Chapter 38

Júlia entered the hospital and Jared followed her cautiously. He saw her talking to the receptionists and some guards, demonstrating that there was a certain friendship between them.

She heads to the elevators and Jared follows, he gets into the same elevator as her and Julia doesn't notice. Jared thought he might lose sight of her if she didn't get into the same elevator and he was a man who took risks, good or bad. If she saw him in the elevator, he could give the excuse that he was there to visit someone.

Julia gets out of the elevator and walks, after a while, she feels the sensation of being watched and so she turns and looks back. She sees only the back of a man, walking in the opposite direction to her.

She watches him for a while, frowning, but ends up giving up and continuing to walk to her destination.

Shrewdly, Jared exited the elevator behind her, but headed in the opposite direction to avoid being seen. He entered the corridor to his left and stopped there, carefully looking at the corridor where Júlia was and saw her enter one of the beds.

That was his cue to find out what was in that room.

Jared approaches cautiously and hears voices coming from the room, he recognizes Nina's voice and thinks he should be even more cautious, as Nina would recognize him. Jared opens the door to the next room and realizing it was empty, he went in there to hide.

He tried to hear what they were talking about, putting his ear to the door.

However, he couldn't understand what they were talking about. But soon the sound of their voices approached, showing that they had left the room.

Jared hears Nina asking Júlia to take good care of someone, which makes Jared more curious. Júlia asks Nina where she would go and she just answers that she had found a way to get the money.

Júlia follows Nina, trying to find out what she intended to do and avoiding revealing.

They distance themselves and Jared is torn, as he could decide to follow the two and find out what Nina intended to do, as it could be something that would put her at risk, or… he could go into the next room and have his big secret revealed.

Across town, Dominic was still in the office. For the first time he was breaking out of his routine, he didn't leave at the exact time he usually left. He spent the whole day looking at his cell phone, waiting for a message from Nina, without success.

With that, he reached his limit, stood up and picked up a ceramic object from his table and threw it away.

He was angry because Nina was forcing him to act, and she was the only woman who made him feel out of control. Nothing with her worked the same way it worked with the others.

"Where is she?"

He texts Patel, a less-than-satisfied expression on his face.

"Just left the diner."

Patel responds immediately and soon receives a new message from Dominic:

"Don't let her out of your sight, I'm on my way."

Patel raises an eyebrow and shrugs. He internally knew that sooner or later this would happen, he had already realized that in this tug of war, Nina would end up winning.

Just before Nina left the hospital, Jared made his decision.

He walked, opened the bed door slowly and what he saw was beyond what he had imagined.

He opened his mouth, perplexed, walked slowly and crouched down next to the bed where the girl was watching him shyly.

The girl was beautiful, with dark, braided hair, two braids on each side. She held a doll, hugging her own body. She was wearing colorful pajamas, with prints from a children's cartoon. And her eyes revealed her origins, she had the same eyes as her mother, with different colored irises.

Hannah wasn't used to the presence of strangers and that's why she was shy in Jared's presence.

Jared was already amazed, the girl was a charming child and her existence changed everything. With her, even without Dominic's help, he would be able to stop Samuel.

— Hi, what's your name? — Jared asks, in a soft voice.

Hannah holds the doll in her arms and shakes her head no.

Jared, noticing his shyness, has an idea.

— Do you want to see something cool?

Hannah shakes her head no again.

Despite her refusal, Jared takes a coin from his pocket, then shows the object to the girl, holding it between his fingers. With skill he passes the coin between his fingers and suddenly, it disappears.

Hannah opens her mouth, impressed, she had never seen a magic trick. Jared shows her his palm, so she can see that the coin is really gone.

Curious, she extends her little hands, and he gives her his hand. She examines it to see if there really are any coins.

— It disappeared! — she squeals, impressed — Do it again!

Jared smiles, having worked out. With charisma, he shows her his hands again and moves her fingers and suddenly, the coin reappears in her hand.

Hannah's eyes widened, impressed by the trick.

He offers her the coin and she takes it and tries to repeat the trick, without success.

— I'm Jared and you, what's your name?

The girl smiles at him and replies:

— My name is Hannah.

Jared smiles broadly, having managed to gain the child's trust.

— Did you like the trick? — the girl shakes her head positively, still playing with the coin — If you want, I can teach you how to do it.

— I want it, please teach me! — she puts her two hands together, asking him.

— Hmm, that's a very difficult trick to learn. Can I come see you more often?

Hannah smiles, showing her small teeth and crinkling the corners of her eyes. After giving a thumbs up.

Automatically Jared smiles back, she was a cute little girl and her smile was contagious.

— Do you already know how to count? — Hannah nods and Jared continues — How old are you?

The girl looks at her little fingers seriously, concentrating and after a few seconds she shows him her three little fingers.

— Very good! — Jared smiles and she responds.

— I can count to ten, want to see? — Hannah asks.

— Of course I want to! — Jared responds and they start talking.

Hannah shows him her toys, drawings and her lesson notebook, which Nina had bought for her, so that she could develop her learning, even if she wasn't attending kindergarten.

Gaining the child's trust, Jared asks:

— Little Hannah, can I have a photo of you?

She looks at him seriously, considering, but because of her innocence, she ends up consenting.

Jared points his cell phone at her, who smiles to look pretty in the photo and at that moment, Jared is scared, with his cell phone being taken from his hand and being thrown to the ground.

— Who are you?! — Júlia screams — And what are you doing here?! I'll call security!