FULL NOVELXO Chapter 20
Chapter 20 Where Have You Been?
With Helene’s assurance, Carlisle’s grandfather felt as though he had chosen the right woman. But at the same time, he worried that his grandson would let Helene slip through his fingers. And if he did, he would certainly regret it.
Just then, Helene’s phone rang. Niall was calling, asking for a family member to sign off on the operation. That must have meant that Zion hadn’t come to see their grandmother as she had asked him.
Helene was so visibly anxious that Carlisle’s grandfather told her to take care of whatever she had to and come back. He would be fine to wait alone for a while. The specialist’s department wasn’t far from her grandmother’s inpatient building, so Helene figured that she could make it. After asking a nurse to look after the old man, she rushed off.
Her grandmother’s operation came with great risks, which Niall did his best to explain to her in detail. Before she realized it, half an hour had passed and her phone had blown up with
calls.
Helene quickly picked up, and before she could even speak, she could hear Carlisle’s voice, murderously furious. “I don’t care where you are right now. If I don’t see you within the next five minutes, don’t bother coming back.”
Then, he hung up.
Helene got up and ran outside, the unbridled rage in Carlisle’s voice haunting her. It must have had to do with his
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grandfather. Niall didn’t know what was going on and she had left in such a hurry that he followed her out. The two arrived at the specialist’s department completely out of breath where they were met with Carlisle, who was standing at the door to the emergency room.
“What happened to your grandpa?” Helene asked anxiously.
“Where did you go?” Carlisle demanded with a steely gaze. “I trusted you to look after him, and you left him behind. He passed out in the lounge earlier. If I hadn’t arrived in time…”
“But I only left for a little while! How did this happen?!”
“Really?! One of the nurses told me you were out for at least 40 minutes,” Carlisle’s eyes were bloodshot, “If you’re this incompetent, you should have told me before we got married.”
“Wait,” Niall said aggressively, stepping in front of Helene. “No one could have foreseen this happening, and it’s not like she intended to be gone for this long. You can’t put all the blame on her.”
Carlisle looked at Niall coldly. “She was with you just now?”
“That’s right. She’s the granddaughter of one of my patients. waiting to be operated on. I was informing her of the preoperative risks earlier.”
“Really?” Carlisle said, suddenly recognizing the doctor. This was the man who had driven Helene back that night. “And what are you doing now? Are you her knight in shining armor too?”
Carlisle’s anger reached its peak as he asked, “What’s your
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relationship with her?”
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“Carlisle, please, don’t misunderstand things. This was all my fault, okay? Dr. Anderson has nothing to do with this,” Helene pleaded, knowing how blunt Carlisle could be. Most of the time he spoke aggressively, it was simply because he didn’t care to phrase things any lighter. He otherwise had a good temper, and she had never seen him so violent before.
The last time he had become truly angry at her was when his grandfather had learned about their marriage contract. That couldn’t compare to how terrifying he was now, and Helene was shocked.
“Let me ask you again. What’s your relationship?” Carlisle’s roared, his voice echoing down the corridor.
It was enough to make her shiver, and even Niall was slightly intimidated. Still, he did his best to maintain his composure and explain.
“I’m just a doctor treating Ms. Lopez’s grandma. She’s a family member of one of my patients, and I followed her because… Well… I was worried about her, as anyone would have been in my situation. We were just talking, and all of a sudden, she ran out after receiving a call. I thought something serious happened.”
“And is it your place to worry about her?” Carlisle demanded righteously, pulling Helene aside. “I’m her husband, not you. Stop sticking your nose in other people’s business.”
“You’re married?” Niall asked, giving Helene a wide–eyed look. The disappointment on his face was obvious.
“I am,” Helene admitted obliviously, not knowing why Niall
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looked so pained.
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“Then I’m sorry for getting between you two,” he said resentfully before turning to leave.
Once he was gone, Carlisle finally let go of Helene. Then, he turned with an indifferent look on his face and walked toward the door of the emergency room. A German doctor from the specialist’s department, who was also Mr. Bamford Sr.’s attending physician, emerged soon after.
