Episode 91
**The following chapter may contain some disturbing events, proceed at your own accord**
"Cervical Cerclage"
"What's that?"
"A stich to close the cervix in order to avoid a preterm labor, however we must prevent it at all costs"
Aoi tightly clenched her fists on the corners of her coat. The doctor before her briefed her in about the dire situation....
"Complete bed rest with no physical or stressful activity, I'd recommend getting him a bunch of movies or novels, we'll keep him in monitoring for short cervix and his blood pressure should be stabilized at all times"
All she could do was pay attention and nod.
"Also If his blood pressure shoots like this again then we can't stop a preterm labor, which is really dangerous considering it's only 25 weeks and we'll have to use drugs to administer an early lung maturation, in worst case, a miscarriage .... please make up your mind..."
The doctor tried to sound as professional as possible, even though making up her mind literally meant having to choose between Natsu and this child.
"Natsuro, if...it comes to the worst...save Natsuro" She replied abruptly, without having the need to think much about it.
" About this..." She brought up as the doctor had finished briefing her "please move him to a VIP ward and keep this matter as private as possible"
The doctor nodded and handed her a few forms
" Please make an entry "
He'd walked away leaving Aoi to herself.
She moved inside the room instead, holding and rubbing her temples.
"How are you?" She asked little Lian, who was awake but he still didn't respond.
Natsuro was in another room but Aoi couldn't leave Lian alone this time, considering how mad it made him last time when she'd prioritized saving Natsuro over Lian.
This time she wanted to do it right and do what Natsuro would want rather then going by her own desires.
"That day... I'm sorry for not coming to save you" Aoi mumbled, not that Lian remembered the time, because by the time he was saved, he'd been unconscious for long. It was either the drug overdose or probably the pheromones that kept him asleep through most of it despite his trauma.
The child didn't reply but he did look at her.
Aoi extended her hand and put it over the child's head, gently brushing his hair with her fingers.
He kept looking at her with somewhat mesmerized eyes. It was probably the fever or that his brain was intoxicated with the pheromones from earlier but
"Pretty..."
He whispered.
"Eh?" Aoi heard him and somewhat smiled, she lightly pinched his cheek "Thank you"
She really was grateful, for a moment she found that child's innocent expression quite comforting. She adjusted the pillow for him and made him lay back.
He didn't even once look away and kept looking at this beautiful lady while he was laying down.
Aoi gently patted his head as his eyes opened and closed after intervals. The child was drowsy, her cold hands might normally not be appreciated...
.... But in that moment, they put the child into a comfortable sleep.....
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"Daddi!"
"Adrian wait, don't climb over him"
Zhuang somewhat pulled Adrian off Alex, the kid had noticed his daddy moving so naturally he decided to get into his face.
Alex slowly and gradually opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling.
Aoi had long left for the hospital again after checking up on him. Though she'd told Zhuang to text her at that time.
He stared at the ceiling with a dry look upon his face....yet for some reason....
"What's this..." Alex whispered touching his cheek and feeling the wetness. For some reason his vision got completely clouded....
"Daddi..why are you crying?" Little Adrian couldn't handle it, he saw Alex's eyes filled with tears that rolled down his cheeks without his permission.
He himself teared up as well.
"I'm not- I'm not crying...see" Alex used both his hands to wipe off the tears desperately but the more he did, the more came out. He struggled so much wiping his eyes using both of his hands.
Little Adrian broke down first, he started crying loudly as he clung to Alex's leg.
Alex was desperately trying to control this involuntary reaction, but the tears just won't stop. Alex crossed his arms over his face to avoid his flushed face being seen.
Zhuang sat on the bed side too and pulled Alex's head to his chest.
That was it....
He broke down....
Lucky for him Adrian's loud crying was able to cover his muffled sobbing...
Otherwise he'd probably killed Zhuang for living to see him cry like this....
Zhuang too dared not look down, he knew Alex had too much pride...
They didn't say anything to each other, neither had a comforting word or two to share... because it wasn't needed at that moment...
Nothing Zhuang could say.. would comfort Alex...
For now all he could do was give Alex a shoulder to lean on while he relived all the memories that he'd been avoiding...
The traumatic memories that Alex had buried deep down in his heart, assuming that after putting a lid on these memories...there was nothing that could ever hurt him the same way again... neither the kids at his school, nor Kirihara Lilliya... nobody could hurt him again...
The reason he'd always been fearless and immune to pain was the fact that he'd already known the worst.. nothing could be worst than that memory...
.... Nothing could make him suffer that way again... Nothing could hurt him that way again....
Nothing could burn those defenses that he'd built out of those memories ever again.....
He was so wrong.....
He'd remembered.....
..... that night he forgot years ago due to trauma induced amnesia...
.....the defenses he'd built to keep himself from remembering the accident and everything before it, had shattered...
The wall that protected him from the memories of the other side had a hole in it...
Everything flowed into his body and he shivered with every thought of it, if only it wasn't for the tightness of Zhuang's grip, he would've long fallen into the abyss of his own past.
The wheels rotated again....
He was back to the very first step that he took with the woman called Clara Hughes and the man called Joshua Hughes...
The first time he'd won a science award and they'd held a three person party over it..
The first time he held his baby sister's hand and asked where'd she come from, which made both of those people flustered up and stumble on their words trying to explain that the baby was purchased from the hospital...
The second time apparently a fairy dropped new babies, a pair of twins, in their house, but for some reason he'd felt that those three children never came from the hospital or from any fairy and the two had been lying all along....
Their smiles and flustered faces were more clear than ever...The calm demeanor of Clara Hughes who'd always smile and fulfill all his requests and the strict demeanor of Joshua Hughes who acted really tough but was really weak at heart....
