Filed to story: Love Entangled with Her Unconscious Husband Novel >>
“I deal with it myself,” Elliot answered in a level-headed tone. “However, you may assist me if you’re worried.”
Avery felt like she had just dug her own grave.
Of course, she would be concerned if Elliot were to take care of his hygiene needs on his own, but what was the difference between her giving him a shower, and her taking a shower with him?
They entered the bedroom, and Avery shut the door behind them.
“Could you pass me the walking stick, please?” Elliot asked in a deep, low voice.
Avery was just about to ask him where the walking stick was when she spotted it and handed it over to him.
Elliot held his walking stick and used it as a support as he struggled out of the wheelchair.
“Are you okay?” Avery asked in a panic.
“I’m fine. I’ve been taking a shower by myself for the past few days,” Elliot answered with a hint of humor in his voice. “Did I scare you?”
Avery blushed, then said, “Were you messing with me on purpose?”
“I just wanted to see your reaction,” Elliot said, then made his way to the bathroom.
Avery was still worried and ended up trailing along behind him.
Elliot stopped, then asked, “Are you going to watch me?”
Avery shook her head at first, then frantically nodded and said, “I’m a little worried… Can you take your pants off by yourself?
Won’t you scrape your wounds?”
“These trousers are pretty loose, so they’re easier to take off,” Elliot explained.
Avery grunted in response.
As if to reassure her, Elliot unbuckled his belt and was about to take his pants off in front of her.
Avery’s face turned a feverish red.
She stumbled a few steps back, then said, “I – I better wait outside! Shout if you need help.”
She escaped the bathroom in a hurry and shut the door.
She sighed heavily and wanted to walk away, but she was afraid that he might call for help. At that moment, Mrs. Cooper knocked on the bedroom door and entered with Avery’s clothes in her arms.
“Is Master Elliot taking a shower, Madam?”
Avery nodded and took the clothes from Mrs. Cooper.
“Does she normally wash up by himself?”
“He does! He never wants any help.”
“He’s stubborn,” Avery muttered.
“Master Elliot is rather stubborn, isn’t he? It can be an unfortunate characteristic. He insists on dealing with everything by himself no matter how difficult things are,” said Mrs. Cooper.
Avery agreed wholeheartedly, “I sometimes hate that about him.”
“Don’t hate him,” Mrs. Cooper said, then withdrew the smile on her face and added, “I don’t know what Master Elliot went through in the past, but from what I can tell, he is an extremely kind man.”
Kind?
It was not exactly the most suitable word to describe Elliot Foster.
However, it would not be right to call him unkind either.
Mrs. Cooper continued, “The doctor said those who suffer from depression tend to be the kindest people,”
“He was depressed?” Avery asked with raised brows.
Mrs. Cooper nodded and answered, “He was on antidepressants for a week.”
Avery’s heart turned heavy as she felt like she never truly got to know the real Elliot Foster.
He was cruel yet vulnerable, and heartless yet persistent.
After his shower, Elliot emerged from the bathroom in a white bathrobe with the help of his walking stick When Avery walked over to help him, she noticed his wet hair and asked, “How do you wash your hair?”
“Sitting down.”
“Oh, I’ll dry your hair for you,” Avery said, then grabbed the blow dryer from the bathroom.
While she dried his hair, Elliot sat down quietly and did not move a muscle.
Avery wanted time to stop at that moment.
Elliot’s hand suddenly grabbed onto her wrist.
“It’s dry,” he said.
“Oh, right,” Avery said as she snapped out of her daze and turned off the blow dryer.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed blood seeping through the bandages on his leg.
“You need to redress your wounds. I’ll get the first aid kit.”
Avery placed the blow dryer back in the bathroom, then hurried downstairs to ask Mrs. Cooper for the first aid kit.
Avery reentered the bedroom with a first aid kit in her hand.
She knelt down by Elliot’s legs and began to undress his wounds.
His injuries were more severe than she had imagined.
A large piece of skin was missing from his leg, revealing the bloody red flesh underneath…
He must have been in agony!
Elliot barely twitched while Avery treated and dressed his wounds.
He noticed that her breathing had turned heavy.
“It looks worse than it is. It doesn’t hurt,” he said, his voice piercing through the silence.
He wanted to make her feel better, but she did not want his false consolation.
Avery poked his wound with her finger, causing Elliot to inhale sharply.
“Tell me again how much it doesn’t hurt,” she said as she glared at him with reddened eyes.
Elliot placed his arms behind him, then narrowed his eyes and said, “It doesn’t hurt.”
He was betting on her not poking at his wound again.
Her heart would ache at his pain.
“Go to bed! You have to be on bed rest for at least another week. Don’t go running around!” Avery snapped, then turned and entered the bathroom.
Elliot leaned against the bed’s headboard and picked up his phone from the nightstand.
He made a call, then asked, “What did you find out?”
The bullet had found its mark, but it had not punctured any major organs. It was not a lethal shot.
The culprit was being interrogated at that very moment.
