MISTAKE 163
Chapter 163: Risking it all.
The call ended, and Gina rose to her feet feeling steadier than she had in weeks. Her lover – her partner in this grand endeavor had experience handling these sorts of delicate situations. She needed to have faith that his meticulous planning would ensure they emerged victorious with Martin’s estate and assets finally within their grasp.
Allowing one last glance towards Martin’s comatose form, Gina felt her lips curl into a small, vindicated smile. Her husband’s progress towards awakening was an obstacle, to be sure. But her lover would find a way to transform it into a conveniently timed solution instead.
After all, a dead man couldn’t lay claim to anything in the end. Not when there were professionals ensuring he never regained consciousness to begin with.
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With a slight toss of her hair, Gina strode from the hospital room. She had avoided law enforcement’s suspicions for now….and soon her problems would be permanently put to rest alongside her traitorous husband, clearing her path to lucrative freedom forever.
The moment Gina’s footsteps faded away down the corridor, Martin Jones’s eyes flashed open. He drew a slow, deep breath – the first voluntary inhalation he’d taken in weeks. During his time trapped in the endless void of his coma, he had been aware of everything going on around him. He could hear the hushed voices of nurses and doctors tending to his body, the steady rhythm of the machines monitoring his vital signs. Yet no matter how he struggled, he found himself utterly unable to move or speak or open his eyes to reconnect with the waking
world.
Until today. Gina’s frantic, muffled words as she had paced beside his bedside had filtered. through his state of suspended consciousness with chilling clarity. She was planning to have
him killed to get her hands on his estate and from the sound of her phone conversation, she?
already had an accomplice lined up to handle the grisly task.
Raw panic had lent him the strength to finally force his eyes open once Gina had fled the room. Each individual muscle felt like lead after so much disuse, but he knew he couldn’t
afford to waste a second. Laboriously, he reached out with a trembling hand and mashed the call button beside his bed, silently begging for someone – anyone to respond quickly.
Relief washed over him as he heard the familiar clack of shoes against tile approaching at a rapid clip. Two nurses hurried into view, their eyes widening almost comically at the sight of him blinking up at them in stark awareness.
“Mr. Jones! You’re awake!” the younger of the two exclaimed as they rushed to his bedside, hands already moving in a flurry of activity to check his vitals and assess his condition.
As the other nurse turned away briefly – no doubt preparing to page his doctor – Martin felt his chest seize with fear once more. If Gina caught wind of his emergence from the coma, she could make another attempt on his life before he was able to get the authorities involved.
“Wait!” he croaked out, his voice little more than a harsh rasp after so many weeks of disuse. The nurse paused and turned back towards him quizzically.
“Please…don’t notify my wife,” Martin managed, desperation lending him strength. “Gina… she’s the one who did this to me.”
The two women exchanged a bewildered glance before the elder nurse leaned in closer. “Mr. Jones, are you saying your wife had a hand in putting you into this coma?”
He nodded weakly. “I heard her…on the phone just now. Planning to have me killed before 1 can expose what she’s done.”
A heavy silence fell over the room as the weight of his words sank in. After a protracted moment, the younger nurse seemed to shake herself from her stupor and straightened up.
“Bridget, call security and have them send someone to watch over Mr. Jones’s room immediately, just in case,” she instructed her co–worker in a tone that brokered no “I’ll get
the police down here right away so he can make an official statement.”
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argument.
As Bridget hurried off to make the calls, the remaining nurse turned back towards Martin with a look of profound sympathy.
“Please don’t worry, Mr. Jones. We’re going to make sure you’re protected until the authorities can get to the bottom of this. Whatever your wife may have done, she won’t be able to make another attempt on your life while you’re under our care.”
Martin felt his eyes burn with unshed tears of relief, all the terror and pent–up anguish of his entrapment finally overwhelming him. “Thank you,” he rasped out hoarsely. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to finally break free of this nightmare…
True to her word, it wasn’t long before a pair of stern–faced police officers arrived striding into Martin’s room, their eyes roving about in a silent assessment of potential threats. After assuring
there was no immediate danger, they approached his bedside and one of them removed a small notepad from his breast pocket.
“Mr. Jones, I’m Detective Carr, and this is my partner, Detective Ruiz,” the taller of the two officers introduced them crisply. “Please go ahead and walk us through from the beginning –
detail you can recall about the events that led up to your current condition.”
every
Marshaling his courage, Martin recounted his tale from the start. He explained how he had uncovered evidence of Gina’s blatant infidelity and her insidious attempts to pilfer his assets for herself and her illicit lover. When he had confronted her, insisting she gather her things to vacate his home and his life, her anger had quickly turned to violence.
“She shoved me hard, sending me tumbling down the foyer staircase,” he told the officers, sorrow tinging his words. “I remember feeling such searing pain in my head as it struck the bottom step, and then…nothing. Just darkness pressing in from all sides as the coma took hold.
He then recounted the muffled conversation he had inadvertently overheard between Gina and her lover upon regaining consciousness earlier – their shameless discussion of needing him permanently eliminated now that he posed a threat. Detective Carr’s stern expression darkened with every chilling detail while Ruiz’s pen flew across his notepad, transcribing Martin’s statement with rigid intensity.
When at last Martin fell silent, Carr straightened and snapped his notepad closed, leveling his subject with a severe look
“Based on the details you’ve provided, Mr. Jones, it seems your wife’s actions may constitute premeditated attempted murder – not to mention, conspiracy to commit murder based on what you
overheard from this phone call.” His jaw tightened grimly. “Rest assured, we will take all necessary precautions to keep you under tight security here at the hospital until Mrs. Jones can be apprehended.”
“We’ll also need you to work with a police sketch artist right away,” Ruiz added. “To create a rendering of this accomplice we can distribute to all officers in attempting to track him down.” Martin felt fatigue tugging at his battered body, but he nodded in grim determination. NôvelDrama.Org holds © this.
“Whatever you need from me, I’ll provide it. That woman forfeited any love or loyalty from me the moment she tried to take my life for her own greed.” His voice was little more than a wispy rasp, but it carried the weight of a thousand grievances. “I want to see her brought to justice – along with anyone else involved in these heinous acts against me.”
As the detectives began preparations to have him transferred to a secure safe room under 24/7 surveillance, Martin allowed his eyelids to drift shut once more. He may have narrowly escaped the literal clutches of death, but his mind still whirred with the metaphorical demise of his entire world. His marriage – the life he had built beside the woman he had blindly adored had been an utter sham from the start.
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Chapter 164 Anga does not