All Chapters of The Medical Doctor's mother died in his arms: Chapter 271
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301 chapters
CHAPTER 126 PART 2
Gary's face went gray. He shrank back with his shoulders hunched like a beaten dog, and the Colonel's hand on his chest pushed him the rest of the way. Victoria started to go up after Ethan, but Mrs. Hayes caught her arm and shook her head. The Colonel went last.At the top of the stairs, the Colonel stopped and spoke a short command to his men. Armed soldiers fanned out across the landing and sealed the stairwell with a wall of rifles and grim faces. One of them lifted his weapon and called down into the hall in a loud, flat voice."This floor is restricted. Anyone who crosses this line will be shot on sight."A hush fell over the people at the bottom. Nobody dared move toward the stairs.In the lounge upstairs, the guards laid the old emperor on a long velvet couch beneath a window. The room was quiet and dim, and the noise of the hall below came through the floor as a dull hum. Colonel Ferris closed the door and turned to face Ethan. His shoulders sagged, and for the first time he
CHAPTER 127 PART 1
Down in the hall, the noise had faded to a low and nervous murmur. The soldiers on the landing stood like statues, their rifles pointed at the floor, and nobody dared go near the stairs. Victoria stood beside Victor Sr. with her fingers twisted together in front of her. Her eyes kept sliding up to the second floor."Grandfather," Victoria whispered. She leaned close and kept her voice low. "That patient must be someone very important. A Colonel does not salute a man like Ethan for a stranger. And those foreign robes, those guards. Who is he?"Victor Sr. leaned on his cane and studied her face for a long moment. His white head moved in the smallest shake, and his eyes were sharp and steady."Some questions are better left in the dark, child," Victor Sr. told her gently. His tone carried the weight of a man who had buried many secrets. "If Ethan wants us to know, he will tell us. Until then, you stay quiet and you keep your face calm. There are too many ears in this room."Victoria swal
CHAPTER 127 PART 2
The slap came so fast that she did not see it. It cracked across her cheek and sent her sprawling against the pillar. Gary stood over her with his hand still raised, and his face had gone ugly and thin."You ungrateful little bitch," Gary hissed. He bent down until his nose almost touched hers. "I raised you. I fed you. Do not threaten me. You do not even know what you threw away. You have no idea who that man upstairs is."He pulled a worn photograph from the inside of his jacket and flicked it onto her lap. Sophia picked it up with trembling fingers.It was an old picture with soft colors, taken at some kind of ceremony. A young man in a crisp dark uniform stood at attention in the foreground. He could not have been more than twenty, but his shoulders were square, his eyes were sharp, and his face was one she knew better than her own. Beside him, one hand resting on the young man's shoulder, stood a tall old man in royal robes, with a thin gray beard and a faint scar across his left
CHAPTER 128 PART 1
Colonel Ferris stood by the door with his arms folded, and his four guards lined the wall behind him with their hands near their holsters. The room was so quiet that the ticking of a small brass clock on the mantel sounded like a hammer. They watched the young man kneeling beside the couch with the open mistrust of soldiers who had seen too many doctors fail.Ethan pulled his shirt wide. Over his heart, pale against the skin, lay a strange mark in the shape of a lotus with seven curled petals. It pulsed faintly, as if something alive were sleeping beneath it. One of the guards drew a sharp breath, and the Colonel's eyes narrowed."What is that?" Colonel Ferris asked. His voice was low and uneasy. He took half a step forward, and his hand dropped toward his belt. "Is it contagious?""Only to people who ask stupid questions," Ethan replied. He did not look up. He drew a long silver needle from a case in his pocket and held it over the mark, and his face was calm and distant. "Stay where
CHAPTER 128 PART 2
"A little," Ethan answered. He glanced around the wrecked hall like a man noticing a stain on his tablecloth. "A group of Japanese warriors came in earlier. They tried to start a massacre with Preston Wells, so I killed them."The Colonel went very still. Then, with the stiff, careful movements of a man backing away from a sleeping tiger, he turned on his heel and strode toward the exit."I must warn my superiors at once," Colonel Ferris muttered. His voice was tight and quick. "A hundred bodies on American soil. Heaven help us all."He vanished through the doors with his guards hurrying after the stretcher. A thin figure in a rumpled silk suit slipped out from behind a pillar and caught Ethan's sleeve. Gary Morgan wore the nervous smile of a rat that had found a hole in the wall."Ethan, my boy," Gary said. He kept his voice low and sweet. "Prince AJ told me to pass on an invitation. He wants you to visit the Sha Kingdom. The whole palace will welcome you as a guest of honor. A man l
