoughts as he gently tapped his feet against the cold hospital floor.

"Well, if this is what you want, then consider it done." Chris finally replied.

"Thanks, bro. I owe you one." Jackson wholeheartedly said with a half-smile on his face.

In that instant, Chris's trouble heart felt a bit better about his decision when he saw the relief in Jackson's expression.

Both of them sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Jackson gazed at Chris and asked, "Why are you still here. Don't get me wrong. I know you are a busy guy, so what's the holdup?"

"Oh, umm, Rose asked me to stay here with you while she, Julie, Mr. Harper, and his wife eat breakfast in the hospital cafeteria." Chris awkwardly replied.

"I'm not a kid. You can leave. I will be fine on my own."

"Yeah, I know. But…"

"Let's not go there, okay?"

It was clear from the stubbornness in Jackson's tone that Chris wasn't going to win the argument. So he stood up from the chair and said, "See you later dude."

After Jackson slightly nodded, Chris left the room, headed out of the ward, and into the lobby.

However, he stopped and looked back for a moment when a familiar face walked past him. Then he shook off the uneasy feeling and headed down the stairs.

The silence in the room went on for a few minutes before it got disrupted by a knock which caught Jackson off guard.

While angrily staring at the door, he frowned and said, "Chris, I am fine, so go back to work."

However the door suddenly opened, and Jackson's face suddenly became expressionless.

Yet, anger blazed hot and unstoppable in his stomach as a boiling fury swelled inside of him.

"Oh, yeah. I remember now." Chris absentmindedly mumbled to himself.

"Remember what?"

When Chris looked to his left, he saw Steven staring at him with curiosity plastered on his face.

"You look terrible." Chris teasingly said while striving not to burst into laughter.

"I know. What did you remember?" Steven said with a stiff expression on his face.

It didn't bother Chris about Steven's sudden interest in his words because, from the look of things, he seemed like he needed a distraction of any kind.

"Oh, I just saw the CEO of Bright Incorporation, and the shocking thing is that…" Chris said, pausing for a moment when he noticed that Steven seemed to be only half-listening to what he was saying.

"Damn it!"

"What?"

The way Steven took off on full speed had Chris dumbfounded for a moment. Then he ran after him, seeing that he was heading in the direction of Jackson's room.

The cafe felt extremely lonely as Jennie sat in the midst of strangers, and the tea that she ordered a while ago had become cold without her taking a sip from the cup.

Finally, when she picked up the mug and drank it, she couldn't tell the difference as though she had lost her taste.

After Jennie's second sip, her phone buzzed, and when she stared at the screen, it took a moment of hesitation for her to answer the call.

"Good morning," Jennie softly mumbled with dullness in her eyes.

"You need to get here right now!" Steven shouted on the phone without stopping for even a second.

He ended the call before Jennie could ask him, "What happened?" Then he dialed Rose's number.

When she answered, Steven, took in a deep breath and said, "Mom, get to Jackson's room now."

"Why?" Rose's concerned voice flowed out of the phone speaker.

"I need you to stop me from committing a murder."

"What!"

Steven abruptly ended the call, feeling an intense anger flowing through him like lava which had nearly consumed the last bit of his sanity that he was holding onto.