While Ariana Evans took her nap, Olivia Zane accompanied Titus Zane to the hospital for a checkup.
Seeing the myriad of wounds on her daughter’s body, Ariana Evans asked while applying ointment who was responsible, vowing she wouldn’t let them off easily.
Titus Zane explained that she was robbed on her way, luckily Ariana Evans believed it was unintentional.
After applying the medicine, Ariana Evans picked up a syringe.
"Mom, what now?" Titus Zane, somewhat afraid, felt dizzy at the sight of the needle.
"Oh, sweetheart, still as faint-hearted with needles as when you were little," Ariana Evans chided with a smile, coming over with the sterilized syringe, "Come on, roll up your sleeve. Mom needs to draw some blood for tests to see if the wounds have led to other complications."
"Mom, there’s no need, it’s just a superficial wound." Titus Zane made a face, she had always been terrified of injections, burying her face in her mother Ariana Evans’s embrace when she got vaccinations as a child.
"Sis, it won’t hurt, don’t you trust Mom’s medical skills?" Lily said with a smile, seeing the fear in Titus Zane.
After hesitating for a moment, Titus Zane still took off her jacket and rolled up her sleeve, closing her eyes and turning her face away as the needle approached.
It wasn’t as painful as she remembered, and indeed, as Lily had said, her mother Ariana Evans’s technique was exceptional. There was only a slight pain when the needle pierced the skin, then nothing uncomfortable.
"All done," Ariana Evans removed the syringe, pressing a cotton swab to the puncture site, just as she was putting away the syringe filled with Titus Zane’s blood, Lily was unbuttoning her own coat. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel_fіre.net
"Mom, check me too, to see if there’s any illness," Lily said.
"What are you fussing about, child?" Ariana Evans was both amused and exasperated, but Lily was already rolling up her sleeve, "Mom, you’re biased. When Sis didn’t want to get her blood drawn, you insisted, but when I want to be checked, you refuse!"
"Alright, alright, I’ll check," Ariana Evans relented and took a new syringe to draw blood from Lily as well.
Before leaving the hospital, Ariana Evans mentioned she hadn’t had lunch yet and sent Lily to get food from the hospital cafeteria, but Titus Zane knew that Ariana Evans had something she wanted to discuss privately.
Sure enough, as soon as Lily left the office, Ariana Evans began.
"Lil, I’m not sure if I should bring this up."
"Mom, please speak your mind," Titus Zane said, sitting across from her mother with an office desk between them.
"You were so determined to escape from Nathan Moore back then, why have you gone back?" Concern etched itself onto Ariana Evans’s kind face, tinged with blame.
"You know the trouble our Zane family went through in T City; it was a last resort back then, but now... oh," Ariana Evans sighed softly, her gaze dropping to the tabletop.
"Nathan is your brother-in-law, getting close to him is no good for Lily or you, and have you forgotten the way he treated you before!"
Titus Zane clutched the strap of her handbag on her knees tightly, her lips pressed together until Ariana Evans had finished.
"Mom, yesterday after I was robbed, it was Nathan Moore who happened to come by, so...I went to his house... I’ll head back to the hotel soon and won’t disturb Lily’s life again," she replied.
She had thought the same on the way to the hospital: wait until the wounds on her face weren’t as obvious, visit Jon in Capital City, and then... return to Paris to wait for news, to avoid encountering former clients.
"My child, why can’t you understand your mother’s feelings?" Ariana Evans frowned with reproach, "We have so many empty rooms at home, why go stay at a hotel?"
Titus Zane smiled, "I’d better stay at the hotel. Dad won’t be happy to see me."