CHAPTER 129 PART 1
The old Morgan house on the West Side smelled of damp wallpaper and boiled cabbage. The paint on the ceiling hung down in curling strips, and a single weak bulb lit the narrow bedroom where Diane lay propped on three flat pillows.A cracked phone rested on her chest. She stared at the little glowing screen with a hungry smile that looked strange on her gray, sunken face."Up two percent," Diane croaked. She held the phone out at arm's length as if showing it to someone who was not there. "Morgan Pharmaceuticals is up two whole percent today. Do you see that, Sophia? The market knows. The company is coming back."Sophia stood by the window with her arms hanging at her sides. Her tank top was torn and her cheeks were swollen purple, and the dried blood on her lip had cracked open again. She had walked the whole way across the city in the dark, and her feet felt like blocks of wood. She did not answer."I am talking to you," Diane snapped. The smile fell off her face and her thin lips tw
CHAPTER 129 PART 2
Then Diane exploded. She shot upright in the bed with her eyes bulging and her fingers clawing the air, and a shriek tore out of her throat that rattled the window glass."That lying, cheating, filthy snake! I gave that man thirty years! Thirty years of my life!" She grabbed the pillow and flung it against the wall. Her whole body shook with rage, and spit flew from her lips. "I will kill him! I will find him and tear his throat out! And you, you stupid girl, you let him walk away?""What was I supposed to do?" Sophia screamed back. Tears were pouring down her face now, and her whole body shook. "I cannot take this anymore. I cannot take your voice or your hands or your hate. All my life I have been your dog, Mom. Every day you kick me and call me a failure, and I have never once said no. I am so tired. I would rather jump off a building than listen to one more word."Diane stared at her. For a moment something flickered behind her eyes, and then it went out, replaced by a flat and ug
CHAPTER 130 PART 1
Diane dragged herself to the edge of the bed with both hands clutching the blanket. Her gray hair stuck to her sweating forehead, and her thin body shook like a leaf in the wind. She looked at Lisa Ford with wet, pleading eyes, and the proud old woman who had screamed at everyone for thirty years was gone."Please, Miss Ford," Diane begged. Her voice was thin and cracked. "I am a sick woman. I have nowhere to go. Give us a few weeks. Just a few weeks, and we will find the money. Have some mercy.""Mercy," Lisa Ford repeated softly. She tasted the word like a sour grape, and a slow, cold smile curled across her red lips. She stepped closer to the bed and tapped the ash from her cigarette onto the blanket."Do you know what I remember about the Morgan family, old woman? I remember a girl who worked as a cleaner at Morgan Pharmaceuticals. A girl who made a small mistake with a form and was thrown out like garbage. Your precious daughter signed the letter herself, and her smile was so swe
CHAPTER 130 PART 2
"Of course I did." Lisa Ford straightened up with a smug little shrug. "And your secretary, that Ashley Ward, who stole your car and ran off? I sent my boys after her too. Do not worry. They have been teaching her some manners."The room spun. Sophia's knees gave way, and she dropped to the floor in front of Lisa Ford and pressed her palms together like a child at prayer."Please," Sophia sobbed. Her forehead nearly touched the dirty boards. "Please let us keep the house. I will do anything. I will work for you for free. I will clean your floors for the rest of my life. Just do not put my mother in the street. She is sick. She cannot survive out there."One of the thugs, a heavy man with a shaved head and a gold tooth, looked down at her with greedy, half lidded eyes. He licked his lips."She is not bad looking, boss," the thug rumbled. He cracked his knuckles and grinned. "Under all that dirt. We could have a little fun before we clear the place. Make her earn it."Lisa Ford held up o
CHAPTER 131 PART 1
The old neighborhood was dark and still. A single streetlamp at the end of the block buzzed and flickered, throwing weak yellow light across a row of narrow brick houses with sagging porches.Sophia had dragged Diane into the mouth of a narrow alley beside the locked gate, and now she sat on the cold concrete with her mother's head resting in her lap. Her arms ached. Her stomach had been empty since noon.She looked at the lit windows up and down the street and swallowed hard. Then she stood, smoothed her torn shirt with trembling fingers, and walked to the nearest door.She knocked three times. A curtain twitched, and a heavy woman in a faded housecoat opened the door a crack with the chain still on."Mrs. Gibson," Sophia said. Her voice was hoarse and polite, the voice of a girl asking for a favor. "It is Sophia Morgan. From next door. We were locked out tonight. My mother is very sick, and we have nowhere to sleep. Could we use your porch, just until morning?"Mrs. Gibson looked he