Chapter 3. Royal Hospital

"We certainly need to, darling but we don’t have the leisure to do so now. Our daughter first," Mr. Santiago replies calmly and starts the car, seemingly ready to zoom off, but his brows rise when he raises his face and sees Lucien leisurely standing in front of the car. "Get out of the way asshole!" He whines down his front vent glass and yells, his veins pulsating.

"I’m not leaving here until you open the back door for me to enter, Mr. Santiago," Lucien retorts indifferently and remains standing.

"Go on, baby. Run him through. After all, he’s of no use to us."

Mr. Santiago shakes his head at his wife’s words and turns off the ignition. "We need to take Juliet to the hospital, Lucien! Get the fuck out of the way!" He curses.

Lucien muffles a chuckle and shakes his head, sneering. "It will be so bad of me if I don’t join you guys so that I can know how she’s faring, Mr. Santiago."

Just as Lucien finishes talking, Brooks waltzes into the scene, a deep scowl on his handsome face.

He glances at Lucien, clenches his fist, and darts to him. "Why the hell did you disrupt my wedding?!" He growls, pushes him on the chest, and grips the collar of his top so tightly.

"Your wedding you say?" Lucien snorts and laughs. He pushes Brook’s hand off his collar and covers the remaining space between them. "Do they know that you don’t love their daughter?" He whispers and takes a peek at Mr. Santiago and his wife before staring back at him. "Do they know that you are just marrying her to satisfy your evil heart desires? Tell me, Brooks Miller. Do they?"

Brook’s eyes widen and his jaw slacks. "How…"

"Save your words for next time, Brooks and also do well to stay off my part," Lucien mutters, interrupting him and turns back to face the car.

Brooks strolls to his car, enters, and zooms off without saying anything or even casting a glance at Mr. Santiago and his wife and that makes their faces stretch into a deep frown.

"What did you say to my in-law?!" Mrs. Avery howls and ruffles her hair.

"What he should know. Now, can I enter?" Lucien retorts in all smiles and strolls to the back door waiting for them to open it.

"Thank you for getting out of the way, asshole. You can board a cab and come if you want to," Mr. Santiago mutters with a grin and immediately starts the car. "That’s if a wretched failure like you has any money anyway." He adds and both he and his wife laughs mockingly at Lucien.

Lucien joins them in laughing and searches his front pockets after and just like Mr. Santiago said, there was nothing in both pockets. "I don’t have. I used my last to eat. Can you guys help?" He asks and lowers his head.

"I’m not surprised. A failure then, a failure now, a failure forever" Mrs. Avery says and snickers. "Go beg for money, sod. You are in no way better than the beggars on the streets," she spits out.

"You heard my darling wife. Go do as she said," Mr. Santiago mutters and zooms off but suddenly stops. "On second thought, I think you should take this and better your life!" He throws a bunch of dollar bills at Lucien and zooms off not stopping this time around.

Lucien’s lips stretch into a radiating smile as he strolls to where the money fell. He calmly bends and picks them up, counts them, and shakes his head before walking out.

Just as he gets out of the cathedral, his phone starts ringing and he reaches for it, pulling it out. His face lights up slightly at the caller and he swerves to answer.

"Morning, Sir!" The deep voice from the other end sounds.

"Morning, buddy. How are you? How’s work? And how’s everyone?"

"All fine, Sir. I called to know if you need me over there."

"Nah, I’m fine buddy. Don’t worry."

"But Sir…"

"I just told you that I’m fine, Declan and you know how I hate it when my words are argued. I’ll call you if I need you. Is that understood?" Lucien’s voice is cold and commanding as he asks.

"Yes, Sir. Of course. I’m just being concerned about you, Sir. I’m sorry if I just made you angry."

"I can take care of myself. And you didn’t make me angry. Go back to your duty now. Bye."

"Bye, Sir," Declan replies, and the call drops.

Lucien drops the phone back into his right front pocket and keeps walking till he gets to an isolated road. Staring around as if looking for something or perhaps someone, he catches a glimpse of a boy by the other side of the road who is looking so tattered and waves at him to come.

The little boy who must be about four or five years old rushes to him and bows slightly at him. "Good Morning, Sir" he greets while fiddling with his fingers.

"Good Morning, lad. Take this money and get things for yourself." Lucien stretches the whole dollars Mr. Santiago threw at him to the little boy and smiles up at him.

The little boy’s eyes widen and he places his hands over his mouth without doing anything.

"Take it, boy. I don’t need it," Lucien coos and the little boy quickly takes it from him.

"Thank you so much, Sir! Thank you! Yeeh!" He exclaims and runs out, giggling all the way out.

"He sure needed it," Lucien mumbles in between breaths and walks out to where he will board a cab.

Sighting one, he waves at it and just as the cab stops, he recalls that he doesn’t know the address of the hospital he is heading to. "I need to make a call," he directs at the driver and brings out his phone.

He clicks on the call tab, goes to recent and dials the first number he sees then places the phone on his ear.

"I need the address of the hospital one Miss Juliet Pearson has been admitted to," he mutters and hangs up.

He begins counting from one and is in five when the message containing the address, pops in and he smiles, reads it, and brings out another phone—a smaller one from his pocket and slips his sim into that then drops the bigger into his pocket.

"Glistening royal hospital," he directs at the cab driver and enters in the back.

The cab driver stares at him through the rearview mirror at the name of the hospital he just mentioned, a stark shock on his face as he ignites the ignition and zooms off.