Chapter 53 Neither Seek Death Nor Find Life
Katie was Daniel's illegitimate daughter, who had been living abroad in foster care. He'd never mentioned this to anyone.
Now that Zachary had found Katie, it was no longer a secret. That person would find out sooner or later.
Daniel didn't know Zachary's methods, but he'd witnessed what that person was capable of. So even if it cost him his worthless life, he had to keep his mouth shut.
Zachary's handsome face was shrouded in intense malice, his thin lips pressed into a cold, merciless line.
"If you can't say it, then write it." He gave the order and walked back to the sofa with his long strides, settling into the shadows.
That overwhelming sense of oppression radiated outward with him at its center. He sat there with his legs crossed like scissors, stabbing straight into Daniel's heart and lungs. But Daniel could neither seek death nor find life.
Lucas threw paper and pen at Daniel, loosening the bindings on his hands while still gripping the back of his neck. His voice was terrifyingly low.
"Mr. Jennings just wants to find that person. You're being stubborn, wanting to be a scapegoat—do you think he'll spare your daughter? Tell us who it is, and Mr. Jennings will not only keep your daughter safe but reunite you both. Write it or don't—think it over carefully. Cross Mr. Jennings, and you and your daughter will only meet again in hell."
Lucas finished speaking and released his grip. Daniel's head dropped straight toward the concrete floor.
The room fell completely silent, without a sound. Zachary leaned back in the sofa, spine straight, expression grim. One hand rested on the armrest, veins bulging and snaking along his fingers.
Daniel crouched like an ostrich with his face pressed to the ground, motionless as if frozen. Lucas's fists clenched tight, his sharp eyes fixed on Daniel.
Waiting was the hardest part—this was psychological warfare. One wrong move and everything would be lost.
Time crawled by minute by minute. After about ten minutes, Zachary suddenly stood up. The silence in the room shattered.
He walked toward the door with quick steps, creating a hurricane that swept through Daniel's heart. Lucas cracked his knuckles menacingly.
Daniel snapped awake and jerked his head up. "I'll write! I'll write! I'll write!"
Zachary's footsteps stopped at the door, but he didn't turn around. Daniel frantically grabbed the pen and scrawled a single word on the paper: Davis.
"Mr. Jennings, you keep your word." Lucas snatched the paper and handed it to Zachary.
He glanced at it once, his expression unchanged, then continued walking with heavy, thunderous steps.
The taxi Quinley was riding in broke down two kilometers from the hospital during rush hour traffic. The driver had a hot temper, pounding the steering wheel and cursing.
Quinley had a headache and didn't want to wait or listen to his complaints. She gave the driver an extra hundred yuan, opened the door, and left.
The walk took nearly half an hour. By the time she reached the inpatient building, it was almost 9:30.
Quinley brought breakfast to Dennis's room, but he wasn't there. A nurse informed her that he'd been taken for a lung CT scan half an hour earlier.
Quinley left the breakfast and took the elevator up to bring the remaining food to Colin. However, when the elevator doors opened, she was stunned.
The hallway was bustling with people crowding around to watch some commotion.
"Excuse me, let me through." Quinley squeezed through the crowd, moving forward. The closer she got, the louder the noise became.
"Hand over that person! If you don't hand her over today, none of you will live!" A shrill female voice came from Colin's room. Quinley faintly heard crying—a familiar sound.
The doorway was surrounded by layers of onlookers. Quinley pushed through with the breakfast in hand.
Someone shouted, "That bitch is here!" Before Quinley could react, a hand from behind shoved her hard. She stumbled forward and fell.
The breakfast she'd bought for Colin scattered across the floor.
"You fucking whore, may you die a horrible death!" Before Quinley could get up, a hefty middle-aged woman grabbed her hair, cursing viciously.
Quinley's knees hit the ground hard, and she couldn't get up immediately. She looked up at this strange woman with a grotesquely plastic-surgeried face—she didn't recognize her.
Though Quinley was at a disadvantage and looked disheveled, her face remained calm.
"Ma'am, is there some misunderstanding between us?"
"Misunderstanding? You fucking seduced my husband and nearly killed him, and you call it a misunderstanding?" The woman was crude, and not satisfied with just cursing, she raised her hand to slap Quinley.
Quinley wasn't prepared and took the hit. She understood now—this was Mike's wife, here to settle scores.
After hitting Quinley, Marlee was terrified. She suddenly rushed over and grabbed the woman's arm tightly. She was a gentle person who hadn't experienced much hardship and always cried when things went wrong.
Now she dropped to her knees before the woman with a thud, looking up with a tear-streaked face, pleading for Quinley. "Hit me instead. I deserve to die—I didn't raise my daughter properly."
"Mom, it's not what she says. Why are you kneeling to her? Get up!" Quinley couldn't move but sternly urged Marlee to stop.
But Marlee was already terrified, wanting only to make peace. "It's my fault, I deserve to die!" She raised her hand and began hitting her own face.
Colin on the hospital bed became uncontrollably agitated, constantly hitting the bed rail with one hand. He cried out in distress as his blood pressure spiked.
No one stepped forward to stop it. Most watched coldly, and some even kicked her while she was down.
"Bitch, serves you right!"
"Fucking whore, you deserve to die!"
"Mom, stop it." Quinley's eyes were bloodshot as she struggled to stop Marlee from hurting herself.
The woman dragged Quinley away by her hair, pulling her out of the room with surprising strength.
"Everyone look closely—this is the vixen who seduced my husband and tried to climb the social ladder. When that didn't work, she tried to rob and murder him. My husband is still in the ICU, barely alive. Tell me, doesn't she deserve to die?"
Quinley had never been humiliated like this. She looked up with nowhere to hide, passively receiving hostility from all directions.
"Go die, you bitch!" These people didn't know her or understand her conflict with Mike. They were stirred up by this woman's emotions and blindly hurled abuse.
Quinley became like a rat crossing the street that everyone wanted to beat.
Just as the voices reached a crescendo, a clear, powerful voice rang out from the other end of the hallway.
"Who has the nerve to cause trouble on my turf?"
Before the words finished, David appeared through the crowd in front of Quinley. He wore his white coat, looking tall and handsome, though his eyes harbored murderous intent.
He strode over quickly and grabbed the woman's wrist. "Ow, ow, ow..." The woman's face contorted in pain as her fingers loosened, freeing Quinley.
Quinley immediately ran into the room and hugged Marlee tightly. "Mom."
Marlee cried, and tears welled up in Quinley's eyes too. Trouble shouldn't involve family, but the other party was deliberately stabbing at her heart.
Outside, David tightened his grip on the woman's wrist and swept his narrow eyes over the crowd of onlookers, his voice neither light nor heavy.
"Enjoying the show this much? Don't want medical treatment anymore?"
David was a specialist the hospital had brought in for difficult cases. These people fought to get appointments with him—they wouldn't dare offend him over someone else's drama.
The sound of room doors closing one after another echoed through the hallway, and the corridor instantly emptied.
Mike's wife had come here to cause a scene, originally wanting to make it as big as possible. But David's appearance ruined her plan.
Not knowing her place, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "Someone help! The doctor's hitting me!"
She shouted enthusiastically while David didn't stop her, letting her continue. Then the elevator doors opened and security guards rushed out.