Darryl didn"t dare to waste time.When the mysterious girl left, he went to chase the culprit again, trailing off the direction that the girl pointed into. And the girl was right, the man did go that way. It didn"t take long for Darryl to feel his presence again and saw his silhouette rummaging around the forest, finding his way out.
Soon enough, while still chasing the man, Darryl noticed that they were heading into an empty cemented road. They were almost out of the forest, but the Lagdameo heir was determined to catch him again and was almost about to, if not because of the car that suddenly appeared in the road, almost hitting him!
"Christ!" He cursed, when he realized that he lost the man again by saving himself from the hit. He looked at the car, but the headlights blinded him, so he stepped back at the side of the road.
"Dee?" Someone called him from the driver"s seat. The voice was familiar and upon hearing it, Darryl"s face grimaced.
Soon the car"s headlights were turned low and only then did Darryl realize that the car that almost hit him was a familiar one.
"Dee…" The girl called again and realizing who it was, Darryl was in shock.
"Dian?" He asked worriedly and immediately took few steps forward then bent on the driver"s seat to face his sister "What are you doing here?"
"I was worried about you, so I followed you" She confessed "Also I have a very important matter to tell you"
"You shouldn"t have come —"
"The man that you are chasing…" She cut him off and breath deep before continuing "He was one of uncle Franco"s men"
"What are you talking about?" The revelation twisted something in Darryl"s stomach. He asked again hoping he heard the thing wrong.
"I know that man" She said, and her face displayed an anxious look. She was scared and didn"t know how to tell the things she knew about to her brother without breaking his heart.
"Dian—"
"Please Dee…" She begged almost ready to cry "I"m sorry, I"m sorry…I should have told you sooner"
"Told me what?" Darryl asked confused. He was having hard time taking in everything that his sister had said, but judging from the way things were tonight, she seemed to have known a couple of things. Did his father charge his uncle to hurt Xhemin?
"It"s father" She confessed as tears started to fall from her eyes. She broke into tears relentlessly "He had uncle Franco sort out a way to hurt the youngest Montreal and now... and now…Xhemin…."
"Dian, father will never hurt—"
"No, you don"t understand Dee…" She insisted, "Father had always been like this. He"s a greedy man. Trust me, I knew this for long"
Darryl couldn"t do nothing but watched Dian cry in an empty road. He himself didn"t knew how to take in the things she had said. He knew his father was stiff and a bit greedy for power but not to the extent of hurting other people just to get what he wanted. For long, he had believed his father still had some sense of humanity with him—not capable of hurting innocent people for the sake of L Empire"s name. However, Dian"s confession made him realize he was wrong.
Looked like the Diamond Prince was right all along.
***
Ziggy was on the ambulance with Huzey and G.o.d knew how he was almost cracking up in fear of the prince"s life. He didn"t have any news about Xhemin and the things that happened tonight had almost killed all the sanity he had. How can he have lost two love ones in just one single blow?
How did this thing happen that easily?
Was he to blame? Was it because of the sc.r.a.pe he had done during the masquerade party?
His thoughts were almost exploding because of too many questions came popping in his head endlessly. However, knowing that he had to save Huzey tonight was making him composed. He must not in anyway give up, or he won"t be of help.
Huzey will be brought the Hamps.h.i.+re hospital, and Dr. Dugmoch was there waiting for him to conduct and operation on the prince as soon as possible.
"Please be alright…" Ziggy said as he looked at his best friend, lying unconscious in the ambulance. He had already informed Senior Hans that Huzey was already found. The old man had a panic attack because of his grandson"s disappearance and Ziggy had to charge someone to bring him home to rest, promising the latter that he will do his best to find Huzey.
Ziggy reached out for Huzey"s hand to make the later feel that he was just around and that no matter what, he will always be at his side. Huzey was like a brother to him, they were raised together by Dr. Miles as siblings and he had proved to be more of a family to him—than of his own blood. He can"t lose him this way.
While pressing Huzey"s hands tight, Ziggy noticed than a thin strand of hair that was caught on Huzey"s hands. He slowly pulled it, making sure he will not break the thing and he realized that the hair was a bit long, more like of a woman"s hair.
