Chapter 46 Why Were You Named the Best Surgeon?
“I can’t believe you’re still acting up when you’re in this state,” Abigail mumbled to herself. She didn’t see anything wrong with treating Greg that way—he wasn’t even a patient in her eyes. Abigail had always applied the same simple and aggressive approach to patients like him. However, the nurses around her were shocked.
“He’s Mr. Buckley, Dr. Kain,” one of them said.
“I don’t care who he is—he has to listen to me as long as he’s here.” Abigail finished her sentence in a domineering tone before she told the nurses to send Greg to the ICU. Then, she went over to Arianna’s room.
There were a lot of things that Arianna couldn’t eat due to her asthma. Before entering the operation theater just now, Abigail had specially ordered some food for her. When Abigail entered the ward, she found Arianna jabbing her finger against her tablet. “Have you eaten?” Abigail’s voice turned softer without her realizing it.
Arianna looked up and gave Abigail a faint smile when she saw her. “I’ve eaten, Mommy. Have you eaten? Where’s Daddy? I told him to remind you to have lunch. Why don’t I see him anywhere?”
Abigail felt a warm sensation spreading across her chest when she heard what Arianna said. “As long as you and Allie are here with me, I’ll always feel better.” Abigail gave Arianna a gentle hug. When Abigail recalled how Greg had been worried about his daughters before he entered the operation theater, she asked Arianna a question. “Do you like Daddy a lot?”
“Yeah,” Arianna replied with a nod.
“How much do you like him?”
“A lot! I like Daddy as much as I like Mommy,” the young girl replied. Abigail was rather shocked after she heard what Arianna said. It’s only been such a short while—does Greg matter that much to my daughter already? She didn’t ask anything else after that, but she told herself that she would have to bring her daughters away once she got her mother’s files.
Abigail and Arianna chatted for a while more before they heard the ding of a notification that Arianna had received on her tablet. “Are you talking to Alissa?”
“Yeah!” Arianna nodded, but she didn’t show Abigail the tablet. Abigail was respectful toward her children’s privacy, so she simply patted Arianna on her head with a smile. “You shouldn’t chat for so long because staring at the screen is not good for your eyes. I’ll go take a look at my patients. Your daddy has some stuff to handle, but he might come over a little later. You should get some rest. Call me if you need anything, okay?”
“Okay. Bye, Mommy!” Arianna waved goodbye, and Abigail smiled before leaving the room. After Abigail left, Arianna took a look at the information that Alissa had sent her on the tablet. It was a DNA report. “How did you get Daddy’s sample for the DNA test, Allie?” Arianna was impressed.
Alissa responded in an arrogant manner, “You don’t need to know how I got it. I have my ways. What do you think? We’ve confirmed that Greg is our actual father. Do you feel more secure now?”
“I always knew he was our father.” Although Arianna claimed that she knew all along, she had unconsciously spread her lips into a huge grin that made her seem especially happy.
“Pfft! You might have felt like he was our actual dad, but we still need evidence to be sure. You should print a copy of this report. I can’t keep it with me.”
Arianna was rather confused after she heard her sister. “Why do we have to print a copy? It’s good enough that we know about it, right?”
“That’s why I say you’re an idiot. There’s no use in us knowing about it. I heard Daddy say that we still have a grandmother staying in the hospital. I’m not sure if Grandma will like us. What if she doesn’t want to have us as her granddaughters? What if she doesn’t allow Daddy to have us as daughters? With this DNA report, Grandma will have to take us in.”
Arianna immediately nodded upon hearing what her sister said. “Yes, yes! You’re right, Allie. I’ll print it out now.”
“Be careful. Don’t let Mom see it, or else she’ll be sad,” Alissa reminded her sister.
“I got it.” After Arianna ended the call, she secretly cheered over the fact that Abigail respected their privacy. The young girl lifted the sheets up and got off the bed before tottering over to search for a printer in the hospital. However, she wasn’t allowed to use it, so the only one she could use was the printer in her mother’s office.
I wonder if Mommy’s there, she thought as she headed toward Abigail’s office. Fortunately, Abigail had gone on one of her rounds, so she wasn’t in the office. Arianna hastily printed the report out. However, before it was done printing, she heard footsteps coming from outside. The young girl was so shocked that she quickly squatted down and hid below the office table.
Abigail opened the door to the office before walking in, with Greg following behind. Greg looked rather pale. “How dare you use a tranquilizer on me, Abigail? Is this how you treat your savior?”
“You don’t seem too tranquil now, do you?” Abigail was surprised by how quickly Greg had woken up, but she no longer checked on him after she saw that he seemed fine.
Greg lost his temper when he heard Abigail’s words. “That’s not the point! The point is that you had the nerve to do such a thing to me!”
“You’re my patient. It’s the only thing I can do since you’re not cooperating with me. Alright, you can leave if you’re feeling fine. People might think we have something going on if they see you here,” Abigail uttered. She was about to sit at her desk after finishing her sentence, but she then heard the whirring of the printer.
