Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 378: Karma Got Him

Chapter 378: Karma Got Him

Talia strongly believed Ralph should be the one responsible for Sandy’s decline of mental health.

But should Arnold Belfauger be notified?

Talia couldn’t deny the little happiness she felt when she heard that the pride of Arnold- his daughter was ruined by Ralph.

Karma’s a b*tch, ain’t she? Arnold killed four people mercilessly to get back at Gigima for whatever reason, and now his only daughter is destroyed by the man he raised!

Arnold... do you feel at least a little guilty for killing my granduncle and uncle with their wives? I wish you do.

Talia was happy and that happiness made her feel guilty too. A bright young woman who had a successful life ahead of her, got ruined by a psycho.

Ah! I hope she gets better!

"Cyril, just divert Arnold’s attention towards the missing cash without giving clues about Ralph. He will have smart people around him and let them figure it out themselves. If we are involved he might think that we hurt his daughter."

Talia believed if Belfauger could link his daughter’s health decline is connected with Ralph, he might be of help.

But if Ralph is being smart, he might cause a rift between the Brunton and Belfauger families which might be beneficial for him as it would divert everyone’ s attention away from him.

Should I find a way to meet Belfauger? I should talk to grandpa.

"Yeah," Cyril found that as a good idea too. He typed a mail in his computer to Camilla to ’investigate’ Belfauger’s shell companies as her other persona Misty Flower – the journalist and blogger.

Camilla is pregnant, but she and her boyfriend still help him from time to time. Usually in these kinds of situations, Misty Flower will be paid to keep her silence and he hoped that would be the case this time too without getting dangerous. He hoped Camilla would accept this request. Otherwise he’d have to find someone else to positively nudge Belfauger toward noticing his missing funds.

"Talia, your granddad still didn’t tell you why Ralph might hate you?"

"No," Talia shook her head, playing with her fingernails. Even after he was told that Ralph might be alive, he wasn’t budging.

Talk about having stiff upper lip!

"Lord Lockhart has no idea too?"

"I guess not. And even if he did, if your grandpa- ... Holy sh*t!"

Cyril screamed in her ear making Talia flinch.

"Talia, breaking news! Belfauger’s son met with an accident - a helicopter crash. For now they are saying the sudden change in weather caused it. They are yet to find the black box. Holy cannoli! You think Ralph is involved in this? No, no, never mind. You can’t get involved. I’ll find out soon."

"Is he dead?" Talia was surprised.

"Not yet... Talia, I’ll talk to you later. " Cyril ended the call.

"Grandpa!!!" Talia screamed and ran out of the drawing room and up the stairs. On her way, she met with Sebastian.

"Little Lady, you cannot run-"

"Sebastian, where’s grandpa?" Talia asked Sebastian holding his arm, as she panted.

"In his study. Wai- Little Lady! Careful while you run!"

Sebastian was stunned seeing his Little Lady running in the hallways like a dog is chasing her. But then he chuckled.

How energetic! This is good.

Talia saw her grandpa relaxing by the window with a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other.

"Grandpa, Belfauger’s son was in an accident. They have brought him to the hospital and the extent of his injuries isn’t revealed yet. Should you call him lest he believes you’re response- Wait, grandpa, Gigima couldn’t have arranged it, could she? Should I ask her? Should we brace for-"

"Come here and sit with me, child," Jerome spoke calmly. "Pour yourself a cup of tea and look over there. That robin is feeding its young ones."

Talia took in a deep breath and did what she was told. Watching the little bird fluttering around was really nice to watch.

"I’m glad you aren’t barging in blaming me for doing something abhorrent like hurting someone else’s child," her grandpa spoke softly and Talia felt embarrassed.

"I’m sorry, grandpa."

Right! Grandpa is not that kind of person to touch the lives of people. The worse he’d do is destroy their ways to live, but he never touches the life of anyone.

"And I don’t think that old lady who was patient till now bearing with what Belfauger did, suddenly snapped and wanted revenge."

