Chapter 215 Ouch Skyler, are you coming out now?
The massive impact of the explosion left Crystal in a temporary daze.
By the time she recovered from the dizziness, she felt a sharp abdominal pain.
The baby seemed to have sensed danger, and Crystal could feel it moving downwards.
I think the baby is coming out prematurely!
“Mom! Miss Willis!” Crystal shouted their names while enduring the pain.
It took a while before she heard a feeble reply from Anna. “Crystal!”
Both Anna and Sandy were injured and covered with blood. Sandy fell unconscious while Anna had a 20- centimeter-long wound on her thigh which was bleeding non-stop.
It was a rather deep wound.
Trapped under heavy debris, Anna was stuck. She looked helplessly at Crystal above her and shouted hoarsely, “Help… someone, please help my daughter!”
However, the entire area was affected by the blast. Everyone was trapped, and nobody could hear her cry for help.
Crystal fell into deep despair.
Her body felt weaker by the minute. She knew she would likely lose the baby if she did not get to the hospital in time.
Where is my phone?
She began to search for her phone while enduring the pain.
She wanted to call Henry as she guessed his flight had not departed.
Crystal finally saw her phone after much effort. It was five steps of stairs below her.
The distance seemed short, but it was too daunting for Crystal. Her body felt like it was crushed into pieces. It hurt so badly that she could not stand up. She could only crouch on the floor and use her hands. to drag herself slowly toward the phone.
Crystal’s belly rubbed against the edges as she moved down the stairs, resulting in excruciating pain.
She writhed in agony whenever she moved a step down. Her body was drenched in sweat, and her face. smeared with dust. Still, she continued to crawl toward the phone.
Only two steps remained, but it took almost all of Crystal’s strength.
Finally, she heaved huge breaths of relief when her fingertips touched the phone. She turned her body. sideways, relieving some pressure off her pregnant belly.
With trembling hands, Crystal searched for her contacts on speed dial.
The first speed dial number was Henry.
The call was connected, but instead of hearing Henry’s voice, she received an automated voice message. “Sorry, the number you dialed is currently unavailable.”
The surroundings seemed to fall into dead silence. All Crystal could hear was the automated voice message repeating itself. “Sorry, the number… unavailable now.”
She hung up the phone without any emotion.
She did not have the luxury to make a fuss about Henry being unable to answer the call. The most pressing matter at that moment was to save her baby and her mother.
Thus, she called her second speed dial number-her Uncle Alfred.
Alfred was in a meeting when he answered the call. He was not aware of the situation in Barnwood then.
Crystal’s body shook with relief when she heard Alfred’s voice. With her remaining strength, she shouted, “Uncle Alfred, save me!”
Alfred froze momentarily upon hearing her words.
He anxiously asked, “Crystal, don’t panic. Tell me what happened?”
Crystal was slowly losing consciousness. Before she fainted and let go of the phone, she mumbled softly, “Explosion… Uncle Alfred…”
Meanwhile, Alfred was tearing up with anguish in the conference room.
His quick-witted secretary had grasped information about the situation and relayed the news to him. “A gas explosion occurred in a high-end residential area in Barnwood. Currently, all roads are blocked, and the situation looks dire!”
With his hand still tightly gripping the phone, Alfred instructed, “Immediately arrange a private jet to Barnwood! Also, mobilize a helicopter into Wheelock residential area as soon as possible. Don’t waste a single second. Do you understand?”
He would not allow another member of the Lodge family to get hurt. Not especially after the death of his sister, Krystal.
Alfred left the conference room with reddened eyes, a sight nobody had seen before..
Alfred rushed to Barnwood. His men had met with David and sent Crystal to the hospital in the quickest
way.
Meanwhile, inside the delivery room, the doctor and nurses were busy preparing the equipment and assessing Crystal’s condition..
“The fetus is in its seventh month. So, this will be a premature birth. However, we can’t perform a C- section on the patient. The baby will have to be delivered naturally. The baby has to depend on its fate to be delivered smoothly. However, Mr. and Mrs. Miller, I’d like to alert you to a possible scenario. The baby’s current condition is not optimal. Hence, the chance of survival after birth is low! In addition, we need to consider the patient’s condition too.”
