Chapter 102: The Bank Card is Frozen
The moment the call connected, Charles's familiar warm voice came through the receiver.
"Hello? Ms. Martinez?"
Cecilia leaned against the cold wall, trying hard to keep her voice from trembling.
"Mr. Smith, it's me."
"It's so late. Is something wrong?" Charles's concern came instantly, traveling through the line to her ears.
That pure kindness felt like a burning brand at this moment, searing her heart with pain.
"My father is critically ill at Lifeline Health Services. He urgently needs money for surgery." She used every ounce of strength to get the complete sentence out. "I was wondering if I could borrow money from you."
There was a brief silence on the other end.
Cecilia's heart sank.
She almost thought he would refuse.
"How much do you need?" But Charles spoke again, without any hesitation, getting straight to the point.
Cecilia's defenses crumbled instantly at his directness, tears streaming down her face.
"Five hundred thousand dollars."
"Okay." His response was quick and decisive. "I'll come right away. Wait for me at the hospital entrance."
After hanging up, Cecilia slid down the wall powerlessly, burying her face deep in her arms, suppressed sobs escaping from her throat. The last card she wanted to play, the last person she wanted to drag into this—Charles—she had ultimately pulled him into this mess with her own hands.
Fifteen minutes later, an ordinary family car pulled up at the hospital entrance.
Charles quickly got out of the car. He was still wearing his daytime shirt with just a jacket thrown over it, clearly having rushed over.
"How is he?" He walked up to Cecilia and asked with concern.
Cecilia shook her head, her voice still heavy with congestion: "Still in the observation room. Not good. He needs surgery immediately."
Charles looked at her, at her swollen red eyes and bloodless face. For a moment, his expression became distant, as if through her, he saw another person long gone.
That same stubborn Cecilia who never easily bowed her head.
The trance lasted only a second before he snapped back and took out a bank card from his pocket.
"There's five hundred thousand dollars in here. The password is Cecilia's birthday."
Cecilia's body shook violently.
Her birthday.
Charles hadn't even treated her as a stranger to be wary of, so easily lending her $500,000, along with that password that belonged only to him and Cecilia, placing it all in her hands.
"This is too much." Cecilia's throat tightened.
"Saving a life is what matters." Charles pressed the card into her hand, not allowing her to refuse. "If she were still alive and saw you running around for your father, she would definitely do everything to help you too."
Once again, he mentioned Cecilia.
Cecilia felt her heart being squeezed by an invisible hand, both sour and swollen. Charles's heavy kindness was almost crushing her.
"Mr. Smith, I will definitely pay this money back." She fumbled in her pocket for a pen and the back of a payment slip, crouched down, using her knee as a desk, and quickly wrote out an IOU.
The handwriting was somewhat crooked from her shaking hands, but every sentence was crystal clear.
"I will calculate interest on the $500,000 loan at the highest bank rate. I promise to repay both principal and interest within one year."
She stood up and solemnly handed him that crude IOU.
Charles looked at the paper, then at her persistent and stubborn eyes, and finally accepted it, carefully folding it and putting it in his pocket.
"Go save him first." He said softly, not dwelling on the matter further.
Cecilia nodded heavily and ran toward the inpatient building.
She didn't notice that in the shadows across the street, a black limited-edition car was parked quietly, its window half-lowered.
Rufus sat in the back seat, expressionlessly watching everything happening at the hospital entrance.
He watched her ask Charles for help, watched her accept the bank card, watched her bow her head to write the IOU.
Throughout it all, she never once looked at her phone again, never sent him a message or made a call.
She would rather humbly ask Charles than accept Rufus's readily available help.
Rufus's hand on his knee curled inward, finger by finger, his knuckles making faint sounds from the force.
A rage at being completely ignored and betrayed, mixed with intense jealousy, burned wildly in Rufus's chest, almost incinerating his reason.
So her so-called pride was only directed at him alone.
Very good!
Just wonderful!
Rufus picked up his phone and called Louis.
"Check all of Charles's bank accounts." His voice was calm but carried an ominous gloom. "I don't want to see any funds available to move under his name before dawn tomorrow."
"Yes, Mr. Chapman."
Rufus hung up, casually tossed the phone aside, then turned his gaze back to the slender figure disappearing into the hospital building.
He leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, but slowly curved his lips into a cold and cruel smile.
He wanted to see.
Without Charles, where else could she get the life-saving money.
Rufus wanted to see if, when she was desperate, when that so-called Robert's life hung by a thread, she would kneel down and beg him, Rufus.
---
The next morning.
Cecilia hadn't slept all night, keeping watch outside her father's room.
Just after dawn, the director of cardiac surgery found her with a serious expression.
"Ms. Martinez, the patient's condition can't wait any longer. All indicators are declining. Surgery must be performed this morning."
"Okay, I'll go pay right away!" Cecilia immediately nodded, grabbed the card Charles had given her, and rushed to the payment counter.
While waiting in line, her heart kept racing, both with relief at the imminent rescue and confusion about the future.
Five hundred thousand dollars—how could she possibly pay it back within a year?
"Next, Amelia."
Finally her turn, Cecilia took a deep breath and passed the bank card and admission form through the window together.
"Hello, I'm here to pay for surgery."
The cashier took the card and swiped it on the machine, then frowned.
She tried again, but it still didn't work.
"Miss, there's a problem with your card." The cashier pushed the card back out. "It shows as frozen. The money can't be withdrawn."
"What?"
Cecilia's mind went blank.
"That's impossible!" She grabbed the card, anxiously explaining, "Try again, maybe the machine is broken? There's definitely money in there!"
"We process hundreds or thousands of transactions every day. How could the machine be broken?" The cashier was getting impatient. "Call the bank yourself. Don't hold up the people behind you."
Cecilia was pushed aside by those waiting in line behind her. She stumbled to steady herself, her hands and feet ice cold.
How could it be frozen?
Could something have happened?