Hospital 444
Chapter 640 - 10: Coldness

Chapter 640: Chapter 10: Coldness

Chris felt a chill coming from behind, and he couldn’t help but shiver.

"What was that just now?"

He turned to look, puzzled. There shouldn’t be any wind behind him, nor any air conditioning.

Then what was that strange shudder all about?

Just a moment ago, Chris felt as if his whole body had been frozen.

The last time he had a similar sensation was when he faced his son’s body.

At that time, it felt as if the world had collapsed.

The face was still the familiar one, but lying there, he could no longer speak, no longer open his eyes.

Seeing his own son turned into a cold corpse was a feeling Chris would never forget. Yet, his wife just stood by and blamed it all on him.

"It’s all because of you, if you had believed in our son, he wouldn’t have died! Give me back our son, Chris Owen, give him back to me!"

Yes.

Chris remembered, in that moment, he had felt as if his entire body was frozen. That sensation made it impossible for him to move or breathe, as if every pore in his body was shivering.

"I..."

Chris suddenly recalled what the woman named Melody had said earlier.

Her words... though they seemed completely absurd at first, now he suddenly felt that perhaps she was telling the truth.

What if what she said... was actually true?

Trembling, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, drawing one out.

He noticed his hand was shaking terribly, that icy trembling feeling assailing his heart once more. And when he lit the lighter again, the flame just flickered and then extinguished immediately.

"What?"

Already anxious, Chris was even more astonished.

How could this be? There wasn’t any wind, was there?

He strode vigorously in the opposite direction of where Melody was.

"No, no, no! That woman is crazy, she’s crazy, what she said isn’t true!"

Yes, what she said, wasn’t true!

Then, he quickly walked to the train’s bathroom, ran inside, and shut the door behind him.

Only then did he feel a bit more at ease.

His body leaned against the door, cigarette in mouth, as he tried once again to light the cigarette.

"It’s not my fault, John’s death is not my fault... it never was from the start..."

But now, Chris felt as if he could see John’s face at any moment, as if he could see it every instant.

And at this time, he recalled again what Melody had said: "In this world, ghosts really do exist. Even if the gods don’t, but ghosts definitely do. I can assure you of that."

Even now, those words were still echoing in his ears.

Chris gripped his chest and then took out his phone, calling his wife once more.

"What’s up?"

His wife Anna’s voice came through again.

"Anna," Chris said in an even tone, "if you were to take custody of our daughter from now on..."

At this point, there was a pause on the other end of the line.

"I’ve been thinking a lot lately, about what I’ve done as a father, why I never really entered my son’s heart. You say I didn’t believe in our son, but what really is trust? Because they’re children, do we trust them unconditionally? I don’t understand... I feel that as an educator, I am not up to par."

Hearing this, Anna’s tone softened somewhat.

"You’re a good teacher. That I acknowledge. You hold everyone to the same standards, if my students took drugs or bullied others, you would intervene. But you didn’t understand John... You didn’t understand him, so he would never tell you the truth. He was an addict, but he definitely didn’t rape anyone. We’re a family, why apply the same standards as with students? Shouldn’t family relationships be more important than logic?"

Chris and Anna were both silent for a long time.

"We’re impossible now, Chris. No matter what, I can’t hand our daughter over to you. I also don’t want you to continue raising our daughter as one of your students at home. I will educate her properly, and if you agree to sign the agreement handing custody over to me, I can increase the number of times you can visit her each week."

Chris tried lighting the lighter again.

Still to no avail.

"When John died... when our son died, did he hate me? Lately, that’s what I’ve often been wondering."

Shouldn’t family just stop talking about reason?

Chris was confused.

If his son had died holding resentment toward him, if his son had never forgiven him...

He remembered that shuddering feeling.

"Chris, you think about it. Unless you agree to give me custody of our daughter, otherwise... you’ll only be able to contact me through a lawyer. Without our daughter, I might as well be dead."

His wife hung up the phone, and Chris was left freezing cold.

It was then he suddenly felt that intense chill again.

Just like the moment when John had passed away...

And then, he suddenly felt something grabbing his ankle tightly!

...

"Ah! No! Don’t!"

Jack and Bob were bragging and chatting when they suddenly heard a fierce scream!

"What happened?"

They stared blankly in the direction of the scream.

Melias suddenly let out a sharp cry, and next to her, Melody grabbed her tightly.

"It’s okay, it’s okay, Melias, mom is here, it’s all right... Did you have a nightmare?"

Bob gulped down his beer and said, "What the heck, that scared me. It was just a nightmare."

Jack was pleased and said, "Isn’t this another opportunity to hit on her?"

Then, he took his beer and poured it down his leg.

"What are you doing, Jack?" Bob looked at Jack’s inexplicable actions, perplexed.

Then he ran to where Melody and Melias were.

"Lady, your daughter just gave us quite a scare," Jack pointed to his wet pants, "Look, my pants are soaked through."

Melody, hugging Melias, replied, "I apologize, sir, for startling you."

Jack quickly judged how to get her phone number and said, "Hey, these pants are new, and now they’re all wet. Am I supposed to wear these soaked pants until we get to Virginia?"

He purposefully leaned in close, looking down to catch a glimpse of some "wonderful views."

Jack was a downright shameless rogue, a smoker, a heavy drinker, a drug user, a gambler, a frequenter of prostitutes, epitomizing all vices, devoid of any sense of shame.

Melody, seeing Jack speak so frivolously, guessed his intentions were not good.

"Sir, that beer wasn’t spilled on you by my daughter, was it?" Melody said coldly, "You’re being quite harassing and unreasonable."

Jack immediately responded, "Lady, are you saying I’m being unreasonable?"

Saying this, he planned to lay his hands on her.

Even if he didn’t get her number, getting to cop a feel was considered a win for Jack.

At that moment, his hand was already reaching out!

Then his friend Bob rushed over from behind, grabbed Jack, and said, "Buddy, you’ve had too much to drink, let it go! Leave it be!"

He yanked Jack back forcefully.

"What are you doing, Bob!"

"I don’t think we need to make it so ugly, Jack! Enough is enough!"

"What are you talking about? I was just about to..."

"Yeah, Jack! Why make it so disgraceful? If you’re capable, use your charm to chat her up," another friend Jason said, "Right?"

"By the way..." Bob quickly changed the subject, "Don’t you find it odd? That man who was sitting across from them... where did he go? He still hasn’t come back, has he?"