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Chapter 31

The news of Cherry Lin\'s arrest was all over the media, and it didn\'t escape Angel\'s ears. Murder? How could it be murder? Her mother wasn\'t capable of murder. It was due to organ failure that Emerald Krisnov died!

Without a second waste, she rushed into the police department without even bothering to hide her face.

Media and people were crowding the police department\'s entrance, but Angel didn\'t mind as she shoved herself to the front. Her eyes didn\'t see anything except forward. Her mind didn\'t register anything but to see her mother.

At the front, she saw Cherry Lin escorted by police out of the van and into the building\'s entrance.

"Mother . . . ," she meant it as a shout, but it came out as a whisper.

And it was like Cherry Lin heard only her voice among the rioting of noise. She glanced towards Angel and her eyes reddened in an instant. Her chin quivered, and she bit her lips as she blinked away the tears.

Cherry\'s gesture gave Angel the strength and courage to moved past the barricade. She zoomed into her mother, not caring for anything else.

"Mo––"

"It\'s all your fault!"

The outrage. The outburst. The hate from Cherry\'s voice and the anger on her face stopped Angel\'s world.

All the attention turned to Angel, and it was like fireworks how the camera flashes and disco sounds how it sounded from the buzzing of voices.

"It\'s your fault! Because of you! Because I have to take care of you! If not because of you, I wouldn\'t have to resort to such means! It\'s all your fault! You god damn bastard\'s child! I should have never taken you in!"

Angel\'s head was spinning, and it felt like she would vomit at any second. What was her mother saying?

"Moth––"

"Get out! Get out of my sight!" Cherry\'s outburst and her struggling made the police hurried their actions and took her inside the building.

Angel could no longer think. She didn\'t know what was more shocking. Her mother murdered someone or that she was pushing her away. Her body just ran in the direction where her mother was dragged. But a hand on her wrist stopped her.

"Angel! Don\'t! Let it go!"

Angel didn\'t register whose voice was that and whose hand pulled her back. She became deaf with shock. She didn\'t even realize that she was pulled into a car. She didn\'t know how it happened nor care about it.

"Angel? Angel?"

The gentle voice calling her name cracked the walls of her shock. Looking up, she saw Aldrick\'s face, and she broke down in his embrace.

  ----

Swollen eyes on the floor, Angel was in a daze. The cup of hot milk in her hands kept her limbs from turning cold. It was like summer turned to winter, and her body froze in ice.

  "Are you okay?" Aldrick wanted to hit himself the moment the words came out from his lips. Of course, she was not okay.

Angel didn\'t respond.

Looking at her sitting on his couch, lifeless, he sighed and went on his knees. He cupped her face and looked her in the eyes.

"You do know that the only reason Aunt Cherry pushed you away is because she wanted to protect you, right? You calling her mom wouldn\'t do anyone good. She did that to protect you so the public wouldn\'t criticize you."

Angel\'s dull eyes gradually returned to their color. She looked at Aldrick and whispered, "Y-you . . . you knew?"

"Well . . . I had my investigation."

Angel smiled that was more like a sigh. "Are you going to blackmail me now? Like I did to you? You probably think that I deserve this for what I did."

". . ."

It was silent for a whole minute as they stared each other in the eyes.

Aldrick took a deep breath. "I won\'t do that. Because despite everything that you did . . ."

He wiped Angel\'s tears and smiled. "I\'m still crazily in love with you."

Aldrick\'s head then tilted to the side as he grinned. "And despite everything else. I\'m a good guy and a nice catch. And I\'m still wondering up till now . . . why haven\'t you fallen for me yet?"

". . ."

Amidst the tears and blurs, Angel laughed. A laugh that contained so many emotions as she wiped her tears away.

"You\'ll regret loving an evil woman like me. You\'ll just get used again."

"What a coincidence. I\'m a nice man who doesn\'t mind being used by you."

Angel just looked at Aldrick. The sincerity and overwhelming love in his eye scared her. But at the same time, it gave her comfort. Knowing that there was someone she could rely on in these difficult times was comforting. And something like warmth enveloped her entire being.

She sniffled and laugh, but her eyes shot to the floor. For some reason, he couldn\'t look at Aldrick without feeling uncomfortable.

Aldrick held her cheeks and kissed her forehead. "Stay here with me . . . please? You\'re much safer here. And when everything settles down, we\'ll visit your mother. Together."

Angel bit her lips when sobs racked her body.

". . . Mm . . ."

  ----

Chapter 32

A while before Cheery Lin\'s arrest

The moment that Evangeline got out of the café, she called Frederick, her Father\'s secretary. Despite acquiring justice for her mother after so many years, she couldn\'t feel at peace because of what Cherry Lin said about her father.