- ”He’s stubborn and won’t say a thing. We’re going to have to use some more drastic measures to get him to talk. We’ll get what we’re looking for before dawn,” reported the man on the other end of the line.
“Don’t let him die before he talks!”
Elliot wanted to know exactly who was the one who went through such lowly means to try to take his life.
The car crash half a year ago had put him in a vegetative state.
He refused to let the same thing happen again.
Elliot hung up and grabbed his pills from the nightstand drawer.
He was on four types of medication and had to take a handful of pills every time.
He swallowed the pills, then placed the glass of water back on the nightstand.
At that moment, the bathroom door opened and Avery emerged.
“I thought about it, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to sleep on the same bed with the state of your injuries. I’m afraid I’ll end up bumping into you during the night,” she said as she approached the bed.
“Are you really worried about hurting me?” Elliot asked as he stared at her with clear yet deep eyes. “Or are you trying to run away from me?”
With flushed cheeks, Avery climbed into bed and sat up next to him.
“Are you happy now?” she said as she glanced at him with a well-behaved expression on her face. “The way you are now, I guess I won’t have to worry about you doing anything to me. What do I have to be afraid of?”
Avery’s unbridled appearance aroused a desire in Elliot to overpower her.
He grabbed onto the back of her head and forced her to lift her chin.
His kiss came suddenly and unexpectedly.
At three in the morning, Elliot reached over to Avery and pulled her into his arms.
She was afraid of hurting him and had been sleeping on the edge of the bed the entire time.
He was worried that she would fall out of bed in her sleep.
She had groggily returned to the edge of the bed the last few times he had attempted to pull her to him.
This time, however, Elliot did not loosen his grip around her.
Avery’s rigid body slowly relaxed in his arms.
Suddenly, Elliot’s phone screen lit up.
He had placed his phone on silent mode so that it would not ring. •
He picked up his phone and answered the call.
“We got it, boss! He said he was following Cassandra Tate’s orders! She’s Miss Avery Tate’s half-sister.”
Elliot’s breathing turned heavy upon hearing the news.
“What do you want us to do with Cassandra Tate?” asked the man on the phone. “Do we kill her or send her to prison?” Elliot planted a soft kiss on Avery’s forehead, then ordered in a hoarse voice, “Kill her.”
The news of Cassandra’s death came out around 7 a.m. the next morning.
She had jumped out of the window of the hotel room she was staying in and had died upon impact.
The police retrieved Avery’s contact information from identification that Cassandra had left in her hotel room.
Jack was dead and Wanda was abroad.
The only person who could identify Cassandra’s body was Avery.
Avery was still half asleep when she answered the call.
Even after she had hung up, she thought she was dreaming.
It was not until she snapped out of her trance and checked her phone’s call history that she realized she was not in a dream.
She leaped out of bed, skipped breakfast, and rushed to the hotel where the incident had taken place.
“She had jumped, Sir. When we opened the door, she ran to the window and jumped before we could do anything. It was obvious that she was ridden with guilt.”
Elliot’s subordinate reported the events surrounding Cassandra’s death to him.” Elliot took a sip of coffee, then ordered coldly,
“Keep an eye on Cole Foster.”
Cassandra and Cole were close.
Cassandra wanting Elliot dead meant that Cole had the same idea in his head.
It was yet to be determined if Cassandra was the mastermind behind the assassination attempt, after all.
She could be nothing but a scapegoat, but she still deserved to die.
The police had closed off the hotel when Avery arrived.
She followed a police officer to the crime scene.
“Miss Tate, our initial investigation identified the victim as your sister, Cassandra Tate. However, we will still need a positive identification from you,” said the officer. “She died upon impact after the fall around five in the morning.”
Avery’s heart raced frantically in her chest as she felt like an invisible force was strangling her.
It was not long until they arrived where Cassandra’s body was.
The thick, metallic smell of blood permeated the air.
Avery’s hand shot up to cover her nose as she stared at the bloodstains on the ground.
The officer pulled back the white sheet covering Cassandra’s body, revealing the bloody, unrecognizable face underneath it.
Avery immediately began to vomit violently.
It was impossible for her to identify that mangled mess of flesh and blood.
Throughout her time in medical school, she had dissected small animals and human corpses…
However, this was the first time she had come face to face with such a disfigured body!
“Are you alright, Miss Tate?” asked the officer as he helped Avery up.
Avery’s chest rose and fell at a rapid pace.
“I’m sorry… I can’t tell… Just do a DNA test or something!”
“We can do that, but it will take some time…”
“I can’t tell… I really can’t…”
Avery took another glance at Cassandra’s mangled face, and tears began to stream down her cheeks.
Her emotions were a mess.
This was not just a simple matter of losing a so-called family member.
Her relationship with Cassandra had always been unpleasant.
However, not being fond of a person and seeing their lifeless body were two completely different things.
The police moved Cassandra’s body away.
They also took away all of the personal items that she left in her hotel room.
Avery sat in a squad car and sobbed.
Why would Cassandra kill herself? Did she get into a fight with Cole?