Chapter 3

“Layla! Layla!! Layla!”  Douglas yelled her name as he shook her lifeless body, he sat with her in the back seat of his brand new Audi A2 2023 model, he calls it his future ride after getting it a few weeks back. Lucas was distracted and couldn’t drive straight.  It is Christmas, the major parts of the city are decorated with several lights and giant Christmas trees planted in the road rides, the sight is beautiful as quiet Christmas songs were played in the background of every home. The streets is flooded with various children, adults, even pets  playing in the snow and enjoying the Christmas spirit. Fireworks and light shows beautified the skies, the Christmas spirit is high in the city of Houston. While majority of the city are having the time of their lives, Douglas Randolph’s entire dream was lying helplessly in the back of his vehicle and all he could do was scream her name.

   Clumsy Lucas is overwhelmed with fear and tries so hard to avoid hitting anyone while rushing to the hospital. He crashes the vehicle on a traffic pole causing a lot of electrical sparks and glittering lights, like the fireworks wasn't enough, the pole collapses on a giant statue of Santa claus, it comes down crashing and crumbling to the ground the scene was dramatic and tragic as Lucas regains his composure and gets the car back on the road he drives recklessly ignoring all traffic signs causing a huge minor accidents on his way.

“Come on help us..somebody, he- help” Douglas yells as the car pulls over in the hospital compound, he quickly picks up Layla and carries her inside with the help of Lucas although he gave Lucas a wild stare after balancing Layla in his hands. The hospital also had great Christmas spirit, there was a huge welcome sign engraved with several lights and embedded in a circle of synthetic green grass placed on top of the building , it could be seen from miles away, the insides of the hospital had minimum lights and several balloons, flowers and a medium sized tree filled with gifts and presents. The hospital hall is filled with people visiting their sick relatives, friends or loved ones with Christmas gifts. 

“Help help help” he cries as he rushes into the wards, the nurses were swift to get an emergency bed, they places Layla on it and pushes her straight into one of the emergency wards, they proceed with CPR without further delay.  “Increase to 3000watts of power!”  The doctor on duty instructs the nurses as he plugges in the EM circuits into her. Her body springs up endlessly with no sign of life and zero responses, he feels her pulse by holding her neck and shook his head. "The young miss is dead"  he didn’t know how to break the news to her father, even though he isn't  their official family doctor, he stumbles upon the Randolph’s family members a few times, they are not people to be messed with or joked around with especially not the one regarding life and death. He mans up and summones courage to tell them of the great tragedy that has befall them. His breath,  getting louder and his walking steps disorganized, he couldn’t find the composure to inform them of the passing of Layla, but it is his responsibility.

Douglas spots the doctor attending to Layla and runs towards the young man, Lucas immediately follows him.” Tell me she is fine doctor ! Tell me there’s nothing wrong with my daughter!" Douglas yells, Lost of words the doctor kept mum and stares at Douglas, Lucas snapshis fingers right before the doctor’s eyes and he springs back to reality, shaking his head with signs of disappointment written all over his face he finally gives a response. ”We lost her, I’m so sorry- if only you had brought her here earlier” Douglas Randolph the multibillionaire and first son of Santos Randolph, for the second time in his life he felt helpless, he was left in a position that no amount of money could solve. Memories of Layla flashes in his head, starting from the moment when he first felt her kick in her mothers womb, till when he held her hands as an infant, when he taught her to walk, he wasn’t always available but he was always proud of Layla, she graduated with a first class degree in the best university in the entire country,  Memories like these filled Douglas’ head as he fell to his knees and tears rolled down his cheeks uncontrollably. 

               Lucas on the other hand has a lot of mixed emotions, she was just going to expose him right in front of her family he thought, when she collapsed little streams of happiness flooded his mind but now death?That’s a lot to handle, he folds both his hands above his head and stared at the bright blinding lights of the hospital. “We’re sorry about the loss, can you fill in this piece of paper?” An older female nurse probably in her early 50s asks as she stretches out a form for Douglas to fill. He snatchs it out of her hands and threw it away from himself.   “I just lost my daughter and all you care about is filling a piece of stupid paper? have you no human feelings? Have you no manners?” Douglas asks rudely as he rages out of the hospital ward, he heads for his damaged car still parked wrong along the hospital’s walkway. Douglas opens the car and beats up his steering wheels screaming till he was satisfied. He comes out of the car and glares at Lucas who is standing beside another nurse with a paper to fill. His fierce gaze can almost pierce through Lucas’ skin from behind. He slowly takes his face away from Lucas heading back into the hospital. “I want to see my daughter. Let me see her body!” He orders the nurse, without thinking twice, lead the way to the ward where Layla's body was being kept. Her hands are shaking, she is unstable and her face looks so confused as she led the way. 