Robert Krisnov yellowish skin. His sunken eyes and rapid loss of weight. His image at Angel Lin\'s party came into her mind.

"Hello, Miss Heart?"

"Frederick, is Mr. Krisnov there?"

". . . He\'s busy at the moment. Do you want me to inform him that you\'ve called?"

Evangeline didn\'t miss that slight pause and pressed on, "No. I\'ll go there and see him myself. Bye."

"Miss Heart!"

"Yes?"

". . ."

Frederick sighed. "Miss Heart. Mr. Krisnov forbade me from telling you anything but . . . I think you should know . . . Mr. Krisnov is in the hospital for already a month."

"What? Where are you? I\'m coming to you now!"

"Eve?"

Evangeline looked at Eric. Her pale white face and red eyes stopped Eric in his tracks.

"What\'s wrong?" he asked.

Evangeline\'s chin wrinkled as she choked, "My father."

  ----

"Tell me what happened," Evangeline demanded the moment they got in the car with Fredrick.

Frederick sighed before looking at Evangeline. "Where do we start?"

"Start from the beginning, obviously," she said, impatient.

"Right . . . ," Fredrick wiped away his sweat with a hanky. He thought that if he told Evangeline the truth, Mr. Krisnov would kill him. But he thought that in this situation, he had to tell her for the sake of the company.

"Your father is dying," Frederick blurted.

Both Evangeline and Eric were shocked, to say the least. Eventually, Eric\'s grip on Evangeline\'s hand tightened when he felt she was about to wrestle Fredrick down.

"I said . . . ," Evangeline articulated each word, "Start. From. The. Beginning."

Her calm amidst the shaking of her tone and limbs were a surprised to both Eric and Fredrick. They thought that she would shout in hysterics.

Fredrick wiped his sweat yet again. The inside of the car seemed hot and cold at the same time. He was shaking from the cold, but he was sweating buckets.

"Well. You see," Frederick started, didn\'t know where to begin. "As you know. Your father has a lot of enemies. Some business competition, some outside of business, but a lot were inside his very own company. When he disowned you, in front of the public no less, the board eyed his position now that he was left with an heir of barely one-year-old."

"What it got to do with him dying?" Evangeline asked, voice cold, but her raspy tone gave away her emotions.

"We\'ll, occurrences like this are common. Struck with a sudden illness and then died. This happened more than once in their world. But Mr. Krisnov was always careful." Fredrick sighed and slumped on the couch. It seemed that his age doubled in one day.

"But one time, we didn\'t know how or when it happened. Maybe one of the parties he attended. All it took was just a single prick, and the rest was history. Now, he is lying on the hospital bed for more than weeks, and the board is taking over the company," Fredrick narrated as he shook his head.

But Evangeline didn\'t hear any of that. It was like there was ringing in her ears, refusing to hear that her father was dying.

"Can\'t it be cured?" Eric asked after a brief silence.

Fredrick looked at Eric. Who? That was his first thought. Eric had little presence that Fredrick didn\'t even know he was there. His eye then traveled to Eric and Evangeline\'s intertwined hands.

It was no brainier who he was then.

Fredrick arranged his glasses. "It would be wonderful if there is a cure."

"What kind of illness is it?" Eric asked.

Fredrick looked at Eric before his eyes shifted to Evangeline\'s white face.

"HIV."

Evangeline\'s head seemed like it would split. The ringing in her ears was so loud, and the thumping of her heart was so fast it hurts.

"W-what?" her voice was so weak it was barely heard.

"HIV can be suppressed with medications. I heard there are a lot of people with HIV that are living normally until they get old," Eric said, saying it more to Evangeline because any moment now, she seemed she would burst into tears.

"You\'re right," Fredrick agreed, but he didn\'t get Eric\'s intention of comforting Evangeline as he continued, "but there are two people in this world. People who fight till the end and people who succumb to end. Unfortunately, Mr. Krisnov couldn\'t accept his illness and became depressed and frustrated. This contributed to his health. Not to mention that he is already old. Sleepless nights, unable to eat nor take his medication. And now, he is lying in the hospital with severe pneumonia and liver failure. There is also kidney failure. Collapsed lungs. Tubercu––"

"Alright enough," Eric hissed. He then rubbed Evangeline\'s back when her breathing became erratic.

"We don\'t know it yet. Technology nowadays is advance as well as medications. Probably in abroad, they might have a cure," Eric said to Evangeline, voice soothing as his hand gently stroke her back.

Fredrick opened his mouth but closed it again at Eric\'s sharp gaze.