Free Web NovelChapter 245: Chapter 245 The Final Hours
Christina’s POV
Most of the house staff were off for the Moon Blessing Festival. Only Geoffrey and Carmen stayed behind.
I lingered in the sunroom, scrolling through ring settings on my tablet and pretending not to notice the time until my stomach started to complain.
As soon as we sat down for lunch, Hudson’s phone rang.
He answered with one hand still on his fork, but the moment he heard the voice on the other end, his whole expression changed.
"What happened?" I asked the moment he hung up.
"The hospital. It’s Edouard. They don’t think he’ll make it through the night. Everyone’s already on their way."
I dropped my spoon. "Then let’s go. Now."
I pushed back from the table and ran upstairs to change.
We didn’t speak in the car, just stared through the windshield while traffic crawled along like molasses.
The roads were jammed, every junction gridlocked.
Hudson’s hands gripped the wheel at ten and two, his face set in granite.
It took us an hour to cover what usually took twenty minutes.
The lift opened onto chaos: heels clicking, people talking over each other, perfume clashing with the sharp tang of antiseptic.
The moment Hudson stepped out, the noise dipped.
He walked straight past the crowd.
"Alpha Hudson! Finally."
"It’s bad. Real bad."
"No one expected this. On Moon Blessing Festival, of all days..."
He ignored them, pushed through the corridor, and disappeared into the ward.
I stayed outside.
Through the glass, I saw two nurses and a doctor clustered around the bed, working quickly.
Wires dangled from machines, lights flashing red.
Hudson stood to the side, arms folded, silent.
I moved to a quiet corner near the drinks machine. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Everyone else jostled by the door, craning their necks, muttering and pacing, their mouths drawn tight.
"Hudson’s late. Edouard’s barely hanging on, and he strolls in like it’s nothing. Arrogant little prick."
"He’s never cared. Everyone knows they barely spoke. Probably counting down to the inheritance."
I could have ignored it—should have.
But they brought up Hudson, and that was enough.
"What are these vultures doing here?" Akira growled inside my mind. "They smell like greed and desperation."
"Watching the show, apparently," I replied internally before pushing off the wall, walking straight over, and planting myself between them.
"What, you think standing here talking rubbish makes you helpful? Are you going to scrub in? Start CPR through the glass? Half of you didn’t even know Edouard’s birthday until the invites went out, but look at you now. All lined up like it’s a damn family portrait."
Silence fell hard.
All eyes turned to me.
The man who’d been doing most of the talking, mid-fifties, thinning hair, too much gel, gave me a once-over like I’d wandered in by mistake.
"Who the hell are you?"
I threw it right back at him. "Who the hell are you, acting like you have the right to talk rubbish about Hudson?"
He flinched like I’d smacked him. "You’ve got some nerve, young woman."
Someone off to the side muttered, "That’s Alpha Hudson’s Luna. They came up together. You didn’t see?"
His eyes narrowed.
He looked again, slower this time but no less condescending.
"So what? My uncle is Edouard’s cousin-in-law. That makes me your senior in the pack. You don’t get a say here."
"That makes you what—a fifth cousin twice removed? That’s not even blood. I’m pretty good with faces, and I don’t recall you showing up at Edouard’s birthday party. But now you’re here, front row. You care about his health?" I sneered. "Or just his wealth?"
His face turned pink.
"He’s sick because of the way you lot treated him. You and your husband Hudson have been negligent. If I’d known it was this serious, I’d have taken care of poor old Edouard myself."
"Would you? Are you saying you’d look after him better than his own sons and grandsons, and that earns you a better spot in the will?"
He said nothing.
No one else did either.
Gwendolyn finally stepped in once she realized the man wasn’t going to put me in my place like she’d hoped.
"Let’s all take a breath. Edouard’s still in critical care. Everyone’s anxious, I get it, but let’s not turn the corridor into a circus."
People went quiet.
As Edouard’s daughter-in-law, she had enough pull to make that happen.
No one challenged her. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
They just shifted uncomfortably and went back to peering through the glass panel in the ICU door.
I could see it in their faces—the quick mental calculations.
How much they’d get.
Whether Edouard would make it through the night.
Who he’d leave the estate to.
Who he wouldn’t.
"Disgusting," Akira muttered. "Like coyotes around a dying elk."
I nodded slightly, agreeing with her assessment.
The lift dinged.
Marlowe stepped out, alone.
Someone near the front pointed. "Is that Ed’s lawyer?"
A woman in pearls elbowed forward. "Is the will done? Do you have it with you?"
Another man shoved in, eyeing the briefcase. "Can you just tell us what it says? Just a rough idea?"
Marlowe was almost knocked straight back into the lift.
If one more person lunged, he would have ended up flattened against the wall.
I cleared my throat loudly.
"You lot see a briefcase and start crawling like cockroaches on a dropped croissant. Did any of you even ask how Edouard is doing? Or are you all just here to count zeroes?"
The front row shuffled backwards.
A man in a beige trench coat blinked and glanced at his shoes. "Of course we care. He’s family."
The ICU door clicked open.
Hudson stood in the doorway.
"Come in."
It was like he had fired the starting pistol at a race.
Everyone surged forward.
A man elbowed past a woman in a tweed jacket.
Someone’s handbag caught on the IV pole.
Edouard lay still beneath the ceiling light, his chest rising in fits and starts.
A ventilator mask covered his nose and mouth.
Tubes ran down both arms, taped tight against his skin.
Two doctors stood at the head of the bed, flanked by three nurses.
One adjusted the beeping monitor, which clicked in a slow, rhythmic pattern.
I leaned close to Hudson. "How bad?"
He gave a slight shake of his head.
The room filled, wall to wall.
No one spoke until one of the doctors cleared his throat and turned.
"He’s critical. Any moment now. Say what you need to."
