Chapter 218: Awkward Silence

In the hospital room, the atmosphere was tense and heavy as iron.

After Raymond was brought out of the ICU, he only talked to Wendy and Precious, pretending that the
rest of Oliver family weren't even there.

He ignored them, including Ryan and Luke.

Precious didn't seem to notice, but Wendy did.

"Ray..."

"Mommy, I'm hungry."

"What would you like to eat, sweetie? I will cook anything you want."

Raymond scrunched up his face in concentration.

After a while, he made up his mind.

"I want wontons."

After a small pause, he added in a low voice, "I almost starved to death these past two days."

Wendy's heart squeezed.She stroked Raymond's hair gently.

"Wantons, then.I'll just pop to the store to get ingredients."

"Great!"

Raymond had been on IV for two days and he had nothing to eat or drink.The IV took care of his
nutrition and hydration.The nurse had told him that he could eat now, but only light food, easy to
digest.He could eat wontons.



Wendy grabbed her purse and put on her sunglasses and mask.

After confirming that no one would recognize her, she left the hospital.

When she left, the temperature in the room suddenly seemed to drop.

Raymond clenched his jaw and closed his eyes without a glance at everyone around him.

They all stole glances at each other, at a loss what to do or say.

Even Precious seemed to realize that something was not right.She scratched her head and asked
gently, "Ray, why are you so silent all of a sudden?"

Raymond's eyes flew open at the sound of her voice.

He touched her cheek and replied softly, "I'm just tired.

"Oh, I see," Precious said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Once again, the room lapsed into an awkward silence Raymond lay in the bed, holding Precious' hand,
his eyes sweeping across the room until they finally settled on Ryan.

Pursing his lips, Ryan said, "Luke, take Precious outside to play for a while."

"What?"

Luke looked at his brother incredulously.He looked at Raymond and then back at Ryan and he seemed
to understand something.

"Okay, then!"

He walked to Precious and said, "Come on, let's go buy some snacks."



"No! I'll wait for the wontons Mommy makes," said Precious exclaimed, looking offended.

With a helpless look at his brother, Luke tried again.

"Then why don't you just accompany me for a little walk?"

Precious wouldn't budge, though.She wanted to stay with Raymond.When she was about to refuse for
the second time, Raymond pinched her hand.

Precious turned to look at him in surprise.

"Ray..."

"You know what? I am a little thirsty.Would you mind fetching me some orange juice?"

'Wow! Ray needs my help!' Precious felt as if she had shouldered a great responsibility.

She patted her chest enthusiastically and said, "I'll bring you some right away!"

She was out of the room in the blink of an eye.

Luke had to run to catch up with her.

"You have something to tell me, right? Isn't that why you sent them away?" Ryan asked flatly.

He moved closer and took a seat in the chair standing next to the bed.

"Go ahead, then.I'm listening."

"Stay away from my mommy!"

Raymond's eyes were slits by now, his jaw clenched in his attempt to control his anger.



'Is that a threat?' Ryan wondered.

He pursed his lips and asked, "Why?"

Back when Raymond didn't know Ryan was his father, they had been on friendly terms.

Now he was cold and distant, hostile even.

Raymond turned his head and shot a glance at Josie and Anson.

Although he was lying in a hospital bed, pale and starved, he would never be described as weak.

His eyes were fierce and his face was set in a grimace of barely controlled fury.

"You and the rest of your family are evil!"

Josie couldn't help reacting.

She stood up from the sofa and walked to Raymond, wanting to touch the boy and comfort him, but he
shrank back from her touch, looked at her with suspicion.

Her hand froze mid-air.

The more she looked at Raymond's little face, the more he reminded her of Ryan as a child, especially
his mouth and nose.

She inwardly cursed herself for not noticing it before.

Looking embarrassed, Josie withdrew her hand and whispered, "Ray, it's all my fault.I didn't know..."

Raymond interrupted her.

"You are not my grandma!"'Is he rejecting me?'



Josie tried pleading with the boy, "Ray..."

Raymond just turned away from her, dismissing her entirely.He looked at Ryan instead.

"We may be related by blood, but that doesn't mean anything! As far as I am concerned, you are not
my father.Rest assured that I won't be laying claim on any of your family's properties."

"Ray!"

"I really appreciate you allowing Precious to donate bone marrow for me.But after I get out of the
hospital, my mother and I are moving out of Ensfield.We want nothing to do with you after that!"

His small face was so serious that Ryan felt his throat tightening and his whole body frozen to the spot.

"Ray, is it because of me? I was the one to kidnap you; your father didn't know anything about it.You
can't push him away! He cares about you.He hasn't slept at all while you were in the ICU..." Josie
spoke up.

"That was his choice.I didn't ask him to do that," Raymond shot back ruthlessly.

Josie's mouth opened and closed several times, but she couldn't form a proper sentence.

"How can you..."

'...be that cruel?' Anson seemed to read Josie's mind, so he tugged on her sleeve to stop her before
she said anything.

Josie closed her mouth instantly.

Anson finally spoke.He looked at Raymond kindly and said, "Little guy, is this because we aren't good
to your mother?"



Raymond's expression was so adult in nature that it was disconcerting.He looked Anson straight in the
eye and didn't deny it.

"My wife did take you to force your mother to leave Ryan.And for that, we owe you an apology."
Raymond looked thoughtful.

'Finally, a sensible person'' "An apology won't help.It won't make up for what you did to my mommy."

"True," Anson nodded.

"But it's a start.We are going to try our best to atone for our mistakes, if you give us a chance."

Raymond was hesitant for a second until he suddenly thought of something.He turned to look at Ryan,
hatred in his eyes.

And he really did hate him.

From the moment he found out that Ryan was his father, he felt only hatred for him! He always had this
picture in his mind that his mother would find someone to be with.

Anyone except his biological father.

The fact that Ryan was his father made his anger boil inside him.

Although his mother had never mentioned his father or said anything bad about him, Raymond had
always hated the man.

Since he could remember, his mother was working hard to make ends meet.He had been born
premature and that left him with a weak immune system.

As a result, he got sick very often.



In lean times, when his mother couldn't find work, they barely got by.

They were in a strange country, without any family or friends.They had no one to rely on, no one to
even borrow money from.

Many times, when he was sick, his mother didn't have any money to pay for his treatments, so she had
to sell anything of value, even her own blood.

She had even planned to sell her kidney!


62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda