My Billionaire Husband

Kate was surprised, but she shook her head immediately.

"OK. Smart." Curly-head snorted.

He took another deep drag and threw his cigarette out of the window. And then he pointed at her with his forefinger and threatened her, "That thing since you said you didn't have it, you'd better never take it out. Otherwise, you will end up like your friend…" He made a gesture of pointing a gun at her temple with his hand and pulling the trigger, "Bang!"

Kate shrank to the back of her seat but could not help asking, "She…did you…really kill her?"

Curly-head changed his face and said impatiently, "Better not to know too much."

He pulled something from the front seat and threw it to her. She looked down. It was her shoulder bag.

"Get out." After Curly-hair scrutinized her for a few more seconds, he released her.

Kate felt excited and pushed the door open. She jumped out hastily for fear they might reconsider. She walked fast at first, but as she got further away from the car, she simply ran.

The car didn't drive away but stayed there until she lost sight of it at the corner. Curly-head went to sit in the front and took out his cell phone and called to report. "Boss. She has been sent back."

"OK. Did you make the arrangement?"

"All set. We took extreme caution this time."

The call ended. Buzz-cut started the car, and Curly-head took out the pack of cigarettes and gave one to him, helping him light it. And he lit one for himself, cursing, "Shit. Bad luck. What a moron."

They had worked all night, and even hypnosis had been used. The girl had talked, but none of it was useful. They prick their ears up for a long time.

And finally, their boss concluded that these tricks only worked on normal people, but this one has a problem here: the boss pointed at his head.

That was to say, they had to play the game differently.

Kate ran up to the third floor in one breath. She took out her key and opened the door with trembling hands. She sat down on the floor as soon as she got into her room. Her roommate was not there during the day. The small room looked empty and spacious.

She sat there for quite a while, and when she got up to her feet, she felt a darkness come over her eyes and discomfort all over her body. It felt like she was drowning. When she wiped her forehead, it was wet.

Kate managed to walk to her bed, found some cold medicine, and swallowed it down with cold water. And then she laid down on her bed. The medicine took effect, and she soon felt herself slipping into sleep.

She slept deeply and only woke up once in the middle of the night. Her roommate was back. It was soothing to see a familiar face, and she closed her eyes again.

Kate heard her roommate saying something and wanted to get up, but her body was rooted in the bed. Her throat was dry and burned so much that she could not speak a word.

At last, Kate's roommate woke her up. She was from Ohio. Kate said she had a fever and kept raving. Her roommate helped her take some antipyretics, and then Kate went back to sleep.

The next time she woke up, it was early in the morning. This time her cell phone rang for a long time. She put it to her ear and covered her head for fear of disturbing her roommate. She saw the number was her elder sister. Her sister cried on the phone, "Kate, come back home. Father is in the hospital."

She was shocked. "Father? What is the matter with him?"

Her sister sobbed, "Some fatal disease."

When Kate got outside, the sky was still gray. The city had not yet fully awakened. She took the bus to the supermarket, got something she put there and headed to the railway station.

John caught her at the lounge of the railway station and gave her a bulging envelope with three thousand dollars. He said, scratching his head, "Not much, but it might help. Don't be anxious to return it to me." Kate was so moved that she couldn't say anything. John patted her on the shoulder and said, "No need to say anything. We are friends."

The train finally reached Portland. The city had just had heavy snow. Workers were cleaning the city with snow removal trucks and spreading salt in the middle of the roads, which were noisy and jammed. The melted snow and salt made the road dirty.

The temperature was -13 degrees Fahrenheit, and all of Kate's limbs were numb by the time she got to the hospital. She wasn't aware of the cold because her heart was eaten by her deep worry. Portland Mercy Hospital, 13th floor.

She finally saw her father, lying on a bed with pipes connected to his body. She had not seen him for a year, and he looked totally different. His face was dry and gray, his cheekbones protruded, and his skin stretched over the bones like a tent. Her tears gushed out immediately.

Her father became skinny in the past year, and he had stomach aches from time to time. He didn't take it seriously and bought some medicine at the drugstore to kill the pain. It was not until a few days ago, when he coughed up blood, that he went to the hospital for a checkup.

The doctor informed him that he was in the middle stages of stomach cancer and recommended him to get to Portland Mercy Hospital. Her father was not insured, and they ran out of the five thousand dollars they brought with them quickly. The doctor told them that surgery and after-treatment would cost about $100,000. It was an astronomical figure for a family like them.

Her father wanted to go back home and save the money so that his son could go to college. Kate's mother and elder sister, of course, did not agree with this. Her elder sister had asked her husband to try to borrow some money from his parents, but it was not going smoothly. Kate's younger sister was in college, and her little brother was in high school. They didn't know about their father's illness yet.

Kate sat by the bed and listened to her mother, telling her about her father's condition. She drank a mug of hot water and warmed up. She said, "Father cannot leave the hospital now. I have three thousand dollars here. We can hold on for a few more days with this. And we will think about what to do next."

It was not easy to think of any solutions; Kate knew that this would take some thinking.

Without insurance, staying in the hospital was like burning money. Kate's three thousand lasted only three more days before the hospital started to urge them to pay the bills. Her mother and two sisters were anxious and sad, but they had to conceal their feelings in front of their father.

When Kate sat on a bench downstairs in the inpatient building, she stared blankly at the bank outside the hospital gate. She imagined herself wearing a mask and rushing into the bank for a robbery. A shadow blocked the sun, and a flat voice asked from above, "Kate?"

She looked up and was surprised to see a middle-aged man with sunglasses and a dark coat, showing a mild smile on his face, "Our boss wants to see you."

She was startled and wanted to stand up. She composed herself and said, "Your boss? Do I know him?"

The man chuckled and said, "Our boss is Mr. Fox." He paused and then added, "You saw him a few days ago."

Kate's heart was seized. She had fallen into the icy river again.

Kate followed the man mechanically, about one step behind him. The man looked amiable and chatted with her, "Don't you feel cold? Portland is quite different from Los Angeles. Probably negative 20F degrees?" As he mentioned the temperature, he shrank his neck into his collar.

The man led her to a fancy coffee shop. When they entered the shop, she saw Curly-hair immediately. He raised the corners of his eyebrows and said, "Fancy meeting you again."

And then she saw that man.

He sat at a table by the window, wearing a dark sweater and a shirt under it. He looked handsome and refined, which she knew was but a disguise.

The room was warm, probably 70 degrees higher than outdoors. Not knowing if it was because of the abrupt temperature change or her anxiety, Kate sneezed suddenly.

The man smirked and pointed to the seat opposite to him and said mildly, "Sit down, please."

Kate walked over and sat down.

There were four chairs, but the other two men just stood respectfully. It looked strange, but they behaved naturally. They kept silent and seemed to melt into the background. In the center of the table, there was a small vase with a perfume lily. The tender and broad pink petals spread at ease, not feeling the cold from outside at all.

Out of the tinted window, Kate saw the hospital building in the distance. The layers of dr.a.p.es separated this world from the outside. She felt a little discomfort in this confined space. The table between her and the man could not block the domineering air she felt from him. She didn't dare to look his way, but she still could feel he was looking at her.

She didn't know what his intentions were. He was probably trying to put some pressure on her. His silent stare made her nervous, and she pretended to look away. When she looked back, she met his gaze accidentally. They were clear and deep, like a vortex that could suck a person into it.