Chapter 2 Get Her Out of My House
Click… The pen Craig was holding fell to the floor.
Everyone’s throats seemed to close up, and none of them could make a sound for several long moments.
On the other end of the line, the young voice continued, “Uncle Ryan… I’m so cold and hungry… I didn’t push Stacy, but no one believed me. Daddy told me to kneel by the door… But I’m so cold… Uncle, won’t you come and pick me up…”
As she spoke, the girl’s voice became weaker and weaker. Through the phone, the Murrays could faintly hear the sound of whistling wind and snow, but the little girl’s voice had cut off.
Ryan finally came to his senses. He grabbed the phone and held it close to his mouth, shouting hurriedly, “Hey, Su-Susie? Where are you? Tell your uncle where you are!”
There was no response.
Craig stood up in a panic. His earlier stoic, gruff attitude vanished in an instant, as if all of a sudden he’d aged ten years.
“Come on, what are you waiting for? Somebody search this number! Check this number, check the location, quick!”
Susie passed out before finishing her call, and the phone fell from her hand into the snow. After a long time, Andrew came out to look for his
phone. When he saw Susie lying there motionless, he raised his foot and kicked her.
“You might as well be dead!” he exclaimed angrily.
Four years ago, Andrew had picked up a woman dressed in tattered
clothes from the side of the road. In a moment of kindness, he took her
back to his apartment and offered her a bath and a change of clothes. After she’d gotten cleaned up, he realized she was extremely beautiful.
She couldn’t remember how she had gotten there, and when he tried to question her, she seemed dazed and confused. Andrew thought she was cute, so he’d spent a long time trying to win her over. Like a lovesick idiot, he doted on her, pampering her and taking care of her at
every turn…
Now, he felt sick just thinking about it.
woman wandering alone like that, who knew what could have happened to her? If she had been assaulted before he
about Susie’s parentage, he had never thought of doing a paternity test. If word got out that he was not Susie’ s real father, it would be extremely humiliating, and
a series of numbers. “Hey… Shawn, it’s Andrew Bishop. I’ve been meaning
family of Los Angeles?”
have you been? Do you know the Murray family, by
the wind and snow continued to pummel the house and the small figure lying outside it. Susie was crumpled into a ball in the snow, and the minutes crept by painfully slowly as the
to set.
awareness, but she couldn’t open her eyes without a great
mother died. No matter what happened, even if her father
she felt
other end of the phone. It must mean even her
one in the entire world cared
she died, when her mother saw her in such a state,
repeating in her
then, she heard a loud roaring
once. A man wearing an expensive black coat jumped out of the first car
wind and snow were so strong, Susie’s small frame
the phone, Susie had said she was kneeling at
as he spotted a small, barely
a panic. Hist hands turned red quickly from the freezing cold, and finally he saw a
“Susie?!”
arms. The moment he got
her face, he was sure it was their
looked almost exactly like his sister when
younger.
be the child of their beloved,
being wrapped in a
swaddle her
numb, she could barely feel anything. Even with the
arms.
in front
and she murmured, “Are you… my uncle Ryan? Uncle, I… I didn’t
Susie’s voice was faint and weak, and she seemed almost unconscious.
In contrast with Ryan’s excitement at seeing his niece, Susie seemed like an emotionless little robot, frozen into a listless, exhausted state.
Ryan was on the verge of tears. The little girl in his arms was wearing only a thin nightgown, a flimsy cotton garment that could barely have protected her from a summer breeze. Her small face was blue from the cold, and her lips were chapped and turning black. Her body was completely motionless, like a statue carved out of the ice. Ryan was
terrified as he carried her, afraid she might break if he wasn’t careful.
“Susie… It’s me, your uncle is here, your uncle will take you home.”
Ryan couldn’t help sobbing as he spoke. He couldn’t imagine how Susie had survived this. If he had arrived even a few minutes later, it
might have been too late.
Ryan held Susie carefully, cradling her with extreme tenderness, and ran as fast as he could toward the car.
“Susie, just hold on a little longer,” Ryan said hoarsely. “Don’t go to sleep… Susie, can you answer me? Susie…”
Susie had slipped into unconsciousness.
Craig rushed over to them, trembling slightly. He looked at the motionless bundle in Ryan’s arms and asked anxiously. “How is she?”
Ryan shook his head in distress. “We have to get her to the hospital, right away!”
Everyone in the Murray family had their hearts in their throats at seeing Susie’s frozen, incapacitated state. They immediately jumped back into their cars and sped toward the hospital.
At the same time, Andrew hurried downstairs, his face full of barely- suppressed glee and excitement.
As it turned out, when the Murray family cars first entered the courtyard, they had been stopped by the guards. Martin had given them his name, and the guards immediately granted entry while rushing to inform Andrew.
Andrew had been racking his brain to try to make a connection with the all-powerful Murray family, and when he heard this news, he
thought he was dreaming!
He couldn’t believe his luck at the Murray family’s arrival, but he intended to take advantage of the opportunity while he had it.
The Bishop family was saved!
Just then, Andrew remembered something. He turned to a nearby servant and said. “That damn little girl is still kneeling in the courtyard. isn’t she? Get her out of here right away!”
That little troublemaker had killed her baby brother, and now she was nothing but an extra expense while his company went bankrupt. Now that he had the rare chance to meet with the Murray family, Andrew wanted to make sure she couldn’t interfere.