Free Web NovelChapter 351: Chapter 349: Who Is the Patient’s Family?
Pushing the door open, the first person Mia Grant saw was Yates Donovan. He was leaning lazily against the opposite wall, arms crossed. The moment the door opened, he looked up at her, a familiar smile on his face.
Stepping over the threshold, Mia realized someone was squatting by her feet.
The person was wearing a windbreaker and a hat, so from this angle, she didn’t recognize who it was at first.
Fortunately, he immediately stood up, looking at her with a nervous expression.
It was Ian Sinclair.
Mia was slightly startled. "When did you get here?"
"Just now?" Ian Sinclair deliberately fudged the time. What he didn’t say was that he had come up right after she went in.
In truth, he had been following her the whole time.
He had kept a safe distance ever since she walked out of the dormitory building, trailing her all the way here.
After answering, Ian cautiously watched her expression, terrified that Mia would be angry.
To his relief, she just paused for a moment, then nodded lightly and said, "Okay."
She walked out and saw Silas Grant in the reception area around the corner.
He hadn’t left.
The moment their eyes met, Mia parted her lips, about to say something, but was quickly interrupted by a voice from the other side.
"Are you feeling all right?"
Mia’s body stiffened. She turned her head toward the stairwell, where the tall figure standing there was none other than Hayes Hughes, dressed in a light-colored trench coat.
She stood frozen, an unreadable emotion in her eyes, staring fixedly at the second uninvited guest.
Hayes Hughes had gone downstairs to take a work call and heard that Mia had come out just as he returned.
Mia didn’t look very well.
’I wonder what she looked like before she went in...’
He was the last to arrive. He had only found out about Mia’s appointment this morning, and a surgery was already scheduled, so he could only rush over after it was finished.
This strange silence was finally broken by Silas Grant.
"It’s getting late. Let’s go get something to eat."
He stepped forward and, as he passed, naturally took Mia’s hand.
Mia didn’t react in time, subconsciously following him downstairs.
"Have you thought about what kind of noodles you want?"
"The chef over there is already waiting."
Mia thought for a moment. "Noodle soup is fine. Any flavor will do."
It wasn’t that she really wanted noodles; she mainly just wanted some broth.
For some reason, her palm was cold.
Silas noticed it too and gently tightened his grip, trying to warm her hand.
The remaining three didn’t hurry to leave.
After watching Mia get into the car, Yates Donovan kicked the office door. "So, how is she?"
Hayes Hughes snapped back to reality, stepped forward, and knocked on the door before walking straight in, uninvited.
Seeing this, Ian Sinclair and Yates Donovan followed him.
The door closed automatically. The figure inside paid them no mind, as if he hadn’t noticed their footsteps at all. He continued tidying up paper cups, then stood up and pulled open the blinds, catching a glimpse of the Bentley discreetly merging onto the main road.
"Dr. Quinlan, long time no see. I wonder if you still remember me."
One must always exchange a few pleasantries.
But Dr. Quinlan stared at him for two seconds and smiled. "I remember. But it was only after Miss Grant’s reminder that I recalled Dr. Hughes and I had met once before."
The implication was that Hayes Hughes’s name had come up in their recent conversation.
Behind them, Yates Donovan’s brow twitched. "Alright, enough with the reunion. How is she?"
Dr. Quinlan glanced at him, probably rolling his eyes, and walked over to sit behind his desk.
"In what capacity are you asking me this? As a member of the patient’s family?"
The man sat down, opened his computer, and didn’t spare Yates another glance.
Yates gritted his teeth and pushed the young man beside him forward. "This is her fiancé. That one is her second brother. The family is right here."
"Oh? And you are?"
"I’m just passing by."
Hearing this, Dr. Quinlan didn’t even lift his head and simply pointed to the door. Yates swore under his breath and turned to leave.
"Close the door on your way out, thank you."
"..."
The door slammed shut, faintly accompanied by a curse.
Ian Sinclair snapped out of it. Thinking of Felix Sinclair, he sat down and asked with concern, "She didn’t look well when she left. Are the results of the psychological evaluation out?"
"They are." Dr. Quinlan printed out the results and filed them away, though he didn’t show them the document. "Her evaluation isn’t as bad as you might imagine."
"She’s just under a lot of psychological stress, and her body is indeed a bit overloaded."
"For now, we only know that she has symptoms of insomnia and vivid dreams. Additionally, her memory is somewhat confused; she often can’t distinguish between her dreams and reality."
"We can’t rule out an anxiety disorder, a mental disorder, or PTSD. To know for sure, she needs to go to a hospital for a full set of detailed examinations."
"She’s very guarded around people, so we basically didn’t talk about much. If you want to dig deeper and find the root cause, my recommendation is to have her come back again when she has time. It would be best if she agreed to hypnosis."
"However, judging by her attitude just now, she probably won’t agree to it anytime soon."
"So it’s not something like depression?" Ian was worried she might have suicidal tendencies like Felix Sinclair.
"In this day and age, who isn’t depressed?" Dr. Quinlan chuckled. "But she’s not at the point of being suicidal."
Ian said, "But she has self-harming tendencies."
"That’s because of anxiety."
"She’s a very contradictory person. Whenever she gets anxious, her rational mind tries to control her body’s somatic responses. So what you see as ’self-harm’ is actually her exercising restraint."
"For example, restraining a racing heart, trembling hands, shortness of breath, and so on."
"Let’s start with medication. The root of her anxiety is still the vivid dreams."
His gaze lingered on the two of them for a few seconds before Dr. Quinlan asked, "As her family, I’d like to ask, how much do you really know about her?"
—
Hayes Hughes and Ian Sinclair left the office, one after the other.
In the hallway, Yates Donovan finished his second cigarette and pushed the door open to go back inside.
A draft blew through, carrying the smell of tobacco into the room.
Behind the desk, the man sighed in displeasure. "Did you not see the ’No Smoking’ sign?"
"I saw it." Yates sat down across from him with the swagger of someone who owned the place. As if to deliberately provoke him, he pressed the cigarette directly onto the desk, crushing it forcefully. "It’s out."
"..." Dr. Quinlan looked at him as if he were looking at a shameless scoundrel.
Fortunately, after so many years, he was used to it.
"What do you want to ask? Ask it and then disappear."
"Did she tell you who the person in her dreams is?"
"No." Dr. Quinlan looked up. "Why, do you know?"
"If I knew, I would’ve already made a move. Why would I be here wasting my breath with you?"
"Exactly. She’s unwilling to say."
At that, Yates paused, his gaze sweeping over the other man’s face. "You’re saying she wants to protect that person."
"Not exactly."
"It’s just that she subconsciously believes it couldn’t be them."
"Isn’t that still a form of protection?" Yates’s brow furrowed. "There aren’t many people who could make her this conflicted."
"Did she really not reveal anything at all?"
Instead of answering, Dr. Quinlan asked, "What did she tell you?"
"She said the person in her dream killed her."
"With what?"
"It was... a knife. Yes, a knife. She said that in the end, the person shoved it in, hilt and all."
Hearing this, the man across from him chuckled and glanced at him. "Isn’t the answer obvious?"
