Although Gloria's voice had long been broken, currently, her voice had reached a new limit. Listening to her speak made one feel like hearing two pieces of coarse sandpaper rubbing against each other.
Anyone would get a sore throat and an itchy mouth while listening to her.
"What do you want?" Stewart frowned and asked in dissatisfaction.
Gloria didn't care about his attitude. She casually took the face powders out of her bag, opened it, and started to touch up her makeup as if no one else was around.
"Seriously? You are still in the mood to fix your makeup now?" Stewart sneered. In fact, he was already dissatisfied.
Gloria turned around and asked him, "Do I look good?"
"Don't go too far!" Stewart clenched his fists.
"If he sees me, he won't be able to move his eyes away from me, right?" Gloria lowered her head slightly and muttered to herself.
Immediately, Stewart felt a lump in his throat and something bitter in his heart.
"Yes," after a while, he said in a hoarse and gentle voice. "Go inside. He'll be glad to know you've dressed up for him."
"OK." Gloria nodded lightly.
The moment the door opened, the exhaustion on Gloria's face vanished. Instead, she revealed a dazzling smile.
Sean leaned against the window and looked back at her. "Come in."
He sighed in his heart and thought, 'I'm sure she has no idea that the smile on her face has given her away. It tells me that she is now in extreme pain.'
Sean turned around and walked towards her. He suddenly stretched out his long arms and pulled her. "Stop smiling. He can't see you."
Her smile froze.
"He was shot in the heart, and the wound was within two centimeters of his heart. He was sent to the hospital at once after being shot. The bullet has been removed, but it is made of silver. Though he is alive, he is not doing well." Sean's eyes were full of distress.
"Not doing well?" Gloria repeated.
Sean looked at her from a close distance. Only then did he realize that her seemingly good complexion was fake. She was wearing thick facial powder and red lipstick, and in fact, the dark circles under her eyes could hardly be concealed by the powder.
He did not answer her right away. Suddenly, he pulled open the curtain behind him, revealing the scene inside.
Gloria had never seen Patrick like this before. He was covered in tubes and surrounded by medical equipment, and there he lay, still and lifeless, on the bed.
Sean was behind her, and his voice seemed to pass through the darkness and reached her ears. "As you can see, he can't be alive without these things for now. He has to rely on these devices to monitor his vital signs in real-time."
"I see," Gloria interrupted Sean abruptly. She knew that he was telling her that Patrick might die at any time.
"Have you informed Alex?" When she said this, her voice choked with sobs, but from beginning to end, she did not shed a single tear.
Sean shook his head. "I only informed you. Things are complicated when it comes to the Hammond family. Once words get out, people will make a move against him at this time."
Gloria's face turned pale. She said anxiously, "Give me your phone."
She took Sean's phone and immediately called Mandy. She said, "Don't tell anyone where I am now. Keep your mouth shut these days."
Mandy understood that she could not tell anyone about what had happened to Patrick.
"Can we have the room for ourselves for a moment?" Gloria sounded desperate.
Sean took a deep look at Gloria, and then he silently turned around and left.
The ward was quiet to a disturbing point.
Gloria stood in front of the bed, quietly looking at the motionless person on the bed. Sadness overwhelmed her, yet till now, she still hadn't shed a single tear.
But her dry eyes were bloodshot.
Everything was quiet, and no one could tell what she was thinking right now. She looked at the lifeless Patrick on the bed without blinking.
Sean and Stewart did not know how Gloria was feeling during this time alone.
When the door opened again, it was for another rescue for Patrick.
Gloria seemed to have been forgotten. Everyone's attention was on Patrick.
No one spoke a word. By late afternoon, doctors said Patrick would be fine for the time being.
Yet it was not the end. For five days and nights after Gloria reached here, Patrick was never out of danger.
It was a morning with a glimmer of hope.
She stayed by his hospital bed. She had grown accustomed to staring night after night at his thin, pale cheeks.
When it was late at night, she would sit by his hospital bed. Every time she thought of the possibility of him dying, the pain deep down would make her feel suffocating.
"Won't it hurt you if he doesn't wake up?" Sean pointed excitedly at Gloria, who never cried the slightest.
"I have been through all kinds of pain before," she said, not knowing if Sean could understand.
She was already numb from feeling hurt.
Sean turned his head silently and looked at Patrick, who was lying on the bed.
That night, she was so tired that she fell asleep by Patrick's bedside.
Early in the morning, she was woken up by a burst of noise.
She opened her eyes and saw that the bed was surrounded by many people.
The first ones she saw were Sean and Stewart on the other side of the bed, and they looked very excited. She followed their gaze and looked at the bed. In the next second, her pupils contracted violently.
She opened her mouth in a daze and gawked at Patrick, who was on the bed, blinking at her.
Patrick was awake!
Her heart was filled with joy, but the next moment, she was filled with disgust, because she hated this feeling.
She turned her self-loathing into a verbal attack. "I have not shed a tear for you. I won't cry for you."
Immediately, everyone glared at her. Stewart suppressed his anger and said sternly, "You're going too far!"
"Patrick just woke up. How could you say that to him? Do you really want to piss him off?" Sean echoed.
Gloria immediately regretted it after she finished talking, but she refused to show the white feather. She stubbornly pursed her lips and did not speak.
Suddenly, a voice sounded, "Do you hate me?"
Patrick sounded aggrieved and sad, like a kid who had been wronged.
Gloria gawked at Patrick, who was lying on the bed, looking upset.
"What's wrong with you?" Sean was the first to react. He eagerly reached out to Patrick, who was lying on the bed.
"Don't touch me!" Patrick, who was on the bed, shrank back in fear. Stewart went forward to prevent Patrick from touching the wound. "Don't move! Watch out for the wound."
Yet this time, Patrick's reaction was even more violent.
Sean reached out and grabbed Stewart, who was about to go forward again. "Calm down. Something is off with Patrick."
"Who are you? All of you, get out," Patrick said in a childish tone. He looked at the people around the bed in fear.
In the next second, he ignored all the tubes connected to his body. Under the shocked eyes of everyone, he threw himself into Gloria's arms and said in an extremely aggrieved voice, "I'm scared."