CHAPTER 75 – LIKE HIS MOTHER
The hours rolled by, and the 12th sneaked up on them, both father and son.
Richard Axford was dressed in a bright skyblue hospital dress with the words “Axford Medical” printed in dark blue upper case letters on the stomach region.
Chase Axford stood beside him. His hands in his pocket – now that his right hand had almost healed – as he watched the bright blue sky from his father’s window.
“So, if I do not make it today, I’ll be dying the same day as the love of my life.”
Chase’s ears jerked up. He turned sharply in his father’s direction and frowned at him.
“What’s that supposed to mean, dad?”
He was waiting for the doctors to come in, and every second they spent away left him with nothing but crippling anxiety.
“I’m sorry son, but I can’t help it.”
Chase watched his old mean lean into bed, and lock his hands together.
“If anything happens today, you’ll be the only one who’ll truly mourn me. I mean, all these years on Earth, and there is no big family left behind. It just makes me so depressed when I think about it. I thought that I was doing myself good, but now…”
Chase let out a disgruntled sigh.
He placed his right hand on his forehead and rolled his eyes.
“You know what? Stop. Okay. Please just stop.” Chase cut in.
The knock on the door came almost immediately.
His father’s oncologist stepped in. Chase searched for an expression on the man’s face, but he betrayed nothing.
Doctors were so good at keeping poker faces, weren’t they?
“Mr. Chase Axford. I’ll like to see you outside.”
Chase exchanged uncertain looks with his father, before he turned to look at the man.
“Is everything okay?”
“There’s no need to speak to my son in private, doctor Martinez. You can say what you want to say to me. The cancer isn’t looking good, is it?” Richard blurted out.
Both his son and doctor tilted their necks to look at him. He scoffed and shook his head, a sad smile crept up to his cheeks.
“I know my own body, and I know how I feel. I’ve been feeling worse lately.”
“And you didn’t think to say something? Goodness, dad! Why would you hide something like that?” Chase’s frustration was getting the better of him. His frustration and fear were both gnawing at him, and he was so terrified to show any of it.
“You would have to undergo chemotherapy for a longer while, Mr. Axford. Either that or we get the surgery done immediately. We would have to do one of the two.”
When the doctor finished speaking, Chase stayed silent, waiting on his father’s reply. It was his call now.
Richard Axford sighed and looked up at the doctor.
“Can I have sometime alone with my son.”
Oh! He had to be kidding.
“Sometime alone? What is it with you, father? We’re talking about saving your life here, we don’t have time anymore, for heaven’s sake.”
He moved closer to his father and placed a soft hand on his shoulder.
“You have to decide now, father. Or should we make a decision for you?”
Chase swallowed hard. Couldn’t his father see he just wanted what was best for him?
“Seriously, Chase. Can we be together for today, just today? The cancer hasn’t killed me all this while, it can’t possibly end me today.”
“Stop, dad. Okay? Just stop saying all of that. Heavens.” Chase pulled away from his father and turned his back to him, sucking in deep breaths.
“I’m really sorry, son. I wish I had a stronger body, but I clearly don’t. I just…I just want us to be together today. I don’t know why I feel this way, but I just want to be with you today, my son. Please.”
Chase blinked, hard, as though he was fighting back something.
He turned to look at his father and moved to the bed where he sat.
“I would always be here, father. Okay?”
Richard smiled to himself. As he searched his son’s eyes, he could see that he was getting more and more matured. The Chase of a few months back would not have understood, and would have left him alone.
“There is somewhere I need to go, my boy. Can you take me there?”
Chase squinted his brows at his father. What was he up to now?
“Where?”
“Just say you’ll take me there.”
Chase rolled his eyes. When his father smiled, he could not fight back his own.
He picked his phone and called Maxwell, giving him instructions to drive to the hospital’s exit. Chase helped his father down the floors, to the exit of the hospital after helping him change into regular clothes.
