Chapter 96: DEPRIVED OF OXYGEN FOR TOO LONG

Chapter 97

Ren

"Alright, we’ll do that together" I said, stepping back from the door.

Neve froze. She looked at the door, then back up at me with wide, confused eyes.

"Ren... you’re letting me go?"

"You’re not a prisoner, Neve," I told her, my voice soft. "You made a mess, but you’re my sister. We fix this together."

She swallowed hard, stepping out into the hallway. She looked down at her hands, her shoulders shaking.

"I don’t mind paying for what I did, Ren. If I have to go to jail for helping him, I will. But Callum can’t get away with this. He hurt Lumi. He has to pay."

I didn’t answer her with words. I stepped forward, pulled her into my arms, and held her tight.

She gasped in surprise before wrapping her arms around my waist, burying her face into my chest.

I held her until her breathing slowed down.

"Let’s go home," I whispered, stepping back.

Julian grabbed her coat off the bench inside the cell and wrapped it around her shoulders. The three of us walked out and straight to my truck.

Darren had already handled the human police. The moment Callum took Theo into the private airport lobby, our lawyers hit the police department with Neve’s statement and Lumi’s medical reports.

The police had intercepted Callum, slapping handcuffs on him before he could step onto his private jet. Theo was already back at the safehouse with Darren’s team.

Ten minutes later, I parked the truck outside the central police station.

We walked into the building, Julian and Neve right behind me. The officers led us straight to the back interrogation rooms without asking questions.

I pushed the door open.

Callum was sitting at a metal table, his wrists handcuffed. He didn’t look scared or worried. He was actually leaning back in his chair, smiling.

"Look at this," Callum drawled, his smooth English accent dripping with arrogance.

"The happy family. Did you bring flowers, Ren?" Neve let out a growl.

"You monster," she spat, taking a step toward him. "You tried to kill her! You forced poison down her throat!" Callum blinked, tilting his head with a look of pure confusion.

"I have no idea what you’re talking about, Neve. Are you trying to frame me? Everyone knows Lumi tried to kill herself."

"She didn’t try to kill herself!" Neve yelled, her hands trembling. "You tried to kill her, and you know it!"

"Careful, Neve," he sneered, his voice dropping into a smooth, dangerous calm.

"I can sue you for defamation for saying things like that. You shouldn’t make wild allegations without proof. Where is your proof? What evidence do you actually have?" He turned his gaze slowly toward me, his smile returning.

"I thought you were smart, Ren. But you just proved you’re not so smart after all."

I stepped between Neve and the table, leaning my hands flat against the cold steel surface.

"I don’t need a mountain of evidence today, Callum. Lumi is going to wake up. And when she does, the full truth will come out."

I watched his face closely, waiting to see a crack in his composure. But he didn’t look afraid. He didn’t even look worried.

Instead, Callum laughed out loud. He shook his head, looking up at me with a sickening grin.

"Wake up?" Callum asked softly. "Ren, I’m actually praying that she wakes up. In case you forgot, she’s my ex-wife. Even if she was messing around with you, she still loves me. Deep down, she never stopped. Ask your sister...even Neve knows that’s true."

Neve’s face instantly fell, all the color draining from her cheeks as she stumbled back half a step.

My hands clenched into tight fists against the metal table.

"I’m going to make sure I wipe that smile off your face," I rasped, my voice thick with warning.

I turned on my heel, grabbed Neve by the arm, and led us out of the room, slamming the heavy door shut behind us.

We walked down the long police station corridor in heavy silence until we stepped out into the cool air of the parking lot.

Neve stopped beside my truck, looking up at me with a troubled expression.

"Ren... did you notice something strange about him?" I paused, resting my hand on the driver’s door handle, and nodded slowly.

"He felt way too confident that we didn’t have anything real against him." Julian walked up beside us, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Even when we brought up Lumi waking up, he still looked completely cocky. He acted like he didn’t do a single thing." A cold realization began to settle deep in my chest.