"Right, grandpa." Talia bowed her head. "She won’t do it when the Duke of Trenton is against me. I get it. I still have to learn a lot."

"Don’t put yourself down too much, MaryAnn." Jerome patted her head. "You’re wise for your years but you’re still young and inexperienced. It took a lot of time for me to learn what you already know. I am glad to see in stressful situations, you’re thinking of the next step rather than dwelling on finding out about what happened already."

"Yes, Grandpa." Talia smiled widely. She knew her grandpa is not talking just about the accident. He is talking about the past of Ralph too. "So you don’t have to call him. I get it. It would be more suspicious if you called him directly when you don’t do that usually. So we are just letting it go like we don’t know about it?"

"There is some courtesy etiquette that will be followed by the company in my name. So it won’t look like I didn’t care." Jerome said and started to read the book.

He knew there is no reason for Arnold to suspect him or the old lady for his son’s accident. But considering he killed four people believing his schizophrenic mother, he could get neurotic out of despair.

Maybe I should call him and check his pulse a week later.

Talia sat by his side for some time and she was awestruck by how calm her grandpa is in all situations.

I should take deep breaths before running into conclusions, Talia decided. About Ralph’s probable connection to this incident, Talia knew Cyril will take care of it.

"Maybe there is a God," her grandpa said after a while of silence. "That old lady said after the secret about that ’accident’ was found out, she cried to God to vindicate for the injustice she faced. And for this to happen to Belfauger’s children..." he sighed. "Even if it is him, I can’t wish seeing the suffering of their children on any parent."

Talia agreed.

It is pitiful. But...

Whether it is God or Karma, it is good to see evil-doers getting a taste of their own medicine.

After leaving her grandpa, Talia decided to call Arthur but she was surprised he was not answering her call.

Whatever! I’ll meet him for lunch anyway!

Talia then decided to talk to her great grandmother to see her reaction to the accident of Belfauger.

----

"So you’re saying I still have the tumour?" Arthur was flabbergasted and his hands unconsciously gripped the kerchief that had his initials embroidered by Talia.

After that day she told him he can’t die, he felt this nagging feeling in his heart to visit the hospital once more to have a second check-up. He didn’t get headaches anymore and he really thought the first scans were wrong and he wanted to confirm he didn’t have any tumour.

"Mr. Sin- I mean Lord Sinclair, you have a meningioma. It is benign and its growth is very slow but it is best to remove it immediately. The position of the tumour is a little dangerous. Not now, but if the tumour grows some more, it would cause permanent impairments and it would be better if you admit for a surgery as soon as possible. After the surgery we might need radiation depending on how successful the surgery is." The doctor explained cautiously noticing Arthur’s reaction. He looked shocked which was a little abnormal for the second check-up, but he was listening.

"Radiation?" his heart skipped a beat. "About the surgery..." Arthur asked. His hands shook and he clasped them together to compose himself.

"We will remove part of your cranium and...." the doctor explained the procedure and Arthur gulped.

They are going to saw off part of my skull and use knife in my brain?

"The recuperation time?"

"You’ll be staying in the hospital for two to five days depending on the complexity of the surgery and you’ll have to rest at home for two to four weeks before you could start performing normally."

"Two to four weeks? I cannot be working for that long!" Arthur sighed.

Even if he doesn’t work for a day, his work piles up and if he can’t go to the office for two weeks, it would be a disaster.

"Lord Sinclair, if you can’t spare a month now, if your condition gets severe, you might-"

"I get it!"

Arthur interjected rather angrily. He really couldn’t believe it all will be this complicated. "The complications of the surgery?"

"Usually there would be none and since your tumour is very well-defined, it would be easy to operate. But it might cause difficulty concentrating, memory loss, personality changes, seizures, weakness, sensory change, language difficulty. But it is rare for an otherwise healthy person like you to develop any of these. Even if you do, it can be managed with medications." The doctor assured.

How can he casually say I might have memory loss or difficulty concentrating?

I’d rather die than becoming an imbecile!

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