His English wasn’t the best, and due to the technical nature of his job, he opted to speak German instead. Carlisle knew conversational German, but his vocabulary was limited to small talk and business. He didn’t catch much of the medical terminology very well, but Helene could. Fortunately, she had minored in German in college and even passed a proficiency
test.
She talked with the doctor in fluent German and quickly came to learn more about the old man’s condition.
“What did he say?” Carlisle asked, surprised to see Helene speak German so well.
“The doctor said your grandpa’s life isn’t in danger… At least for now. His condition might be stable, but things aren’t looking good in the long term. But apparently, there’s a special medicine they only have in Germany that could help.”
“Can we go in and see him now?”
Helene quickly translated the message for the doctor, who quickly nodded and guided the two into the emergency room. Carlisle’s grandfather had since come to his senses, and when he saw Helene and Carlisle coming in together, he smiled
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warmly.
“I’m fine. It’s okay.”
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The specialist, Dr. Smith, had arrived before his translator did, so he welcomed both Carlisle and Helene into the office so that Helene could continue to translate. The doctor first took out a small folder containing pertinent information and pointed out several key points of the disease that he wanted Carlisle to know about. Then, the conversation moved on to a treatment plan.
Not a detail was missed, and the conversation went smoothly thanks to Helene’s precise translations. Even in the face of a world–renowned medical expert, Helene was unfazed. Neither too humble nor overconfident, she was calm and focused on the job at hand. As the discussions proceeded, Carlisle couldn’t help but be impressed.
By the end of the conversation, Carlisle confirmed the date of his grandfather’s operation with the doctor and laid out a timeline for the treatment plan.
Dr. Smith then took some time to give Helene’s translations high praise, going so far as to compliment her beauty in his limited English. He even extended an offer to hire her as his personal translator whenever he was at the hospital, but before she could respond, Carlisle declined for her.
Though disappointed, the doctor made do with exchanging contact information in case she ever had second thoughts.
To ensure Mr. Bamford Sr. was okay, the hospital suggested that he stay at the hospital for a week so they could monitor his condition. If things took a turn for the worse, they would be able to treat him quickly.
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This would make things much more inconvenient for Helene to take care of his grandfather, so Carlisle hired a nurse to look after him during his time at the hospital. That way, Helene would be able to focus her attention on her grandmother’s well–being at the same time.
As they walked out of the ward, Carlisle took Helene’s hand.
“It’s all thanks to you. I… About earlier… I wasn’t very calm this morning, and…” he stammered, trying to apologize for getting angry. He was earnest and vulnerable, and the more he tried to speak, the less coherent he became.
Helene giggled to herself, thinking he was cute when he got flustered like this. This was a great opportunity to tease him.
“And what about Dr. Anderson? You were jealous of him, weren’t you?”
“No,” Carlisle answered bluntly.
He said it so emotionlessly that Helene was once again at a loss.
Breaking the silence, he continued. “Don’t get me wrong, this has nothing to do with him. What happened this morning had everything to do with my grandpa. That’s why I lost control. If you really like that doctor, I don’t even mind if you start spending time with him. Just don’t leave Grandpa behind again.”
Helene’s face turned pale in an instant. So did he forgive her or not? Or was this just another huge misunderstanding?
She wanted to explain herself, but then, the image of that photo she saw this morning flashed across her mind once
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more. Swallowing her words, she knew it was best not to say anything else. This man hadn’t moved on yet. He didn’t have room for her in his heart, so what was the use of saying anything else?
Carlisle deliberately slowed his stride as he turned to leave, but even then, not a word came out of Helene. The silence left his heart feeling empty.
For several days in a row, Helene stayed with Carlisle’s grandfather during the day and accompanied her grandmother at night. And Carlisle seemed to deliberately avoid her whenever the two were nearby, timing his visits to his grandfather’s ward exactly when she left.
Just like that, it was the day of her grandmother’s surgery.
The operation was scheduled for 3:00 PM, and Niall would be the primary surgeon.
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