Chapter 4

Brandon's POV

The lingering effects of the hurricane persisted, and it was still pouring madly outside.

Timmy's fluctuating fever suddenly turned into a febrile seizure at 3:00 pm. He wouldn't stop convulsing violently. His little face turned bluish-purple, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he couldn't even cry out.

"Timmy? Timmy! Don't scare me, please!"

I panicked completely. My hands and feet turned ice-cold, and I frantically dialed 911 to send out an ambulance. However, I was told that all ambulances were dispatched because of the severe weather, and the earliest one would only arrive at least 40 minutes later.

However, 40 minutes was way too long and fatal for a newborn baby with a febrile seizure.

I shakily called Taylor again. This time, she picked up.

When she heard about Timmy's seizure, she also got a huge shock and said shakily, "Don't worry, honey! I'm driving back at once! Wrap Timmy up in a rug for now. I'll meet you at the apartment building entrance!"

Ten minutes later, I wrapped the convulsing Timmy tightly in my raincoat and gritted through my injured leg as I scrambled down the stairs.

Taylor's car was already running. I had only just opened the passenger door and hadn't even gotten in when her phone started ringing again on the dashboard.

It was George again.

Taylor instinctively answered the call and connected it to the car's Bluetooth speaker.

"Tay! Help! I'm going to get electrocuted!"

George wouldn't stop shouting frantically on the call. "I just went to get some water earlier and slipped and fell, and I think I broke my leg! I can't get up! The flood's reaching the outlets in the wall, and sparks are already flying everywhere! I'm going to die of electrocution! Save me!"

Taylor gripped the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles turned white. She then braked hard suddenly in the middle of the road. We'd barely even made it out to the corner of the apartment building.

I glared at her intensely and grabbed her arm. My tears finally gushed forth as I begged, almost pitifully, "Taylor! The doctor said that febrile seizures will damage the brain or even kill the baby! Please, I'm begging you, send our son to the hospital first! The hospital's just ten minutes away from here!"

George began screaming even more loudly on the phone. "Tay! The water's reaching me! I'm scared!"

Taylor glanced at the convulsing, ashen-faced Timmy in my arms, and then at the phone screen. She shut her eyes in anguish, struggling with herself for a few seconds.

Then, she turned her steering wheel sharply to the right.

"I'm sorry, Brandon," she said, not daring to look into my eyes. "George might die! But Timmy's seizure will probably just go away on its own. Call the ambulance or stop a car on the roadside. I must go and save George! He's the only family Ryan has left!"

Then, she ignored my pleas, opened my side of the door, and shoved me out of the car.

I knelt in the mud and watched her car disappear down the road heading in the opposite direction, my tears drying on my face.

Strike three.

I didn't call out after her anymore. Instead, I gathered the last of my energy and waded through the mud to the side of the road, desperately flagging down any passing car to give us a ride.

…

Taylor kept picturing George dying in his apartment from electrocution. She ran two red lights and drove down all the way to the apartment at lightning speed.

The elevator had stopped running, so she ran up 11 floors to George's apartment unit, worried to death that she would only be met with his dead body once she'd arrived.

"George! I'm here, George! I'll save you!"

She was panting heavily by the time she reached the designated floor. Just as she was about to break into the apartment, she suddenly realized that the door wasn't even locked. In fact, it was left slightly ajar.

She wanted to push the door open right away, but she suddenly realized that the smell wafting out wasn't a putrid burning smell of electricity. If anything, it smelled like a rich, buttery, and garlicky sauce.

It smelled like someone had been making steak.

Taylor stood at the door and peered in through the crack. The sight inside plunged her right into an icy abyss.

The apartment was dry and brightly lit. There were no electricity leaks and no sparking electricity outlets.

More importantly, the George who'd just been crying and screaming on the phone about being electrocuted to death just now was happily clinking glasses of red wine with a number of his friends in the dining room as they feasted on their steaks.

"Don't worry and just eat. See, all I need to do is come up with a lie and remind her of the promise she'd made to Tiff, and that idiot will just abandon her baby at the NICU and run all the way to me.

"Women are stupid and easy to manipulate like that. The more you praise them for being loyal and devoted, the more they'll treat you as a saint.

"Taylor will continue being my ATM and free nanny for the rest of her life!"