"Must be Xhemin"s hair" He thought to himself.
Knowing Huzey and Xhemin were together when the incident happened, he concluded that the single strand of hair belonged to the latter. However, the ambulance"s light seemed to have caught something unusual when Ziggy tried to scrutinize the strand. The single strand glowed indifferently when put in straight leveling the light, making Ziggy realized that the hair didn"t belong to Xhemin.
"Red…" His eyes squinted at the thing, making sure he caught the glow correctly. But no matter how many times he tried, the glow remained the same "Red…hmmmm…who among the guests had red hair?"
The thought got Ziggy thinking and he looked at Huzey, confused. He didn"t see the prince dance with any red-haired guest, he wasn"t even sure if someone they red haired person in the guest"s list. Also, Xhemin had black hair, so the strand of course didn"t belong to her.
But where did the prince got this?
It got tangled up in Huzey"s fingers, so it meant he had close contact with such person.
But who could that person be?
Ziggy was troubled with the thing, making him not realized that the ambulance had already came to a full stop and that they had reached the hospital. The ambulance door opened immediately, making Ziggy almost jumped in surprise.
"Young sire what are you doing?" A once familiar voice called upon him. "Hurry now"
"Sam?" the girl"s presence came in as a double surprise for him. How come the girl was here?
"Oh please…" Sam seeing Ziggy"s disordered statute chew out on him "We don"t have time for greetings"
Sam instructed the nurses that went with her, totally ignoring Ziggy"s presence. She thought Ziggy was a little bit disoriented and wasn"t capable of thinking straight at the moment "…Please take the patient in. Dr. Dugmoch is waiting for him"
It only took few minutes when Huzey"s body was discharged from the ambulance and Ziggy followed behind him. Dr. Dugmoch had admission orders for Huzey to be operated on and so he will go to personally attend on him while the nurses where preparing him for the operation. He walked pa.s.sed through Sam and went straight to the emergency, occupying himself with Huzey"s ordeal.
"Young sire" Sam called on his attention.
"Sam can"t you see I"m busy?" He answered without sparing her a glance. "Go and station yourself somewhere and do not disturbed me. Don"t worry I"m not leaving anywhere tonight in this hospital; you don"t need to watch over me closely.
Ziggy thought that perhaps what happened to Huzey and Xhemin had reached his father"s ears already and that probably was the reason why Zanghlou Montreal, had to send Sam again to watch over him. Now, the threat in his life was becoming more imminent knowing that two of his very close friends were badly hurt, so his father had all the reasons to make sure he was secure.
"You need to change now" She told him in calm smooth tone, but to Ziggy, she was sounding a little too bossy.
"Sam…. Again…" He turned to face his bratty bodyguard, halting the things he was doing for a moment and went to look straight at her green roguish eyes. "…do not disturbed me"
Sam s.h.i.+vered with the way Ziggy looked at her and she instantly look away, withdrawing her eyes from his gaze. Ziggy was so serious, and his stone-faced look wasn"t exactly the face of the young sire Sam used to know. Perhaps, what happened tonight had changed something in him.
Ziggy noticed Sam"s hesitation and indifference. She had never once looked away from him and as much as he wanted to ask her what went wrong, he was far to occupied to waste his time on her.
"You need to change into an operating gown" She said telling Ziggy straightly her reasons "Dr. Dugmoch wanted you to be in the operating room with him"
"What?" Sam"s words caught Ziggy off guard. Too many surprises for one just one night!
Ziggy hadn"t graduated from Rivendell yet, so his training didn"t include being in an actual operating room. Dr. Dugmoch thought he needed to learn a couple of things more before he will be ready to be an apprentice in an operation.
"He told me to tell you personally" Sam shrugged and walked away but before she dismissed herself completely away from his sight, she kind of drew back to tell another thing she missed "He said you should hurry"
Sam"s last words broke Ziggy"s surprised state and instead of asking further, he hurried and made himself ready for Huzey"s operation.
He didn"t quite imagine his first operation will be on Huzey.
He was having a little panic attack inside, but knowing that he was in the hospital and was charge of a serious task, he composed himself fully.
Now is his time to prove his worth in the field he chose.
Now is his time to save Huzey.
His time to save a life.