The selfishness of maternal love was often manifested in all mothers' extravagant wishes to leave all
good things to their children, but they often forgot that many things were beyond their control!
Eric's voice came through the phone—his breathing was unstable, short, and deep.
Shirley was stunned at first, and then asked: "What? What did you just say? What's wrong with Mark?"
All the people in the room suddenly turned their attention towards her especially Molly. When she heard
something was wrong with Mark, she instantly worried.
From the rear view mirror, Eric looked at Mark, who was lying in a coma in the back seat. As he sped
up his car, he replied, "I don't know what's wrong with him yet. Mark was eating at a restaurant with me
earlier. He was fine at the beginning but all of a sudden he said he felt bad, and then he passed out
before he finished talking. I'm on my way to the hospital right now."
Shirley's face was white as a sheet and her voice was trembling as she hastily spoke, "Okay, you do
that, then we'll be there right away." Then she hung up and said in a rush, "Mark passed out for some
unknown reason, so Eric's bringing him to the hospital now."
Molly's face turned the same shade as Sheryl's when she heard that. Brian's eyes grew sharp but he
remained silent. Brian just walked out of the room with Molly and broke speed limits as they drove their
way to the Dragon Empire Group Hospital of A City. They were followed by Richie and Shirley in their
own car.
Eric leaned on the outside wall of the emergency room with his arms cross around his chest. With a
cold look on his face, he kept staring at the closed door of the emergency room. All the doctors in
charge from all the departments of the hospital were gathered inside to examine for Mark. He waited
with increasing anxiety as every second passed by.
A moment later, he heard a bunch of footsteps rushing towards him.
Eric turned to Richie, Shirley, Brian, and Molly leading the pack running towards him. He was a bit
surprised. When did Brian and Molly come back?
"Eric," Molly gasped and asked, "Where's Mark? How is he?" What happened? Why did he suddenly
pass out?"
Molly gulped nervously. She was looking at Eric expectantly as if she wanted him to tell her that it
wasn't a big deal. But he didn't. His face was solemn and even that playful smile of his was gone which
only made Molly worry more.
"Eric?" Shirley asked, and she was also frowning.
Eric shook his head slightly, looked at them and said, "I don't know what happened either. We'll find out
when the examinations are done."
Brian bit his thin lips, narrowed his eyes and then slowly asked, "What were you two doing anyway?"
"Mark didn't eat anything he wasn't allowed to," Eric answered gravely. No one spoke for a while. But
Brian and Eric had already talked about this before—Mark was allergic to some food. "He ate tiramisu
and drank some orange juice. That's it," Eric added.
Molly, with her nose scrunched up, asked anxiously, "Then what's the matter? How come he suddenly
passed out?" Tears were starting to build on Molly's eyes but she tried her best to keep herself from
crying. Brian pulled her in to hold her and whispered in her ears, "Don't worry, Mark's going to be fine,"
he said in a low voice.
Molly looked up at Brian, her eyes welling up. He looked cold and distant but Molly knew that deep
inside, he was just as worried as she was.
All five of them waited in the corridor. The father Richie and his son Brian were almost wearing the
same expression, indifferent and without revealing any emotion, but their dark pupils were deep, heavy
and ferocious.
Molly's hands were clasped together, and she was standing next to Shirley who every once in a while
offered her a comforting look. Eric was leaning against the wall and was frowning. Eric was an
easygoing, detached guy yet here he was worried sick about Mark.
On the other side of the wall was the emergency room where a team of doctors were huddled up
examining Mark. Soon, hours passed by and it was already late into the night.
"Vice Dean, the report came out," A nurse said as she handed the report to the Vice Dean.
He took the report and read through it carefully while a neurosurgeon was carrying out a careful
examination on Mark. He went through the report page by page. At first, he looked calm but as he read
through, his brows started to furrow together.
"Vice Dean," the surgeon's face was heavy. "There's something peculiar in Mark's brain. I'm afraid..."
The Vice Dean handed the film to the surgeon, and after he saw it, his face changed and he said, "As
expected."
"Mark's coma today has nothing to do with the tumor," the vice president said and handed the surgeon
a test sheet. "Mark's in poor health because his mother took some medicines while she was pregnant.
So now he can't absorb a lot—only a specific amount of Vitamin C. I think they said that the normal
amount won't have an effect on him but he took too much today."
Everyone knew that Molly had eye replacement surgery in that very same hospital and it was done by
Dr. He. Because Molly was pregnant at that time, even if she took mild medicines that Elias had
prescribed her with, it would still either way have an effect on the fetus. And if she hadn't taken those
medicines, Mark might have been born with much more serious complications.
The doctors exchanged grave looks with one another. When they found out what was wrong with Mark,
Dr. He took the blame and resigned thereafter. They didn't know why Dr. He didn't declare or report
Mark's problem. They would have figured out a way while he was still a fetus and that would've been
easier but now that he was a grown kid, it was impossible to cure. They were sure that Mr. Brian and
his family wouldn't allow this to happen again and today was just an accident. But right now, the
problem was his intracranial tumor.
"I'll check to see if the tumor is benign or malignant," the neurosurgeon said heavily, "For now, we have
to figure out what to do about the Vitamin C overdose."
The problem was a bit tricky: now that the intracranial tumor was detected, it could cause brain hypoxia
and force the nerve to press on the tumor—if that happened, things could get really bad.
"Dr. Young, run a test on the tumor right now," the Vice Dean said to the neurosurgeon. After he ran
through some details about the procedures to be done by the rest of the team, he said, "I'll be out to
update Mr. Eric Long now."
He clutched the report in his hands and walked out of the emergency room solemnly. He was surprised
to find that four more people had arrived waiting for Mark. But he was a doctor and he was used to this
so he kept his face expressionless. After a moment's worth of niceties, he focused on the matter at
hand and tried his best to give a detailed explanation of Mark's condition and possible complications.
Molly retreated a few steps back unsteadily as she listened to the doctor. Her face was pale and she
couldn't feel her body anymore. Shirley swooped up to steady Molly's trembling body. Only Shirley
could understand what Molly was feeling—it was a maternal thing. No one else could understand the
pain a mother felt when her child was sick because the cause was maternal.
"Doc, doctor..." Molly said with her teeth rattling, "You mean that Mark... Mark's tumor could possibly be
malignant?"
The Vice Dean nodded seriously. After his nod, all of their faces looked grave. Although none of the
three men said anything, their eyes turned heavy and sharp one by one.
Unlike Molly and Shirley's concerns, the concern of all the three men was that the complications only
existed because of the overdose on vitamin C making it impossible for Mark to have intracranial
surgery.
Brian took out his phone and dialed a group of numbers. As soon as the call came through, he ordered
harshly, "I want all of you to check right now! Find out who moved Mark's orange juice!"
"Yes, sir," Antonio's voice came on the phone.
The corner of Eric's mouth twitched and he said coldly, "I'll go check right now."
He turned around without waiting for anyone to respond to him and left hastily.
Eric's face was stone-hard as he drove from the hospital to the restaurant. When he arrived at the
restaurant, the manager of the restaurant hurriedly welcomed him. He had been shaking the whole
time because of what happened earlier. He didn't know who the child was but he was obviously
important to Eric. If the child got food poisoning from this place, not only would it get bad for the
restaurant but for himself—he might lose his job or something worse might happen, as Eric was a
powerful person after all.
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