The door was pulled open, and Chase helped Richard climb into the car. He sat beside his father and watched as he continued to smile to himself. Maxwell had already gotten into the car, and wasted no time in starting the car’s engine.
“Where are we going to, dad?”
When Richard wouldn’t give him any reply other than a smile, Chase turned his attention to Maxwell.
“Do you even know where we are going?”
“Yes, sir.” The man replied with a proud smile.
“The boss told me all about it.”Original content from NôvelDrama.Org.
“I told you, son. Be calm.”
Chase felt himself relax when his father’s hand rested on his left knee.
He was almost relaxed, until he heard his phone chime in his pocket. Chase reached for it and held it up to his face.
It was a message from Nora.
“You have to see this sir.” It read, with a link underneath.
Chase narrowed his eyes at the words on the screen.
What could be so important that Nora had to reach him, even though he had told her – very firmly – that he did not want to be disturbed?
Still, she did sound urgent. Chase had to know what was going on.
He clicked the link immediately, and it only took less than four nanoseconds to open.
SHOCKING NEWS: YOUNG BILLIONAIRE AND BUSINESS TYCOON, CHASE AXFORD HAS BEEN HIDING HIS TWO ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN HE HAD WITH HIS BROTHER’S EX-WIFE FOR FOUR YEARS!
The roof over his head began to spin immediately. His eyes widened, and his attempt to breathe resulted in him being strangled by his own oxygen.
Chase coughed, violently. He struggled to clutch the phone in his right hand, but when he caught sight of the number of views – two million. Posted thirty minutes ago – the world around him crumbled into shards.
The phone slipped from his hands and fell on his lap.
What in the world was going on?
Breathe Chase, breathe.
He repeated the words in his head over and over again, but it seemed harder to do every time.
“What’s the matter, son? Is everything alright?”
No. No nothing was alright!
There was fire, an entire burning bush over his head, and with no means of cooling it down.
Children…four years…Mackenzie…
He could barely connect the dots himself!
“Yes, father. Everything’s fine.”
His father had enough to worry about with his health, this was something Chase had to handle by himself.
With trembling fingers, Chase picked up his phone and dialed Nora’s number. His assistant picked up on the first ring, and Chase did not give her a second to speak.
“Nora, what the hell is going on?!”
“Sir…”
“You know this is false, yet to chose to make me look at it. It’s reached two million views in less than an hour. Don’t you know you have to contact the IT team and make sure this is taken down? Don’t you know your job? Am I supposed to teach you that all of a sudden?” Chase could barely hear himself, or catch his breath. He had intended to yell, but he could barely find his voice.
“I know sir, I know. But there’s…uhh…there’s a photo going around now of a little girl who they say is your daughter. Images comparing her with your mother are all over. They say she has a twin brother, and…”
His grip on the phone tightened. Chase’s jaw clenched.
“What the fuck are you saying, Nora?” His knees felt numb, he could barely stop his feet from tapping away on the floor of the car.
Richard was worried, but his son wouldn’t let him in.
“The child is Miss Torsney’s child, sir. The girl, and the boy. They are miss Torsney’s children.”
Chase swallowed hard. What was Nora saying?
“I’m sorry, sir. I have contacted the IT team, they are currently tracing the IP address of the person who posted it. But I have sent you the picture, sir. And you can just…please just take a look at it.”
Chase opened his mouth to speak, but the call ended immediately. Shocked, Chase stared at his phone’s screen.
Nora surely did not just end the call on him, did she?
An image popped up on his screen, and Chase narrowed his eyes on the girl’s image.
Hazel eyes stared back at him, a bright smile on her face.
He knew her…or the picture. He had seen the same picture in Mackenzie’s phone at the hospital.
The same picture with the same orange colored puppy.
He felt as though his brain and heart took turns to do somersaults in his head and heart.
This was Mackenzie’s daughter, and the daughter is Jeffrey’s.
So what was his relationship with her? And why did she look so much like his mother?