Stellar Spectrum Book One: The Faceless Ghost

Chapter 23

It was morning, Nyles woke up and found himself in the hospital with a neck brace, he was about to get up but then felt the stinging pain "don't move," Hawkes said walking towards him. "It'll hurt more."

"A cop? wait, where's the girl?" Nyles asked in a raspy voiced affected by the brace.

"She's not here."

"Why am I here with this on my neck?"

"I saw you assaulting the girl, so I did.. that to you, I'm sorry."

"I wasn't assaulting her!" Nyles yelled but he moved so he felt the pain again.

"Easy there. Don't worry, she told me there was some misunderstanding and decided not to press charges."

"Misunderstanding?! she said my son was dead!"

"She told me that too."

"Ughh... I trusted her after being in my shop and offering to go to my friend's art school and she's going to tell me such... lies."

"That's why I'm here, I actually, looked into it."

"What?".

Hawkes took out his tablet and handed it to him "I'm a detective, here's the proof."

Nyles looked into it and started reading it "I never saw my son after my girlfriend's mother took them away from me so how do I know if what you're saying are true? how do I know if this is my son?"

"He died few weeks ago, I know because I was the one that investigated this case," Hawkes explained "he died in a car crash, his body and the vehicle he drove were badly burnt that it was hard to identify him until she found his phone at the side of the road where his car was". Nyles opened the tablet and saw what his son looked like, he could tell it was him from his eyes then he started crying "I even contacted the memorial service to confirm it. The mother, Verona, asked not to reveal him in the news but after tonight...".

"She's not his mother," he sniffled.

"Anyway, she wants me to give you her phone number in case you have questions," Hawkes gave him a small piece of paper but he was too upset to take it so he placed it on the table next to the hospital bed.

"Why do I want to talk to her?"

"That's up to you but she had nothing to do with this, although if I were you, I'd hear her out first."

"You have no idea what I'm feeling right now."

"Believe it or not, I do but this isn't about me, I just came here to check on you and to give you the hard facts from what that girl said. I'll leave you alone now."

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In the other hand, Archie was in the hospital to be with Verona wearing Archie's coat over what she was still wearing in her sleepwear, they were outside the ICU room looking at a comatose Dominic through the wide window while Bryce and Harrison were sleeping by the waiting area "how are you feeling?" he asked her.

"I'm fine, I'm just worried for Dominic, he may be a butler but he's the only one I have left, losing him will be just as painful as losing my family," she said.

"The doctor said he'll be fine."

"I hope so or else I'll sue," she sobbed then she looked at Archie. "Thank you for saving us after what I did to you, I'm so sorry about that."

"It's fine, just forget about."

"It's true what the rumor said, you really did change."

"Yeah, for them," he pointed to his grandson and the twins were included too, Verona looked at Dominic again.