Chapter 51
Emily's phone almost slipped to the ground, her face full of shock. "Mr. McCoy was beaten? What happened? Where is he now?"
Lily's sobbing voice came through from the other end. "Mr. McCoy is at the hospital now. You need to come quickly. He's in really bad shape. The doctor rushed him straight into emergency treatment without saying a word. I'm really worried about Mr. McCoy."
"Okay, okay, I'll be right there."
Emily nodded repeatedly.
But after hanging up, she suddenly froze. She needed to go to the hospital now? What about the kids?
A lot had happened these past few days, and Emily hadn't been able to take good care of them, which made her feel very guilty.
Today she had planned to have a nice meal together, and now it was suddenly interrupted. Emily felt even worse.
"Mommy, what's wrong?" Nina keenly noticed something was off with Emily. The other two children also looked at her curiously.
"Mommy, do you have something you need to take care of?"
Oscar was the first to ask, then quickly smiled. "Mommy, if you really have something urgent, just go. We can take care of ourselves."
The children were very understanding. Even Aiden nodded along.
But the more they acted this way, the more guilty Emily felt.
The children's eyes had been so bright just moments ago, and now they had dimmed.
But Emily wasn't comfortable leaving them home alone either. What if something really happened?
Emily had no choice but to knock on her neighbor Orla's door.
Usually, when Emily wasn't around, Orla would occasionally help watch the kids. Today she had to trouble her once again.
Emily explained the situation, and Orla, being the helpful person she was, agreed right away. "You go ahead, I've got this."
"Thank you." Emily was extremely grateful.
"I'm sorry, babies."
Emily crouched down and hugged each child one by one, letting out a long sigh. "Today I've let you down, but don't worry. Once I handle this, I'll definitely make it up to you."
"Okay, Mommy."
The children nodded obediently, without any disappointment or blame in their eyes.
Only then did Emily rush to the hospital.
Rodolfo had always been good to her. Nominally her teacher, he actually cared for her like a daughter. Now that Rodolfo was in trouble, how could she not be anxious?
When Emily was going through her most difficult time, Rodolfo had extended a helping hand, even advancing her salary to help her get through it. On the way there, just thinking about these things made Emily cry.
At this moment, outside the emergency room at the hospital, Lily was pacing back and forth nervously, very worried.
Seeing Emily arrive, her eyes lit up, and she quickly went to meet her. "Emily, you're finally here. I've been so worried!"
"How is Mr. McCoy?" Emily asked urgently, still catching her breath.
Lily pointed at the emergency room doors. "Mr. McCoy is still being treated in there. The doctor hasn't come out or said anything about his condition. I'm so worried!"
"It's okay, don't worry. He'll be fine." Emily quickly tried to comfort her. "Mr. McCoy has always been kind-hearted. Don't they say good people get good karma? He'll definitely be okay."
Emily breathed a slight sigh of relief. Sometimes, no news was good news.
"Lily, what exactly happened? Tell me quickly." Emily was too anxious to sit or stand still, and pressed for answers.
Only then did Lily explain what happened. "Actually, I don't really know how it happened either. When I got there, Mr. McCoy was already unconscious."
"Unconscious?"
Emily's brow furrowed. "You're not joking, are you? How is that possible?"
Lily nodded. "That's really what happened."
Then she described the sequence of events.
This afternoon, Rodolfo had asked her to take care of something else, so Lily wasn't at the funeral home. When she returned, she couldn't find him anywhere. She went inside and discovered Rodolfo lying in a pool of blood, barely breathing.
This scared Lily terribly. She quickly went to help Rodolfo up and asked him what had happened.
But Rodolfo was barely breathing and couldn't speak clearly, so Lily immediately called for an ambulance and had him sent to the hospital.
"That's the whole story."
Lily said softly. "As for who beat up Mr. McCoy, I really don't know. And I checked the security footage - it had been deliberately destroyed."
"I think those people must be really brazen, otherwise they wouldn't do something so heartless."
Emily clenched her fists in anger.
This was too much! What kind of grudge would make someone do this? It was outrageous!
Rodolfo was a very gentle person who always treated people kindly and had never fought with anyone. Now he had suffered this disaster - what was going on?
"Lily, did you call the police?"
Lily nodded. "I already called the police. They went to the scene to collect evidence. I think they should be here soon."
Just as he finished speaking, two police officers walked over. Seeing Emily, they asked about her identity.
"I'm Mr. McCoy's student."
Emily said softly. "Although I'm Mr. McCoy's student, he's been very good to me. You can share any updates with me."
Earlier, Lily had told Emily that even though such a serious incident had occurred, she hadn't yet informed Rodolfo's family.
She didn't dare say anything. Although it couldn't be hidden, it was already the middle of the night, and alarming the family at this time wouldn't be good.
Besides, the doctor hadn't issued a critical condition notice, and the police didn't have any solid evidence or results yet. They could only wait and see.
An older police officer opened his notebook and said softly, "We've completed the on-site evidence collection and are reviewing surveillance footage from the area. The surveillance inside the funeral home was deliberately destroyed, but there should be traces left nearby. However..."
He paused, looking somewhat troubled. "Based on preliminary judgment, this appears to be an ordinary case of causing trouble. Those troublemakers might have prior records, otherwise they wouldn't be so brazen."
"If I'm not mistaken, they're probably local thugs."
"Local thugs?" Emily's voice rose involuntarily. "Sir, Mr. McCoy has always been friendly to everyone. Now he's been beaten so badly he's in the emergency room, and you're just brushing this off as 'local thugs'?"
"These people clearly targeted him deliberately. Maybe they were causing trouble on purpose, or maybe they were hired muscle sent by someone else."
The officer sighed. "We'll assess Mr. McCoy's injuries, but from what we can see, the attackers were very measured in their assault - it barely constitutes serious injury. That's why we think the victim might have had a dispute with someone, and they came specifically for revenge."
"Impossible!" Emily immediately denied it. "I know exactly what kind of person Mr. McCoy is. What you're suggesting simply doesn't make sense. I don't believe it."