"Yes, Seigneur." Mister Samuel, the Fernandez household's most reliable steward nodded and understood that even though Rien didn't state it, he meant Dr. Charles Bernard must be in New York in the soonest possible time whether he liked it or not, using any means necessary. "I will personally see to it that Dr. Bernard sees the Madam before the day ends." He had already calculated that if the genius doctor who happened to be the seigneur's childhood friend got on the seigneur's private plane within the next 15 minutes, with the 7-hour flight time, he would be landing in JFK Airport before dinner.
The steward also knew precisely why Dr. Bernard's skills were needed. It meant that the seigneur saw something suspicious about the madam's condition aside from what Aric found from his investigation and that only Rien's most trusted friend, who also happens to be a genius doctor of several specializations from a family of medical experts, could handle. Charles was one of only a few people that Rien trusted since the accident three years ago. Mister Samuel knew that aside from Dr. Bernard, the seigneur would not allow anyone else to check on his wife.
"I will relay your instructions to Sophie right away. I'm sure she'll know how to handle Mr. Madrid." Mister Samuel didn't have to remind Rien about the capabilities of Sophie Zhang but he thought that was something the seigneur wanted to hear at that moment.
Sophie was a former assassin from a notorious underground gang in Asia. Her martial arts, gun-handling and marksmanship skills are impeccable. She was an orphan who has been trained to kill mercilessly since she was 6 years old. She grew up in that cold and violent world which inevitably molded her into what she was today. She may lack the warmth in human relationships but she was gifted with a gentle and innocent face and she also knew how to use her looks as a weapon. Sophie has sworn her life and loyalty to the former seigneur when coincidentally in one of his business trips, Rien's father found her seriously wounded and abandoned at the side of a road in Hong Kong after a serious encounter with one of the rival gangs. They were greatly unnumbered and Sophie was left behind by her treacherous gang mates so they could run away. The late seigneur and his security group saved the then 16-year old Sophie then took her back home when she was recovered. For 20 years, she served as one of the Fernandez family's close-in security and never left the late seigneur's side. To this day, she considered the accident three years ago as her greatest failure and has dedicated the rest of her life to avenging the death of her benefactor and the only man who has made her heart feel that it wasn't entirely made of steel.
"Good." Rien responded coldly and was about to kick the door shut after Mister Samuel bowed and turned to make the calls to send out his orders when Aric stopped him.
"Daddy, can you please tell me what the hell is going on?" The little boy angrily asked.
Rien looked at his son sternly and warned. "You better watch your language and your temper in front of your mother, young man, or I will have you locked up in your room with no gadgets."
Aric looked at Milena who was still unconscious in Rien's arms and immediately blushed in shame. He felt absolutely embarrassed of his attitude just then and made a promise in his heart to never let his Mommy see such an ugly side of him. How disappointed would his Mommy be when she did? He lowered his head and spoke somberly, "I apologize for my behavior just now." He then looked up again to see his mother's gentle face and told her, "I won't do it again." Then as if he turned into a different child, his tender expression a second ago changed to a defiant one when he turned to his father. "Can you explain what happened to my Mommy now, Daddy?"
Rien nodded, used to his son's seemingly dual personality with how different Aric treated him and Milena. "That's more like it. Get in and close the door behind you." He ordered then turned to carry Milena to his bed and carefully put her down.
He sat down beside her and pulled up the duvet to her chest then lovingly leaned down and kissed her forehead. For a while, he forgot everything else as he stared at her beautiful face and gently caressed her cheek. For a while, he pretended that everything was back to normal when his Milena was home with him and they were happy. Just for a while…
"Daddy!" Aric called impatiently from the couch in the seating area of the room where he sat waiting for his father's explanation.
Rien snapped out of his reverie and looked at his son. With one more look at the sleeping Milena, he enclosed her dainty hand in between his warm palms and faced Aric. "Earlier, when your Mommy left the restaurant, I had every intention to fully trust your plan and stayed where I was but I also had a strong feeling that I wanted to keep my eyes on her so I followed her movement through my phone using the CCTV cameras."
Aric sighed and rolled his eyes. "As expected of you, Daddy."
Rien narrowed his eyes and asked sternly, "What do you mean?"
"Oh, nothing, Daddy. It's just from what I remember, the stories that I heard and what I saw since yesterday, you're a helicopter husband." The little boy said.
"A what?" His father frowned.
"A helicopter husband. You're so protective of my Mommy that you hover around her all the time like a helicopter and won't let her go anywhere or do anything without you knowing." Aric sneered.
"So? Why are you making it sound like that's a bad thing? I just want to make sure that my wife is safe." Rien reasoned as he glanced at the sleeping Milena once again.
Aric shrugged. "My Mommy lived three years away from you, Daddy. Did you really think she won't be able to ride an elevator and safely get to her room?"
Rien ignored his son's argument and snorted. So what if he was overprotective? Three years ago, he gave Milena some space-- a day. Just a day to herself away from him and such a horrible thing happened. He lost her and lived three years of hell without her. He won't make the same mistake again. "Whatever you say, Aric, I was right anyway. Something did happen to my wife in the elevator. She was suddenly attacked by extreme pain in her head and passed out. If I didn't run out in time and got on my exclusive elevator to go to her, she would've..."
"This is all my fault." Aric's young voice interrupted Rien's story. When the seigneur looked at his son, his heart ached at the look of remorse on the little boy's face.
"No, son. It's not your fault." Rien sighed and stood up then walked towards his son and sat beside him. Aric looked at his father. "I saw the medicine you used on Milena and it was safe. It's just a strong antihistamine that should only make her very drowsy, it shouldn't have that much of an effect on her. I suspect they have been giving her some medicine that made the headaches so much worse."
Aric was shocked. "I have a list of all the medicines prescribed to my Mommy since three years ago and none of those should have this effect on her."
"I've seen the list and I agree with you. They must be giving her something that's not in her official medical records." Rien said with a grave expression on his face. If he found out whoever dared to harm his wife, he swore he would make them wish for their deaths.
"Are you certain, Daddy?" The little boy looked at his mother on the bed with a worried look on his face. Just how dangerous was his Mommy's situation?
"We'll know for sure when Charles gets here and checks on Milena." Rien told his son as he turned to look at his wife again.
"Uncle Charles? Doesn't he have a very important board meeting today in their family's hospital?" Aric asked.
"Not anymore." Rien said. "He'll be here before dinner. "Didn't you say that when you first took your Mommy that you have a plan to make sure no one notices that she's gone for three days?" He asked.
"Yes but you said we didn't need that because we were going to send Mommy back." Aric pouted. He worked so hard to hack communication lines and social media accounts then pre-scheduled text messages, emails and social media posts to make it seem that his Mommy decided to enjoy her first trip to New York alone.
"Well, that has changed." Rien said and looked at his son. "Aric, I need you to send out those messages and continue with your plan, only you have to do it for a week and not just three days. Can you do it?"
The little boy snorted and rubbed his chin. "Daddy, how can you ask such a senseless question. Of course I can but… What about Mommy? How can we explain that she has to stay with us for a week?"
Rien sighed heavily and looked at his wife longingly. "I guess we'll have to figure that out when she wakes up. I just know that when it comes to your Mommy's situation, some things can't always go according to plan. There are too many unknown contingencies and we have to adapt."
"Like now." Aric nodded.
"Yes. Like now. Now, we won't just stand around and wait for the snakes to come out. We will shake them out of the bushes." Rien clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. "And that urchin will be our tool to do that."