As the doctor explained the situation to David and Julia outside the operating theatre, they understood his underlying meaning-Crystal would suffer less if they decided not to save the baby.
It would be difficult to imagine the amount of stress Crystal’s already battered body would experience if
they chose to keep the baby.
Alfred managed to catch wind of the doctor’s words as he arrived.
David felt relieved to see him. He needed a second opinion on how to handle Crystal’s situation. Julia and his opinion was to save Crystal first. Although they could not bear to let go of the child, saving the adult. seemed like a better decision.
There was no way they would ask Crystal to sacrifice herself to save the descendent of the Miller family.
David expressed his view to Alfred in a hoarse voice.
As Alfred listened, he scanned everyone present and asked, “Where’s Henry? His wife is in such a serious condition. Why is he not here?”
David punched the wall in anger when he heard Alfred’s question.
He did not know of Henry’s whereabouts until Jamie told him earlier. He felt too ashamed to explain to Alfred.
From David’s reaction, Alfred could guess where Henry was right now. As such, he did not probe further.
His immediate consideration was not to decide which life to save. He was most concerned about his niece, Crystal. Hence, he barged into the delivery room without caring about regulations. He wanted to be there for her physically.
At that moment, Crystal had regained consciousness. She was experiencing labor pains, leaving her drenched in sweat as if she had jumped into a pool.
Alfred bent and placed his face close to hers, offering a kinship comfort that nobody else could replicate. Tears streamed down Crystal’s face as emotions overwhelmed her. “Uncle Alfred!”
Alfred maintained his composure and conveyed the doctor’s words to her.
As Crystal lifted her head to look at the bright surgical lights above her, she placed her slender fingers on her belly. This child has accompanied me for seven months, and we have already thought of the name “Skyler.” Doesn’t that mean this child can live?
“Uncle Alfred, I want this child!”
Crystal made up her mind and she was determined to have this child of hers.
Alfred was not surprised by her decision. In a way, her personality was similar to Krystal’s. Krystal would have done the same.
The usually composed Alfred could not hold in his emotions. He said to Crystal in a shaky voice, “Go ahead and deliver this child! Don’t be afraid. I’ll be right outside with you.”
He gently caressed her head and left the delivery room.
Alfred had faith that Crystal could deliver the baby safely.
Crystal chose not to have anyone accompany her during the delivery process.
That was because the one who should be there was not present. Thus, she saw no point in having someone else fill the role.
Soon, her cervix dilated to eight centimeters. At that point, Crystal was in such tremendous pain that she began to hallucinate. Henry’s face suddenly appeared in front of her.
Henry… Henry…
She kept repeating his name silently, but a sharp pain accompanied her every time she thought of his
name.
As the labor pains kept coming, she recalled that time when they first met. Those mornings when he whispered “Morning Dew” gently in her ears. That snowy night when she played the piano in his embrace, and those moments when he said to her, “Crystal, I want to spend the rest of my life with you!”
Henry… Henry…
With each mention of his name in her heart, her feelings for him lessened a bit.
A while later, a weak crying sound appeared in the delivery room. A newborn named Skyler had arrived into this world.
Crystal lay motionless on the bed exhausted from the delivery.
A faint smile flashed across her face. At that moment, snippets of her last conversation with Henry emerged in her head.
“I genuinely don’t feel well… The baby is kicking me strongly!”
“Is she being naughty?”
“She has never been this way before. Can you please don’t leave? I’m afraid something will happen!”
“I’ll miss the flight if I don’t go now. Don’t worry too much, okay?”
As Henry gently removed Crystal’s fingers from his hand, he smiled warmly. “You’re like a child yourself. I’ll be back in three days!”
Silence ensued, and Crystal slowly shut her eyes.
Belonging naturally to the metropolitan elite with a plethora of properties registered to his name, Henry Miller was the preeminent attorney in the country. Nevertheless, he also assumed an additional role—Robert's forthcoming brother-in-law. Crystal hesitated momentarily, but then she mused, If Robert can cheat on me, why can't I indulge and enjoy myself too?Instead of pushing Henry away, she held onto him even tighter as she was beautiful and had an attractive figure.
