Chapter 156: There Will Be Nowhere Left to Run

Adrian's POV

The ambulance speed through the empty road, its siren piercing through the quiet night. I sit beside Hazel without taking my eyes off her.

I tap my foot against the ground anxiously. No matter how much I try to steady my breath, my lungs only contract painfully.

The oxygen mask covered almost half of her tiny face. Every few seconds, one of the paramedics checked her pulse before adjusting the monitor attached to her chest.

I couldn't hear what they were saying neither could I hear the siren anymore as everything fades into the background.

All I can hear is my own heartbeat. Too loud and too fast. As for my chest, it continues tightening.

I reached for Hazel's tiny hand. It was cold. Far colder than it should be.

It feels surreal that I finally get to be close to my child. After months of scheming and fighting, I get to hold her.

However, I can't ignore how much she has changed.

My throat tightens. This wasn't how I imagined holding my daughter again.

For weeks, I had dreamed about this moment. I imagined her laughing and calling me Daddy. Stretching her tiny arms towards me.

Never, not once did I imagine seeing her unconscious. Her little body barely moving beneath the white blanket.

She looked so fragile as though the slightest touch would break her. The realization hit me harder than before.

She had lost so much weight. Her cheeks had become thinner. The healthy glow she once had was gone. Even her tiny fingers looked smaller.

My baby...

What had she gone through? How many nights had she cried herself to sleep?

How many times had she looked around for me? How many times had she been scared?

I lowered my head. The tears came again. No matter how many times I wiped them away, they refused to stop.

"I'm sorry." The words barely left my mouth. "I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner."

I kissed the back of her hand carefully. "If I had been faster," my voice crack. "...none of this would have happened."

The paramedic beside me look away. Perhaps he simply didn't know what to say but there's nothing anyone could say.

Nothing.

The ambulance doors burst open the moment they arrive.

"Two-year-old female!"

"Smoke inhalation!"

"Unconscious!"

"Possible respiratory distress!"

Doctors and nurses immediately surrounded Hazel. Someone gently pushed me aside.

"We need room."

"No..."

I instinctively reach for her. "I'll stay."

"You can't."

I grit my teeth and ball my hands until my knuckles turn white. "I said I'll stay!"

Two nurses stopped me before I could follow the stretcher into the emergency room and the doors slam shut. Leaving me outside.

My legs suddenly become weak.

I slowly slide down the wall until I'm sitting on the cold floor.

Another ambulance arrives shortly afterward. The nanny. Her condition looked even worse.

Half of her body had been burned. Her breathing sounded shallow.bDoctors rush her into another emergency room without wasting a second.

As they disappear down the hallway, one sentence echoed inside my head.

Even though she wanted something from me, she could have abandoned Hazel.

She could have run and save herself, but she didn't.

I shut my eyes tightly.

"I owe you..." The words came out as a whisper. "I owe you everything."

Time stop making sense. Minutes feels like hours and hours feel like days.

Killian sit beside me without saying a word. Reynolds stands quietly near the window and Jim had gone outside to coordinate with the police.

Nobody tries to comfort me. They know better. Some pains can't be comforted.

They simply have to be endured. The emergency room doors finally opened making me jump to my feet.

"Doctor?"

The elderly doctor removes his gloves. His expression remained serious. "Mr. Ashford?"

"How is she?"

He sighed softly. "Your daughter is alive."

The air rushed back into my lungs.

For a brief second, I thought my knees would give way.

"But..." The word snatch away my relief in an instant. "The smoke affected her lungs."

My chest tightens again. "Children are far more vulnerable to smoke inhalation than adults."

He looked toward Hazel's room before continuing. "Thankfully," he paused. "...the woman taking care of her did an excellent job."

I frown. "What do you mean?"

"If she hadn't kept moving the child away from the heavier smoke and if she hadn't covered her mouth repeatedly with wet fabric..." The doctor shakes his head.

"...your daughter wouldn't have survived long enough to get here."

My eyes slowly closed.

Georgia.

Even while fighting for her own life, she had still protected Hazel. The guilt became unbearable.

"So will Hazel be okay?"

"She's stable." The doctor hesitated. "But the smoke is already inside her respiratory system."

"It will take time, since she's still very young. Her lungs need to recover naturally. So she'll remain under close observation."

I nodded absentmindedly. "Can I see her? Even for a few minutes."

"Yeah, sure."

Nothing prepared me for the sight waiting inside. Hazel looked even smaller lying on the hospital bed.

Machines surround her from every side. The steady beeping filled the room. The oxygen mask still covers her face. An IV line disappears beneath the blanket.

I slowly walk closer. Every step felt heavier. By the time I reached the bedside, my vision has already become blurry.

I gently brush her hair away from her forehead. She didn't react. No tiny fingers wrapping around mine.

Carefully, I sit beside the bed. That's when I notice that her wrist as become thin.

Pain stab straight through my chest. "What..." The words refused to come out. "What did she do to you?" I whisper.

My thumb gently caress the back of her hand. It barely felt real. How could a child lose so much weight in only a few weeks.

How hungry had she been? How frightened? Did she think I abandoned her?

The thought alone shatter what little strength I had left. I lower my forehead onto the edge of the bed.

My shoulders starts shaking. "I'm here now." My voice broke completely. "I'm here. You don't have to be scared anymore. I'm sorry Daddy came late."

"I'm so..."

"So sorry."

For several minutes, I simply cried quietly.

An hour later, when I finally stepped outside, the tears had stopped.

Not because the pain disappeared. But because something else had replaced it.

Pure and unfiltered hatred.

I stared through the hospital window into the darkness outside.

Camille.

Even thinking about her name made my jaw tighten. Everything she touched became destruction.

She almost took Hazel away from me forever. I clench my jaw.

There will be no forgiveness.

She has crossed the one line that should never have been crossed.

My daughter.

Killian quietly approached. "Adrian..."

I didn't look at him. "I'll find her."

My voice sounds strangely calm. Calmer than I feel.

"I don't care where she runs or who protects her." I frown. "Nor do I don't care how long it takes."

I finally turned toward him. My eyes burn with a resolve I have never felt before.

"I'll tear down every safe house."

"I'll destroy every business."

"I'll burn every bridge she's hiding behind."

I looked back toward Hazel's room.

Then speak the words slowly. "So long as I'm alive, I'll hunt Camille no matter where she goes, I'll find her and this time..."

"There will be nowhere left for her to run."