He could make out their faces again, they were no longer a blur in his mind....
With a sobbing murmur, he clenched tightly onto Zhuang's shirt being in a lot of emotional agony....
"I.... want...to ...see him..."
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"Where are... we going?"
Kei asked yet he got no response, Akio was in somewhat of a daze, it was kinda dangerous since Akio was driving.
They'd been on road for an hour now. Kei wasn't much familiar of the road they were on, but he'd went along because Akio was about to head out on his own again and Kei was really done with it. So he literally had to throw a tantrum in order for Akio to take them with him.
The girls were in their safety seats in the back having fun watching the scenery outside.
Moreover the pretty faces kept them busy...
It was getting dark now, the lanterns, the women and men in makeup... something was weird about this place...
There was alot of hustle and bustle going on too ever since it got dark...
Kei nervously looked out of the window only to be shocked and flustered.
"Akio san ! Why are we ....in the red light district!" Kei whispered a bit loudly but kept it down enough so that the girls wouldn't hear him.
Akio parked the car in the parking of a strip club.
Kei was completely flustered and kept checking on Akio and the girls back and forth. The girls had fallen asleep holding onto each other's little hands after the long journey.
"Stay in the car, I'll be back" Akio removed the seat belt, though before he could get out Kei grabbed Akio's shirt from the back pulling it.
Akio stopped midway, he looked back at the girls being asleep and then moved forward onto Kei who moved back pressed against the window of the car, Akio leaned in to kiss his neck but Kei covered the both sides of his neck with both his hands.
He knew it was something Akio did when he was avoiding an answer. Akio was a tad bit surprised by the rejection.
"There's someone I need to find"
Akio told him and grabbed Kei's wrists, pinning them them back against the car's window, kissing his neck nevertheless.
"Stay here.... I'll be back"
He left Kei in the car being all flustered by himself.
It wasn't that Kei didn't trust Akio, it was just that he was worried that Akio was getting into something dangerous again without telling him...
Akio came back in less than twenty minutes, looking at the inquisitive face of Kei who was dying to ask questions but didn't.
They were on the road again...
Kei still didn't have an idea where they were headed..
"I use to be stripper in that club" Akio started off on his own to Kei's surprise " After running off to the capital, I had no where to go...I ended up being attacked many times but I'd always saved myself somehow...it was just this one night...I was in alot of pain because I hadn't eaten for two days and Natsuro was moving alot...I ended up stealing from a shop and making a run, without realizing it..I was in the red light district..."
Kei was surprised to hear about this, though he knew most of it anyways, but little details only got included into his general idea of things.
Akio had a gloomy look on his face " I got attacked by a group of drunk people in that alley" Akio pointed on the way.
Kei could imagine it all and it devastated him.
" I don't know what he was doing that day but he was really cool..." Akio told him.
" Who was?" Kei asked.
" His name was Albert, but we used to call him Al" Akio replied " He saved me that day"
" What... happened... next?" Kei asked.
"He gave me food, clothing, shelter ... everything...but he could barely manage for himself let alone handle a pregnant omega on his own.." Akio told him while making a sharp turn.
" You started... working...too" Kei whispered with a lowered head, it wasn't that he was ashamed if it..but the fact that he could imagine how it would've been for Akio to work in a place like that.. especially for perverts who got off while watching an expecting omega perform for them...
... there must have been times...when some of them would have crossed certain limits too....
Just imagining it, made Kei nauseous.
"Kei san, I realized I've never done you in a car" Akio said out of nowhere.
Kei who was wallowing in disgust suddenly reddened up hearing Akio and tightly closed his legs while clenching his fists onto his thighs with a lowered head and flushed face.
"Kidding" Akio smiled a bit over Kei's innocent reaction.
"Don't think too much about it"
Akio had deliberately done it to get Kei's attention before he'd go in deeper with his imagination and disturb his own self.
"Akio..san..!" Kei hit Akio's arm lightly.
"Sorry sorry" Akio apologized still enjoying it a little bit.
Kei pouted for a while but then gave in.
"Akio..san...where are...we going?"
" To see Albert "
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' Move...'
'...please...'
Ian struggled to move forward but the intense pain in his back made him cringe and hold up after intervals.
His ankle was chained to the bed and he was only able to move slightly from the bed.
His eyes were swollen red from balling endlessly. He was desperately trying to reach his wallet which was placed upon the dresser infront of the bed.
That was as far as could reach, his fingers barely touched the leather but couldn't pull it closer. His muscles were aching from the streching, there were bruise marks all over his stripped body, he'd been beaten too. His lip was cut and his jaw had a huge purple bruising.
The slight pull of his finger tips made the wallet fall off the dresser and he desperately tried to grab it but it moved further away.
"SH-T SH-T SH-T I HATE IT, I HATE IT ALL I-"
Ian lost it and started screaming in agony.
Nobody was allowed to enter the room. So whoever passed by it , pretended to be all deaf. After all this wasn't the first time to hear such noises in Strauss mansion.
The workers had been quite used to it.
They feared the master of the house so much that they simply didn't dare question it.
"Please.... please... help me...I have to tell him...not to come back...I have to...!"
Ian's voice had become hoarse from all the yelling he'd done yet no one paid heed to it until the door opened and his eyes glittered up hopefully only to be clouded by horror again.
" Ian...?" Nicolas stood infront of him with widened eyes.
"No no no no get out of here ! GET OUT IF HERE AS SOON AS-" Ian's breath almost got pulled away as he saw Ivan Strauss standing behind Nicolas.
He couldn't utter a single word, the bed sheet under him became all wet.
Nicolas turned to look behind him only to get hit in the neck and get knocked out.
"NICOLAS!!!"