“Where are you? Come to my house immediately! Aubree Wilson is in trouble!” Riley Harris yelled it out. He was afraid that Aubree might hear that.
“What? I cannot hear you. Let’s talk about it later,” Hendrix Elliot replied. While there were glass bottles shattering and people screaming in the background.
Riley then realized Hendrix had gone into a fight again.
“Hendrix! Can I just count on you for once? Aubree is in trouble. Can’t you hear me?” Riley was worried.
“Son of a bitch! How dare you kick me!” Hendrix cursed while hanging up the phone.
Riley threw his phone to the wall aggressively.
All he said was he loved Aubree! But where was he when Aubree was in trouble!
All he knew was how to have fun or got into trouble. He did not deserve her!
Riley was angry while anxiously pacing back and forth in the room. He kept thinking about leaving Aubree alone in her room was a bad idea.
Suddenly, he stopped pacing as he had an idea. He came out from his room and tiptoed to Aubree’s door. Then, he checked on what was going on in her room.
After listening for quite a while, his neck was sore. But, he still did not hear anything at all.
“Aubree, are you okay?” Riley decided to ask even after hesitating.
There was no response from Aubree’s room. All he heard was silence.
“Aubree?” Riley asked again. His hand was on the doorknob while he was anxiously waiting for a reply.
Riley carefully turned the doorknob but the door would not open.
He flinched for a second, then turned the doorknob vigorously a few times. Soon, he realized Aubree locked the door.
“Aubree!” he shouted. He knew leaving Aubree alone in her room was not a good idea!
“Mom!”
Mrs. Harris was frightened. She knew something was off when she saw Riley’s facial expressions, “Hurry up, someone please go get the spare keys!”
“Click!” The door was unlocked, but there was no one in the room.
The only sound they noticed was water splattering onto the bathroom floor. Riley looked at Mrs. Harris, “Oh, so she is just taking a shower…” Riley blushed.
“Silly boy!” Mrs. Harris poked Riley’s head. All of a sudden, her look became nervous, “Let me check, you stay here and wait.” Mrs. Harris walked into the bathroom.
“Aubree?” Mrs. Harris walked in. With steam covering the glass shower room, she could not see anything behind the glass.
There was a red liquid seeping out slowly through the gap between the glass door and the floor. It was terrifying.
“Oh god! Call the ambulance!” It was the first time that Mrs. Harris saw someone attempt to commit suicide. She was shocked and unable to walk properly.
Riley rushed in and opened the glass door, then stunned.
Aubree was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall with one of her wrist immersed in water. Her long messy black hair was sticking to her pale cheek, while her whole body was drenched.
The mixture of blood and water painted her to be as red as cinnabar.
“Oh god, hurry up!” Mrs. Harris seems exhausted. She held on to the sink beside her and was about to collapse anytime.
Riley did not have the time to call an ambulance. He had not experienced anything like this before. His instinct was picking Aubree up then drove her all the way to the hospital.
Since he hangs out with Hendrix all the time, his driving was as reckless.
Mrs. Harris did not follow Riley to the hospital. Instead, she just laid on the couch. She felt that there was a lump of thoughts clogging in her heart. It was tormenting her.
In the past when Mrs. Harris first met Aubree, she thought Aubree looked lovely and clever. She really liked Aubree as she did not have a daughter before.
But who would have known that Aubree was so immature and tried to commit suicide in her house.
If she really passed away, there would be an impact on the feng shui of the house. Riley’s dad’s company had already been facing unsteady development. A negative impact on the feng shui was not the thing they can bear.
Hospital.
Riley could see that the hospital was right in front of him. Even when he was sweaty, he did not care about anything. He parked his car right in front of the hospital.
“Doctor! Doctor!” Riley shouted while checking on Aubree in the car. He felt that she was not breathing anymore.
As the situation worsened, the less he dared to touch her. He had no choice but to shout for help at the hospital entrance.
A few nurses were rushing out. They carried Aubree with a trolley to the operating room.
Riley was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, just to pay. He had never done anything like this before. He did not have any experience, so he wasted a lot of time.
“Who is Aubree’s family?”
“Is Aubree’s family here?”
“I am!” Riley was back in the waiting area of the operating rooms. He then squeezed through the crowd as he suddenly heard someone calling for Aubree’s family.
“Why are you wandering around and not staying right here? Everyone was looking for you.” The doctor glared at Riley, “Sign the notice for critical illness.”
Riley was a bit awkward. He did not catch the meaning of critical illness notice for a moment, “She is dying…”
“Doctor, critical illness? Wh-what does that mean?” to Riley, the term “critical illness” means Aubree is dying. That was why they needed a family signature. He could feel that there was something heavy on his chest that was suffocating him.
“The notice for critical illness states that the patient is under a serious condition. They could die anytime or they might not.”
“Oh come on, just sign it,” the doctor said impatiently.
Riley took a look at the notice. It stated that they needed a signature from Aubree’s family, but he was not one of Aubree’s family members…
“What are you waiting for?” The doctor pointed at the blank space that needed to be signed, “Do you still want to continue her treatment?”
“I… I am her classmate, her family abandoned her…” Riley was only a teenager. He would not understand these issues.
“What do you mean by that? Hurry up and call her family! She just committed suicide. None of her family members were concerned? Time is running out! Every second wasted will only push her one step closer to death!” The doctor felt meaningless talking to him. He took away the notice from Riley. Then, he turned away and headed towards the operating room.
Riley stopped dead in his tracks. He was clueless. He was Aubree’s friend, there was no way Riley could ignore her.
Uncle Sidney was the one who abandoned Aubree. Even if he wanted her, Riley still did not have his contact number. Besides, Uncle Sidney had always been a mysterious person in the city. It was never an easy task to track him down.
“Aubree? Isn’t that Phoebe Foster’s illegitimate daughter in the live broadcast just now? She killed herself?” The old woman sitting by the side suddenly turned and looked at Riley. She was still holding her phone with the on-going broadcast.
“What a miserable kid, her biological father is such as jerk!”
Riley did not want to listen to their gossip, but that had given him hope. Suddenly an idea popped into his mind. Since Aubree was Phoebe’s daughter, then why didn’t he ask him to sign the notice?
Riley could not wait to find out the message that Phoebe previously sent out to recruit volunteers. The contact number for his company was on it.
He stood still and waited for someone to pick up the phone. If someone actually picked up, then Aubree should be alright.
Unfortunately, no one was picking up.