Arianna had been hiding under the table the whole time, and she felt like her heart was about to leap out of her throat when she heard the printer. Greg was obviously intrigued by the sudden sound, and he found himself staring at the words on the piece of paper that had been printed. A DNA report? Greg frowned as he snatched the paper over before Abigail could get to it.
After the last DNA report had been forged, Greg no longer did it again. Now that he saw Abigail having a copy of his sample with Alissa’s, he changed the way he looked at Abigail. “Do you need to do this? Don’t you know whether Alissa’s my daughter or not? Or have you slept with too many men to remember which child belongs to who?” When he imagined Abigail making love with another man, he felt a boiling rage in his chest.
Abigail didn’t know what was going on, but her face darkened when she heard Greg blabbering. “I want you out of here now!” she cried.
“What? Are you angry because I got it right?” Greg took a step forward and grabbed Abigail’s arm. “How did you get the title of the best surgeon in the world?”
“Do you think I’ll hesitate to sew your mouth up? I want you to shut up now!” Abigail hadn’t intended to get mad at him since he had just taken a beating for her. However, his words were simply too much. When Arianna heard them getting into a fight, she quickly wiggled her way out from under the table. “Mommy, Daddy, I was the one who printed the report. Stop fighting!”
Arianna’s sudden appearance came as a shock to both Greg and Abigail. “What are you doing here?” Abigail frowned. Greg immediately loosened his grip on Abigail’s arm when he saw his daughter. “The air’s really bad here, darling. Why don’t you stay in the ward?”
Arianna wasn’t distracted by Greg’s words, and she stared at them as she explained herself clearly. “I was the one who made the report because I wanted to know if Daddy is biologically related to me. I feel safer with this data. I was afraid that Mommy would get angry, so I didn’t tell her about it.”
Abigail was aware of her daughter’s capabilities. She felt both guilty and sorry for her daughter. “I’m not blaming you for anything, you silly girl.”
“But Daddy misunderstood the situation.” Arianna gave Greg a disapproving stare. Greg suddenly recalled how Alissa had taken a few strands of his hair when he was collecting his own sample. He had assumed that his children wouldn’t know what a DNA test was, but he hadn’t expected kids nowadays to be so smart.
After a while, he realized that he misunderstood Abigail. When he remembered how he had uttered those words to Abigail in front of his daughter, he quickly apologized to Abigail. “I’m sorry. I was too harsh before clarifying the situation just now.”
Abigail froze for a moment. She assumed that Greg had apologized to her because he didn’t want to leave a bad impression in front of his daughter—he wouldn’t typically apologize to her otherwise. So, Abigail didn’t respond to him at all.
However, Arianna quickly tugged on her mother’s hand. “Daddy apologized, Mommy. You should tell him that it’s fine.”
“No.” Abigail wasn’t about to lower her ego. She didn’t want to act in front of Greg and her children because it was simply too tiring. Furthermore, she figured that her daughter would be able to deal with such conflicts. Greg clearly didn’t agree with the way that Abigail was acting. He was about to say something when Arianna’s soft and innocent voice filled the room. “Why don’t you buy Daddy a meal, Mommy? I bet you guys haven’t had lunch, right?”
When Greg heard Arianna’s words, he recalled how he had promised his daughter to remind Abigail to eat her meals on time. Abigail seemed to have forgotten to eat lunch as she was too busy treating his wounds. “That’s right. You still owe me a meal. You owe me a second one now. I’m hungry; I want to eat.” Greg was acting like a useless man.
Abigail recalled that she had asked Greg for a meal before she went to the Mortimers’ place. They had missed the meal just now. However, when she saw the anticipation in her daughter’s eyes, she simply massaged her temples as she spoke. “Fine. I’ll buy him a meal.”
“Can I go with you guys, Mommy?” Arianna gave them a hopeful look.
“Didn’t you eat earlier?” Abigail could tell that Arianna was trying to seize every opportunity to spend time with her father, but this made Abigail feel more insecure than ever. “I thought I’d eat a little more. Furthermore, I’ve never eaten with both Mommy and Daddy.”
Greg felt an ache in his heart when he heard his daughter’s words. “Come on! Daddy will bring you out for a meal!”
Greg lifted Arianna into his arms before glancing in Abigail’s direction. He didn’t say anything, but there was a threatening look in his eyes. It was almost as if he were saying that he would kidnap the young girl if Abigail didn’t allow her to go along with them.
Abigail couldn’t bear to disappoint Arianna, so she took a deep breath before giving in to them. The three of them left the office together, and Greg brought the DNA report along with him. Arianna scrunched her face together. I’m dead this time! Allie is going to call me dumb when she hears about this. But what matters the most is that I get to have a meal with both Mommy and Daddy, right?
Arianna pushed all of her unhappy emotions aside as she lay on Greg’s shoulder while staring at Abigail, who was following behind them. She felt like the happiest child ever at that moment. However, as Abigail looked at Greg, she frowned once more.
