Chapter 174: Critical II.
Lawrence.
It was as though a bucket of icy, bone-chilling water had suddenly been dumped over me, numbing every nerve in my body and freezing the blood in my veins.
My mind went completely blank, overwhelmed by a sudden, suffocating dread. I had known things were growing tense, but I had never, even in my worst nightmares, expected the situation to become this horrifyingly serious.
The absolute worst part of this entire ordeal was the sheer ignorance—the agonizing truth that I didn’t even know what had actually happened. My mind spun in desperate, chaotic circles, searching for answers that weren’t there.
Theresa had been practically fine this morning. She had been vibrant, normal, and full of life just a few short hours ago. How could she suddenly end up in such a tragic, helpless position?
How could someone who was completely fine at sunrise now be suspended on the razor-thin edge of a medical state officially termed as *critical*?
I was still completely lost in the dark, frantic labyrinth of my own thoughts when the door to the room finally clicked open. The doctor slowly stepped out into the hallway, his face masked in solemn professional gloom.
"Are you her guardians?" he asked, his eyes shifting across our tense faces.
The word *guardian* hit me like a sharp, unpleasant slap. It didn’t sit right with me at all; it felt cold, clinical, and completely wrong.
He could have at least used the word *husband*—a title that carried the actual weight of who I was to her, a word that possessed warmth and belonging.
But I quickly crushed the sudden flare of resentment rising in my chest. Nonsensical pride wasn’t what mattered at this terrifying moment; Theresa was the only thing that mattered.
"Yes, we are!" Leonard blurted out immediately.
He surged forward in a heartbeat, stepping directly into the doctor’s space with an intimidating intensity. He stood towering over the physician, his posture so aggressive with raw, desperate urgency that it looked as though he might swallow the doctor whole if he didn’t get immediate answers.
The doctor paused, taking a slow breath as his solemn demeanor deepened. "There is a situation that requires your urgent approval and decision," he said, laying out each word with painstaking, deliberate caution. "Whatever decision you make will have to be officially signed on paper."
I pulled my brows up tightly in a knot of sheer confusion, my heart hammering furiously against my ribs.
What decision?
The request felt absurd, almost cruel. How could anyone expect us to make an urgent, life-altering choice when we were standing there in complete darkness, without the faintest idea of what was actually happening behind those closed doors?
"We can make the decision," Lurgard interjected, forcing his voice into a controlled, heavy rhythm in an attempt to sound completely calm and capable, but as he took a step forward, the intense, unwavering stare he fixed on the doctor betrayed the sheer urgency roaring beneath his quiet composure. "But firstly," Lurgard added, his gaze boring into the doctor’s eyes with undeniable weight, "you need to tell us exactly what is going on."
The doctor took a slow, heavy breath, letting the heavy pause hang in the quiet air before he finally spoke. "I will do just that, but I wanted to make sure you understood the weight of the situation first so you know exactly what to expect at the end of this," he added, his measured tone only worsening the suffocating silence in the hallway.
I wiped a layer of invisible dirt away from my face with a trembling hand, trying to scrub away the rising panic as I swallowed hard against the tight knot in my throat. My mouth felt bone-dry.
The doctor’s slow, calculated delivery was stretching every single second into pure agony, dragging out the suspense until it felt physically overwhelming.
He was making everything so unbearably tense, and the terrifying weight of his hesitation was scaring the absolute hell out of me. Through the rising waves of dread, I held onto a single, desperate prayer: I just hoped Theresa was safe.
"Spill it out, doctor," I commanded suddenly, my voice cutting through the heavy silence with an absolute, authoritative alpha tone.
The words snapped out of me like a command that demanded immediate submission; I had reached my absolute breaking point and could not endure another second of this torture.
"The patient was poisoned," he stated calmly, his eyes remaining perfectly still as he looked at us.
The words struck like a physical blow. I immediately tore my gaze away from the doctor, my head snapping sideways to look at both of his brothers.
Their faces mirrored the exact same paralyzed, wide-eyed shock that had just seized my own chest.
My mind raced into a tailspin of absolute disbelief.
How could this even be possible?
How could Theresa possibly be poisoned under our own roof—inside our home, the one place that was supposed to be her safest sanctuary?
Who could possibly be brazen or cruel enough to carry out such a heinous act right under our noses?
"But from the look of things..." the doctor continued, his tone remaining clinical as he laid out the grim diagnostic truth, "...the poisoner wasn’t aiming directly at the baby. The primary target was the mother."
I locked my eyes back onto him instantly, the fear in my chest giving way to a sharp, burning wave of intense curiosity.
"If the baby hadn’t reacted," he added softly, letting the terrifying reality settle over us, "the patient would have died a slow, agonizing death without ever realizing what was happening to her."
Panic seized me instantly, sharp and unyielding, violently wrapping its cold claws around my chest.
My heart hammered wildly against my ribs as the dark reality sank in. Someone had walked into our home, bypassed our security, and deliberately fed a lethal toxin to the woman I cared for.
Who could possibly do such a vile, cowardly thing?