It’s only been a few minutes since she was announced cold but her body is already pale and white, her lips had turned blue dried off and looked like they’ll break like plastic instead of tearing apart like flesh, something odd was also noticed, she has red spots all over her like a plague, it appeared on her body, these were never there when the doctors proceeded to carrying the body to the morgue.  Douglas on his way back to the mansion with intentions of announcing Layla’s death, he scolds Lucas and chases him. “Make sure we never cross paths ever again” His teary eyes flashed a bit of blood thirst, his shaky hands and his voice- Lucas gets the message clearly.  He knew his affair with Lisa might be messed up as well. Douglas heads for his damaged car when a scary looking man approachs him, he is putting on a long brown coat with black pants and black boots, he has an awkward hat and a weird gris on his face “Are you the owner of this vehicle?” Detective Brown asks with a cigar hanging on the left side of his lips.

“Yes, it's mine inspector.” He is cut short by Brown. “Detective you mean-"  “Okay, detective, what is the issue?” Douglas sighs as he asks, he really isn't in the mood.  "First, you should know I am Detective Brown Bishop. I am aware that this is out of my line of work but I happened to see you violate quite a lot of traffic regulations, caused damage to government and private properties on your way here- do you have anything to say about that? Mr?-"   Brown, a tall and lanky man in his early 40s, a distinguished police officer for his large mustache and clean shaved head. Many doctors have informed him that the constant cigars might cause his early demise, but he never for once relented. He asks Douglas as he scans him.

“Oh I am-  Douglas Randolph, I- I’m so sorry I had an emergency, my daughter-” Douglas whimpered, he sighs and rests in his car and tries covering up his tears from the detective. Brown had a dejavu immediately Douglas mentioned the name Randolph, his curiosity kicked in and he wanted to know more.“Oh I- I’m sorry,  I hope she’s fine?” He asked with a subtle voice  “she’s- she died” Douglas says in a cold tone, he shivers and his entire body is filled with goosebumps, he couldn’t hold back his tears anymore they keep rolling down his cheeks. Detective Brown decides to drop the case of traffic regulations and turned back. He stopped abruptly and turned back at Douglas. "What exactly happened and how did you say she died?” he asks as he leans closer to Douglas. “I didn’t say how she died?  Oh she collapsed during dinner” he sincerely replies after realizing he hadn't told him yet. “You wouldn’t mind if I checked on her corpse would ya?” The detective asks. 

Douglas nodds and Brown casually strolled into the hospital reception and asks for the late Randolph’s files. He of course knew they would have documented some files and filled some forms. “I’m sorry but the files for that family are confidential” the nurse replies snubbing the detective, she gives him a sour look as she looks at him from his head to his legs, and she resumes concentrating on sorting out the patient files on her desk. 

Brown leans in closer on her and blew off some smoke to her face. “I am Detective Brown, The senior detective of the federal police department of Houston and former chief of police in Boston, Texas also a three star brigadier general in the United States army-. I can pull necessary strings, have you fired and still get my hands on those files” he threatened… she whimpers, gulps and takes one more glance at him, he’s too young to have attained all these ranks and if he was really brigadier general why was he a detective here in Houston? 

“You can threaten all you want you damned fanatic impersonator but you cannot scare me with merely fake threats” she didn’t show even a bit of fear as she fights him off, Douglas has already left in his car to announce Layla’s death, Lucas has also disappeared from the hospital. “Detective Brown oh my God, why are you here? You’re not sick are you? I heard you never fall sick”  The chief physician of the hospital shows up, dressed in his official doctor outfit, his stethoscope is neatly around his neck, he isn't holding any files, he is only surprised to find detective Brown in his own hospital.  “Hello Carlos, I ran into a man who violated a lot of traffic regulations. I tracked and traced him down to this hospital, when I got a hold of him he claimed he was Randolph, and the patient he brought was dead.  He asks the chief physician without batting an eye. Carlos knew Brown long before Houston; he's a straight forward man who needs only answers and nothing short of the truth.

