Sonata of The Shattered | Book I

Emergency Call

15 July 2022

It's one in the morning when he received calls from her daughter, again and again.

He never received that kind of call from his daughter so the lad decided to pick it up after the ninth time. A yawn was heard from him as he just opened his eyes from his deep sleep. A comfortable one to be exact. But he knew that Christine wouldn't call him just from missing him after those multiple missed calls.

"Christine, it's one in the—"

Cries. She heard cries on the other side of the phone with a loud banging noise being heard again and again. He wasn't sure from where that sound was but it sounded like someone banging on the door as hard as they could with their hands.

"Daddy.. Daddy, mommy isn't answering."

"Daddy, help me. I can't wake mommy up."

Those cries and those nightmares the little girl told him. He jumped out of his bed and rushed himself towards the closet. "Christine, calm down. Tell me, where is your mom?" asked Clayton, trying to not panic himself either. "In her room, but it's locked. She's not answering, it's been an hour and so. She's never been like this before. Mommy is a light sleeper."

'Fuck, this is not what I'm expecting to hear in the middle of the night,' he said inside his heart as now his mind was also clouded by fear and panic. Scary thoughts of what could happen to his beloved one really made him shaking in fear.

"Christine.. Christine, listen to me. Stay there and try to call for your mother again. Can you try to call your neighbor for help?" Clayton asked. "We don't have any neighbors, daddy." Christine answered as she cried louder than before. Though the girl was fifteen, he knew that anyone in a panic state would never be able to process things quickly. Christine was still a child, nonetheless.

He put on his clothes and walked out the room. His hands trying to find his car key with his other hand still on the phone. His lips were busy trying to calm his daughter down. The commotion itself caused the other person living in the house awake.

"Clay, what's wrong? Where are you going?" asked the woman, Melissa, who's awake from those ruckus. "I'm going to Fransesca. She's not responding and Christine is panicking. I'm going to make sure things are okay there." Clayton quickly replied before he ran towards the main door and left the house. He turned off the phone after he told Christine that he's on his way to their apartment.

His heart beat so fast as the car drove into the night, across the highway. Across the quiet and empty roads. He stepped on the gas pedal pretty hard, hoping that it would help him to get faster into his beloved's residence. Not wanting to waste any minute as every single second was crucial.

Ten minutes later, he arrived at her apartment building. He parked his Tesla and ran inside, straight to the lift that brought him to the fifteenth floor, then to her unit. He pushed the bell so his daughter would open the door for him and she did, with all the tears that came down for her red, teary eyes. Her body trembled so hard, scared.

"Where's your mom?"

Clayton quickly asked. Christine pointed at a door and he quickly grabbed the handle, trying to open the door but he realized that it was really locked. He called her name, he banged the door, and still, no answer.

"Fransesca Adelaidine! Fransesca, answer me?!"

Not even an answer was heard. The man broke into her room with all the strength that he had. The bedroom was empty, but the bed itself was messy. As if she was there before to sleep or to do something else. He walked into the room with his heart beating uncontrollably. His mind went blank when he turned his head towards the bathroom, only to see the woman on the floor, unconscious.

"Fransesca?" he called her as he walked closer. He tried to wake her up with all that he could. From nudges, taps, pats, and pinches. None worked. But he could still feel her pulse and breathe. Her body was so cold, not the usual temperature he usually felt from normal people.

Pale as a ghost.

Clayton Nicholas Kingsley quickly carried the woman on his back and gestured to Christine to follow him. They quickly left the unit, into the lift, out of the building, then to the car he parked earlier. Straight to the nearest hospital they lived in; which Rhee Anderson invested in and legally owned, The Hill International Hospital.

Christine was in the backseat, trying to wake her mother again and again during their short trip to the hospital. As soon as they arrived right in front of the emergency unit door, Clayton ran out from the car and carried Fransesca on his back again until some nurses quickly helped and brought the woman in to be examined by the doctors.

He let himself park his car properly first and took Christine inside as well in the waiting room as they waited for any kind of result, while he was trying to fill in the form he needed to write for Fransesca, but he couldn't. So he walked towards where Fransesca was lying down while being checked by doctors.

"Please.. Someone— it's Fransesca Adelaidine Rhee.." he told them desperately as he couldn't write any on the paper anymore. Somehow, he doesn't have the strength to even hold the pen. Of course, the name was widely known in the hospital. No matter how the woman was disowned by her father or whatever happened in the past, Fransesca was still Anderson's daughter.

To hear that she's one of the most important people to be treated at the moment, the seniors were called to take over the check up instead of the juniors. Soon, he wasn't allowed to be in that area and was asked to stay in the waiting room with Christine.

He tried to calm his daughter down first in between his own fears and panicking. He kissed his daughter's crown again and again, trying to make sure that her mother would be more than okay. That her mother will be awake soon and she's just not in her best condition at the moment.

To wait for the woman felt like hell, as he didn't receive any news for several minutes. But he could see how so many senior doctors and nurses were seen running back and forth inside, or in and out the emergency unit soon after he told them her name.

"Excuse me, are you the one who brought Miss Rhee here?"

"Yes... yes, I am."

"We're going to move her into the VVIP room on the tenth floor to rest. We've diagnosed her with severe exhaustion so she'll need some rest here for the night while the doctors will be taking turns on checking her condition. She should be awake soon or tomorrow. Mr. Rhee has also been informed by this."

The nightmare that he thought he would face slowly faded away when he heard those words being said to him. A huge relief for the man and Christine as well. As they followed her into the tenth floor's VVIP room that looks like an expensive apartment unit, Clayton decided to take care of his daughter first.

"Christine, you can rest in one of the rooms. Sleep, you need one. Your mother will be okay. I'm here, as well as the nurses and doctors. They'll check on her. It's nearly three in the morning, you should rest." Clayton told his daughter. Christine nodded and wiped her tears away. "Please keep an eye on her, daddy. I don't want to lose mommy."

"You won't, I promise you. I promise you that you'll never lose your mommy."

Christine then walked into one of the two bedrooms there to sleep and rest her body. Meanwhile Clayton decided to make a cup of coffee in the kitchen and drank a cup of it while he sat next to Fransesca's bed, next to the living room. The woman was still unconscious with the help of an oxygen mask and IV that dripped, flowing into her body bit by bit.

"Fransesca," he whispered. "I love you so I promise to keep you safe no matter what. Now and always."

He kissed her on the forehead and smiled slightly before he became in charge of taking care of the woman for the rest of the night.

to be continued.