Chapter 264


    Chapter 264


    “Mrs. Chadwick, why are you napping here?” Marina asked with concem, noticing an unnatural flush on


    her cheeks. She reached out to touch her forehead.


    It was burning up!


    “Mrs. Chadwick, wake up,” Marina urged, supporting the groggy Gwendolyn. “Let me get you to bed,”


    As they made their way through the hallway. Howard emerged from the study, a frown creasing his


    forehead. “What’s the matter?”


    “Mrs. Chadwick has a fever”


    “Let me take her.” Howard took Gwendolyn into his arms with ease, feeling the searing heat from her


    body.


    Heid his wife on their king–sized bed and called the family doctor toe


    mediately.


    Gwendolyn was buming up, her lips cracked and dry, her breath hot and weak, She opened her eyes


    with difficulty and called out in a hoarse whisper, “Mr. Chadwick.”


    After working a shift that had stretched into the wee hours of the moming, she just wanted to rest t and


    sumbed to sleep on the


    couch


    Once asleep, she lost consciousness.


    “Have some water.” Howard brought a ss to her parched lips,


    Gwendolyn obediently sipped, thenined softly, “It’s bitter.”


    Marina fetched a thermometer and took Gwendolyn’s temperature


    “Wow, 102.5 degrees,” she said with a worried grimace. Tm not sure what medicine to give her”


    Gwendolyn coughed twice, speaking with difficulty, “Just some fever reducer. It’s probably just the flu


    going around at the hospital. No big deal.” She had been so busy with work these days that she hadn’t


    taken proper precautions


    With the change of seasons, such ailments weremon in the summer.


    cup of water


    She instructed Marina to fetch a specific fever reducer from the medicine cab, swallowing it with a


    gulp


    “I just need some sleep,” she said without self–pity.


    Manna looked on with concern, her heart aching.


    Then, she turned to Howard and suggested, “Mr. Chadwick, perhaps you should rest in the guest room.


    I can look after Mrs. Chadwick


    N?velD(ram)a.?rg owns this content.


    The flu could be contagious, after all.


    “NO,


    I’ll stay


    here w


    with her. Marina, could you make some chicken broth with sd? Something to whether appetite.”


    Howard had always been good at remembering her favorites.


    After taking her medicine, Gwendolyn drifted in and out of consciousness, eventually falling into a deep


    sleep. She could hear faint whispers near her ear, the sound of the door opening and closing.


    She was caught between dreaming and waking.


    Her forehead and palms were on fire, yet her legs felt cold. She curled up under the covers as if


    covered by snow. She was lying warm back, feeling the lean body of a young man carrying her.


    He had a scent about him, soforting.


    “Ah…” She closed her eyes tight, wanting to call out to him, but got trapped in a nightmare.


    The scene shifted, bing more bizarre and surreal.


    In her dream, all her loved ones had perished, leaving her alone in a vast and deste world.


    “Grandma…” Tears stained Gwendolyn’s face as she sobbed, unable to awaken.


    “Gwendolyn…” Howard’s hand gently patted her cheek “Gwendolyn,e on, wake up


    He sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes soft and soothing. It’s just a dream. You’ll be fine once you


    wake up.”


    Her eyshes, damp with tears, fluttered open, and she looked at him nkly.


    Suddenly, she sat up and clung to him, burying herself in his embrace and weeping bitterly.


    Howard stroked her back gently and rhythmically.


    on a


    Through her sobs, Gwendolyn gasped for air, her hand over her heart as if it ached. “Mr. Chadwick, I


    dreamt that Grandma died. I don’t have anyone left.”