"Unless he wasn’t the one who actually injected her," I said, my voice dropping. "Unless he sent someone else to do it for him."

Neve and Julian looked at each other in shock, both turning to me at the exact same time.

"Who then did he send?" they asked simultaneously.

Before I could answer, the loud ring of my phone broke the quiet air. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the screen.

It was the private line from the hospital ICU.

I answered instantly, pressing the phone to my ear. "Ren speaking."

"She’s awake. Ma’am Lumi just opened her eyes." A hurried voice came through the speaker.

My heart slammed against my ribs so hard it almost knocked the breath out of me. A wave of pure, overwhelming shock and relief washed over me.

"She’s awake?" I repeated, my voice shaking slightly.

"Yes, Sir." I hung up the phone without another word.

"She’s awake," I told Neve and Julian, already ripping the driver’s door open. "Get in the truck."

I slammed my foot onto the gas pedal, tearing out of the police parking lot and speeding toward the hospital as fast as the engine would take us.

I didn’t care about the speed limits. I ran three red lights, my knuckles white against the steering wheel as the truck roared through the city streets toward the hospital.

"She’s really awake?" Neve asked from the back seat, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and desperate hope. "Ren, is she really okay?"

"The doctor said she opened her eyes," I replied, keeping my gaze locked on the road ahead. "She’s conscious."

When we arrived, I bypassed the front desk entirely. Julian and Neve kept pace right behind me as we sprinted up the stairwell and down the silent ICU corridor.

The two guards outside her door immediately snapped to attention and pulled the door open for us.

I burst into the room and stopped dead in my tracks.

Lumi was propped up slightly against the pillows. Her brown eyes were open, but they were clouded over with a heavy, unfocused haze.

The ventilator tube had been removed, replaced by a clear oxygen mask resting over her nose and mouth. She was breathing on her own, her chest rising and falling in slow, shallow motions.

"Lumi," I breathed out, stepping forward instantly.

I dropped to my knees beside the bed, reaching out to cup her face in my hands.

Her skin was warm now...warmer than it had been all morning...and her eyes slowly shifted toward me as I touched her.

"I’m here," I whispered, my voice breaking as I pressed my forehead lightly against her knuckles. "I’m right here, baby. You’re safe."

Her lips twitched beneath the plastic mask. She stared right at me, her eyes filling with instant panic.

She tried to open her mouth to say something, but her jaw trembled, and no sound came out.

She tried again, her face straining with effort, but her vocal cords stayed completely dead.

Her right eye stayed half-closed, and the left corner of her mouth drooped unnaturally.

The air left my lungs all at once. What was going on? Why was she looking this way?

"Ren..." Neve gasped behind me, covering her mouth with both hands as she backed away toward Julian.

"Ren, what’s wrong with her? Why isn’t she saying anything?"

The heavy door opened behind us, and the doctor stepped into the room, holding a digital tablet under his arm.

His face was drained of color, his expression heavy as he looked at me.

"What is wrong with her?" I growled, not taking my eyes off Lumi’s frightened, silent gaze. "Why isn’t she talking?"

"I need to explain her condition." He doctor said quietly, keeping his voice low.

He took a slow breath then stepped closer to the side of the bed.

"The poison used caused severe vascular constriction in her brain while her blood pressure was dropping. And that’s caused her to have stroke." The entire room went completely silent.

"A stroke?" Julian repeated, his voice dropping.

"Her brain was deprived of oxygen for too long before you found her," Dr. Vance explained quietly.

"Physically, her heart is stabilizing, but the stroke has left her with severe speech and motor impairment. She is conscious, she hears us, and she understands where she is.

But she cannot form words right now. She won’t be able to speak clearly...or move the right side of her body...for the next few months."

I stared at the doctor, my heart beating against my ribs like a trapped beast.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

She wouldn’t be able to speak? For months?

My Lumi?