The Enticing CEO’s Chosen Bride

Chapter 2054

Erik said, "Go check on her for me."

Cicely's gaze followed the man as he disappeared, then she withdrew her attention. It was a familiar face, one that had clashed with Seth in heated debates before.

Shane. Another assistant working alongside Seth.

"Grandpa, take care of yourself."

With such a calamity befalling the family, Erik was bedridden. There was a family doctor in the house, and she had not even returned home to visit.

"I'm fine. Just go see how Danielle is doing, I heard she's in a bad way."d2

"Grandpa." Cicely got up and walked over to the railing and watched the people coming and going in the parking lot, "Issac is dead."

The silence on the other end of the phone was long and heavy.

Cicely's slender hands gripped the rusted railing tightly as she spoke in a flat tone. "If only Patty and Danielle hadn't dilly-dallied and just gotten on the rescue chopper quicker. It wouldn't have taken much, maybe just a minute sooner, no, perhaps thirty seconds, or even ten might have been enough. We could've avoided the blast, and Issac wouldn't have left me."

A deep, gravelly voice filled with helplessness and a choke of emotion came from the phone, "Cicely..."

"Grandpa, do you know what Issac meant to me? He was like the air to me, barely noticeable when around, but now that he's gone..."

Danielle was the old man's granddaughter. So was she. Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

If it wasn't for Patty wasting so much time for the sake of Danielle, Issac wouldn't have died.

After a long pause, Cicely took a deep breath, "Alright. I'll go check on Danielle for you."

Hanging up, Cicely put away her phone and turned, expressionless, towards the hospital.

Shane hadn't been in Danielle's room for long before Cicely arrived. Charlie was holding a bag of fruit and some lunch. The two following behind Cicely automatically stood to either side of the hospital room door, not entering with her.

Patty was there in Danielle's room, looking haggard with sunken, swollen eyes. Patty sat at the edge of the bed, peeling an apple Shane had handed her, starting at the top, when she heard a knock and turned to see Cicely in the doorway.

Before Shane could react, Patty had already jumped to her feet, looking at Cicely warily. "What are you doing here?"

Shane quietly left the room. These were matters among women, especially when it came to love and hate. It was best for him to keep out of their delicate affairs.

Cicely cracked a wry smile, "Ms. Patty, Danielle has Ellis blood in her veins. Strictly speaking, I'm closer to her than you are, so why wouldn't I come?"

With that said, she approached the bed.

Her eyes fell on the person wrapped up so tightly on the bed, only eyes and mouth visible.

Danielle’s mouth was crusted with dry skin. Those bloodshot eyes were filled with intense hatred, as if all her strength were focused there, wishing she could tear Cicely apart.

Suddenly, Cicely laughed, "Grandpa's not well, and he asked me to come check on you. So I came to see just how pitiful you are. Covered in burns, your face disfigured, huh? Your legs had just healed, and now you're back in bed. What's the point of living like this?"

"Cicely, have you got no humanity? That's your cousin you're talking about, do you really wish her dead?!"

Patty could no longer hold back, shaking with rage. Her voice exploded in Cicely's ear, yet Cicely remained indifferent, her gaze fixed on Danielle. The eyes that peeked out from the bandages looked both comical and pitiable. Right now, those eyes glared at her with a fury that seemed desperate to convey her hatred.

"Why are you glaring at me? Seems like, Issac and I have rescued an ungrateful viper. Danielle, were you born under a cursed star? Why does everyone around you suffer misfortune?"

Danielle's lips trembled, "You are the cursed one." Her voice was hoarse, and it seemed as if speaking was pulling at her wounds, causing tears to well up in her eyes.

Cicely's smile slowly cooled. "Danielle, if you hadn't returned to the Ellis family, so many things wouldn't have happened. I wouldn't have met you or Seth. You two together make no more difference to me than if you were stray dogs."

"Cicely!" Patty suddenly shouted beside her, "Do you not hear how ridiculous you sound? Danielle and Seth are like stray dogs to you? And what does that make you? Have you forgotten how you used to cling to Seth?"

At that, Cicely slowly turned her head, her detached and icy gaze making Patty instinctively step back. "What do you want?"

"Are you out of your mind?" Cicely finally said, "Can't you understand plain English or are you deliberately picking a fight? Everyone knows how I feel about Seth. He always thought I was heartless and ungrateful, but somehow I always felt that it's actually you who are the most ungrateful?"

"You..."

"If we hadn't come to save you, do you think you'd still be alive to argue with me about these petty things? I don't expect gratitude, but is a simple 'thank you' too much for your oh-so-superior upbringing?"

Patty paused, the anger in her eyes intensifying. "You saving us? Wasn't it you who ruined Diaz International, trying to curry favor so I wouldn't stand in the way of you and Seth? Otherwise, why would you bother to risk your lives to save us? What a joke! If you hadn't come, we would have missed the explosion, and Danielle wouldn't be like this. You have the nerve to come here and take credit, but I haven't even begun to settle the score with you."

Cicely felt the absurdity of it all. How twisted must one's morals and worldview be to be so thankless, to be unable to distinguish right from wrong, and to so blatantly distort the truth.

Cicely turned slowly, her eyes narrowing with a dangerous glint as she took two steps closer. "If we hadn't come along, Danielle would be nothing but ash right now, and so would you. Your fate? Nothing more than two charred corpses."

Patty seemed to shrink back at her words, her shoulders tensing with fear.

"Patty, I never expected you to be falling over yourselves with gratitude, but you have to understand something. Your lives? They were saved by Issac. So, you owe him. Even if you scrape by every day from here on out, you live with that debt of gratitude. If it weren't for you two, he wouldn't be dead."

There was a brief silence in the hospital room. "Dead? Ha."

Patty's sneer made Cicely's temples throb with a sudden pulse.

"What does his death have to do with us? Got what he deserved, didn't he?"