“I believe you must be talking of Douglas Randolph.  I’m sure he will pay for the damages done and whatever fine he’s asked to pay. He was here because of his dead daughter.  Layla Randolph”  The doctor says with a hint of sadness. Carlos convinces the nurses to let Brown see the dead body while he quickly goes to see Douglas before he leaves the premises. Without wasting much time Brown examines the bagged body “what did you guys say the cause of death was?” He looked at the nurse accompanying him curiously. “We didn’t bother testing, she was already dead before they got here. We tried our best to resuscitate her but-.” She was interrupted by Brown blowing smoke on her face. He drops his cigar and puts it out with his foot. “Aye, you might just have to take your jobs seriously, now take a  look around here” he said pointing at Layla’s cold and blue lips. “Does that seem normal to you? She didn’t just die of a seizure or a heart failure, her organs were burnt and squeezed” He added. The nurse looks at him with some sort of approval. “How can you tell from taking just a glance? Cancer patients do have blue lips after death too” she protests even though Brown was right.  “Ha ha, you’re the expert here and you definitely should have noticed that the roots of the victim’s hair is still strong, Most cancer patients start losing hair before their major organs fail which ultimately results into death” He argues as though he is a doctor too, the nurse listens and let things flow, the nurse didn’t want to keep arguing with such a scary looking man, his mustache creeps her out.

“That will be all for today thank you, and do me a favor, would ya nurse ?” He asks in his Texas native intonation. "Huh? And what sort of favor would that be?” She asks in utter confusion, raising one of her brows and folding her arms together. Brown moves closer to her and taps her shoulder softly “Do not let anyone get close to this body, not even her family” His deep cracked voice rings in the nurse's ear, it sends chills down her spine and it made her legs freeze up. Brown walks out of the hospital after checking a few documents and back history on Layla, of course he can't find pregnancy results since it was still safely kept in her father’s office back home. All he found were blood results and lab test results for each time she got sick. The family doctor was alerted later that night and she cooperated with Brown, handing him all files on Layla.  “Still the same bullshit” he says after examining all files and there was no file about her within the range of 5 months, Infact the file closest to the time was from 14 months ago. The Randolph’s mansion is a total mess, Aunt Jewel and Uncle Henry were totally in a frenzy, even Lisa and Eve wondered what happened to Layla. Amidst all this panic Lisa sneaks out to place a call through to Lucas. She goes out to the garden and walks away from the bright lights and shiny decorations that have been mounted all over the compound 

Lisa: hey- hey- what’s going on what happened to that little witch" Lisa says as she whispers and hides the behind tall grasses

Lucas: "Lisa!  La- Layla, she’s-" Lucas says while trying to gather himself.

Lisa: Tell me Lucas what happened? Is she dead? 

Lucas : yes- yes she died" he replies with his hands trembling with fear.

Lisa’s eyes widenes with disbelief and shock

Lisa: "oh wow, that’s a lot. You know what I’ll call you back gotta go" She hangs up the call after hearing the news. A mischievous smile curves up her cheeks and she quickly stands correctly and heads back inside. Eve sees her appear from the compound’s dark gardens and quickly walks up to her.

“What were you doing alone in there!  Everyone inside is worried about Layla” Eve says worriedly. “Aren’t you worried, Eve? You look a little calm for someone who witnessed the drama that went on inside” Lisa says as she keeps her eyes on Eve as they walk back to the mansion’s lobby. "I am a little nervous but- it will do a lot of good if that little witch is gotten rid of once and for all” Eve says  ignoring Lisa’s stare she confesses and walks gracefully with her magnificent red gown fit for a wedding flowing behind her.  Lisa chuckles and nods twice with a smile, they head inside and Douglas arrives a few minutes later to announce the death of Layla.                  The entire room falls into complete silence as they all finally went into their seperate rooms sobbing, Douglas is the last to leave the dining hall, he mourns his little girl bitterly and rests his head on the table. The maids starts clearing up the tables, they were all at their best character hearing of the evil that just befell the Randolph family. “Come on, I know this is not the best time to try to motivate you but I believe mourning and crying yourself out wouldn’t change a thing” Belle the chief maid and chef says to him as she leans in and raises his head from the table it was resting on. She smiles at him and watches his pitiful face, her eyes get watery and she can't hold her pity for him.  Tears rolls down her eyes as she helps Douglas to his room.