Chapter 179: Thinking like a Blackwood!
Leonard.
Alex’s sudden, uninvited emergence was grating on every single one of my nerves, setting my blood ablaze with pure irritation.
Did that arrogant bastard honestly think that just because Theresa happened to be carrying his child, he was somehow magically vindicated?
Did he genuinely believe he could just walk in here out of nowhere and claim her as his own again?
The thought rang through my mind with growing disbelief, each repetition making his audacity seem even more incomprehensible than before. I stared ahead, struggling to understand the outrageous confidence behind his actions.
He truly possessed an unbelievable amount of audacity.
Just because she had once, in a past she was desperately trying to leave behind, addressed him as her husband, he somehow believed that gave him the supreme right to step into her life again as though nothing had changed.
In his mind, that single fact appeared to outweigh everything else, granting him the authority to make decisions that were never his to make.
Life-and-death decisions.
The very thought was enough to make my blood boil.
How utterly pathetic.
The words echoed coldly through my mind, carrying every ounce of my contempt. My jaw tightened until it ached, and I could feel my teeth grinding together as I fought to suppress the anger steadily building inside me.
His arrogance was so staggering that it bordered on absurdity, and yet he stood there as though he had every right in the world to interfere.
Drawing a slow but sharp breath, I forced myself to push aside the lingering shock left behind by his infuriating words. My emotions threatened to cloud my judgement, but I refused to allow that to happen. This wasn’t the time to dwell on his arrogance.
There was a far more pressing issue demanding my attention.
Steadily regaining control over myself, I shifted my gaze away from him and turned directly towards the doctor. My jaw remained firmly set, every line of my face hardening into cold resolve as I fixed him with an unwavering stare.
"Who brought the patient to this hospital in the first place?" I asked, my voice calm but unmistakably laced with heavy authority, leaving no room for hesitation or evasion.
The doctor immediately swallowed hard, his eyes flicking nervously toward Alex before darting back to meet my intense glare.
"You three did!" the doctor replied without a moment’s hesitation, trying to maintain his professional footing. "However... official decisions of this magnitude must be rendered by someone intimately close to the patient," he added, his voice trailing off into a cautious tone.
I raised my brows up tightly in pure annoyance, the muscles in my neck straining.
"What exactly are you implying with that statement?" I asked, the frustration boiling over in my chest.
"What I mean is that anyone off the street can simply bring a random patient in here and hang around the waiting room out of a sudden wave of guilt," the doctor said calmly, attempting to justify his absurd logic. "I mean, it happens quite a lot!"
A harsh, humorless laugh escaped my throat—a soft, disbelieving sound at the utter absurdity of his words.
"So you are seriously trying to say that you are going to listen to that man over there instead of us?" Lurgard interjected, his voice dripping with pure irritation as he gestured wildly toward Alex.
The doctor went dead still for a long, uncomfortable moment, the heavy silence hanging thick in the corridor. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he turned his head to look back at Alex standing tall beside us.
"He claimed to be her husband," the doctor stated softly, treating that single, hollow title as if it were an undeniable law.
Lawrence chucked a cold, dry laugh and immediately stepped forward with a sudden, threatening energy. Before anyone could react, he reached out and grabbed the doctor tightly by his collar.
The violent burst was shocking to witness; Lawrence was rarely known as one to resort to physical violence, always preferring quiet composure over open confrontation. But right now, his composure had completely shattered.
"Are you completely deaf, or are you just deliberately trying to play dumb?" Lawrence asked the physician, his voice dripping with venom as his grip tightened, twisting the fabric of the doctor’s coat into a tight knot. "They are divorced," he spat out with absolute authority, every word sharp as a blade. "He is nothing more than her ex-husband."
The doctor’s eyes shut briefly under the intense pressure, his breath hitching before he opened them again to stare back at Lawrence’s furious face.
"You can’t possibly sit here and tell me you haven’t seen the news!" Lawrence demanded, his voice echoing loudly down the quiet hospital hall.
"Calm down, gentleman," the doctor pleaded, his hands reaching up to desperately pull at Lawrence’s fingers in an attempt to loosen the suffocating hold. "I am only doing my job according to medical protocol." He paused, taking a ragged breath before adding, "And whereas, you made the exact same decision as the gentleman standing right there."
Lawrence stiffened slightly, the doctor’s words striking a nerve. He held the position for a fraction of a second before roughly shoving the doctor away, sending the man stumbling back a step. Lawrence straightened his shoulders and slowly turned his head to glance at both Lurgard and me.
And I really couldn’t predict what exactly he was about to say! Looking at Lawrence, one could easily tell what he was thinking, but now it seemed hard.
"I have thought it through," Lawrence said, his tone suddenly dropping into a low, terrifyingly calm rhythm as he idly massaged his bruised knuckles. "Saving her is the only thing that truly matters. However, as the doctor stated, there is an unacceptably high risk of losing both of them if we choose the latter option."
My face immediately widened into a grim, triumphant smile, the dark tension in my chest loosening just a fraction.
That was my brother. He was finally dropping the sentimentality, stepping up, and thinking like a true Blackwood!