Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 215: The doctor who performed the surgery

Chapter 215: The doctor who performed the surgery

After Neil left the room, Mia remained glued to her position, staring at the slammed door with tears filling her eyes.

Perhaps she was asking for too much? Perhaps she was being unreasonable by wanting to be courted by the man she loved? But no matter how unreasonable it might seem, she wanted it so badly she’d give anything to have just a few days of being courted before marriage.

She knew Neil wasn’t the kind of man to figure out something like that without her saying it, but she wanted him to. Recalling the look he’d given her before he left the room, she felt her heart tighten into a knot and her throat burn with emotions. He’d looked at her like she was an unreasonable woman with no sense at all. That detached look of his that she hated seeing on his face had been there before he left her in the room.

Determined to stay in the guest room until Neil figured out what she wanted, Mia resumed arranging her things. She needed to soothe his anger and continue hinting to him that he needed to court her and propose to her before marriage.

She wanted to have a romantic story to tell their future children when they’d ask how their father had proposed to her. He’d not even asked her to marry him properly but he wanted them to just go ahead and get married. She’d even realized this afternoon that he referred to her as ’my wife’ to the maids, which had made her stomach fluttered with butterflies but then made her more determined to have him propose on his knees. That was how it ought be done!

By the time Mia was done arranging her things, it was already time for dinner. She took a quick shower and wore a set of comfortable home attire.

When Neil had come into the room earlier, she’d noticed the weary dark circles around his eyes. Perhaps she could give him a massage and help him sleep after dinner to soothe his anger, she decided, as she left the room hoping to find him in their room. But when she entered, he was not there. Thinking he had already gone down for dinner, she went downstairs into the dining room.

The long dinner table was set with a delicious array of meals, most of them her favorites, making her mouth water. But when she saw that Neil wasn’t there, she asked the housekeeper who was approaching her with some shopping bags. The housekeeper bowed slightly and said, "Mister asked me to give you this when you come down for dinner."

Mia took the bags with a puzzled expression. She then asked the housekeeper where Neil was at the moment. "Mister left awhile ago in his car," said the housekeeper.

"Did he say where he was going?" Mia asked.

The housekeeper shook her head no and left to instruct the other maids to set the table for Mia. Mia felt her heart knot with guilt. He was angry. She knew, and instead of staying to have his dinner at home, he’d left the house. She looked down at the shopping bags in her hands and brought out one of the boxes inside. Opening the box out of curiosity, she found a set of shimmering diamond necklaces and earrings. They were rare black diamonds, beautifully cut and set in an exquisite design.

"Oh, Neil..." Mia muttered, rubbing the necklace with a smile on her face. The guilt gnawed at her even more. She knew he had been trying, but she also knew that she needed more than just gifts. She needed him to understand her feelings, her desires.

She placed the necklace back in the box, took a deep breath, and resolved to talk to him properly when he returned. For now, she would have dinner and wait for him, hoping they could bridge the gap between them when he returned. However, despite how hungry she was, she could barely eat her food as she knew no doubt Neil hadn’t eaten anything. He was the kind to neglect his meal time and she knew he hadn’t had lunch and now he left the house without dinner.

Unable to eat alone, Mia asked the housekeeper to put the food away in the food warmers until Neil was back, and then she proceeded to the living room to wait for his return.

****

Neil drove through the night city as if the hounds of hell were chasing him. His hands were tightened around the steering wheel in anger, knuckles white with tension. A burning cigarette was clenched between his fingers as he navigated the car with one hand. Fury simmered beneath his composed exterior, threatening to boil over.

He couldn’t believe Mia didn’t want to marry him after everything. He’d thought she loved him, so what had made her change her mind now? Those thoughts swirled in his mind, tormenting him.

He was never one to understand women, and he sure as hell didn’t understand his woman. Damn her for making him so angry! He had looked forward to sleeping together with her tonight, but now he was driving down to the dungeon to vent his rage on some damned doctor who’d worked for Kelvin Rodrigo. He’d hoped to announce their marriage to the world soon, but it seemed that wasn’t going to happen with Mia backing out now. Perhaps she didn’t want him anymore?

With that thought, Neil slammed his fist on the steering wheel and stepped on the gas. The car roared down the road, his anger propelling him faster. In a flash, he arrived at the rundown building in the isolated part of Mirage Mesa. Climbing out of his car, he took a long drag of his cigarette before discarding it and striding into the building. His expression was murderous, his strides long and determined. The building was dark, but he navigated the shadows with ease.

When he reached the underground dungeon, his men began to bow in greeting. Ignoring them, he entered the special cell for questioning criminals. Despite not being in the military anymore, Neil still had a deep connection with them. Even though they’d requested for him to return and take back his position after his release, Neil had ignored them just like they had ignored him when he needed their help in prison. However, few of his soldiers were loyal enough to him to quit from the military just like him, and one of them had been Zephyr and the other bodyguards who answered to him now.

Inside the cell room, Liam, who Neil had called on his way here and Zephyr, and James stood around a bleeding man tied to an electric chair. The sight of them barely registered in Neil’s mind; his focus was entirely on the man who would bear the brunt of his wrath.

The man’s eyes could barely open as he looked up to see who came in, as if recognizing Neil, he seemed relieved and glad. "Mr. Wayner..." He cried out desperately, "Tell these animals to let me go, I’ve told them everything I know."

"You told us nothing but the fact that you no longer work for Kelvin Rodrigo," said James. "That’s not what we want to hear. Tell us the full details of your work and what you did for him in the past to become his private doctor. That’s all we asked for, Mr. Howell."

Mr. Howell glared at James then at Zephyr who’d been torturing him for days, then back at Liam and Neil, "I know nothing! Let me go, I have a flight to catch!" He cried.

Neil’s gaze was icy as he stepped forward, his presence filling the room with a palpable tension. Mr. Howell whimpered, his eyes widening with terror as Neil began to approach him. The overhead light cast harsh shadows on Neil’s face, highlighting the lines of anger etched into his features.

"What’s the status, James?" Neil asked, his voice a low growl.

James stepped forward, clearing his throat. "He’s denying the fact that he was part of the surgical body packing of children. And our investigation said otherwise, he was the main doctor who performed the surgeries."

"You lying pigshit!" Mr. Howell cursed, "I didn’t do anything wrong! If I get out of here, I will sue your dirty ass for kidnapping. You_"

A bone crushing punch landed on his face before he could complete his threat. Neil cracked his knuckles after breaking the man’s teeth. He leaned down, his face inches from the trembling doctor. "You know who I am," he said quietly. "But you don’t know what I can do to you when angered. Tell me everything about what you did for Kelvin Rodrigo, or I promise you’ll wish you were dead."

The man’s terrified eyes darted around the room, searching for an escape that didn’t exist. Neil’s anger was a living thing, coiled tight and ready to strike. He had no patience left, no time for games. Especially when he’d been angered from home, and everyone in the cell room could sense it as they watched him take over the questioning.

When Neil saw the terrified look in the man’s eyes, he said, "Now tell me, why did you visit the Rodrigo estate every five months twenty years ago?"

Mr. Howell didn’t dare to continue denying his involvement after he saw the murderous look in those grey eyes piercing into his soul and the knife glimmering in Neil’s hands. "I... I went there to do my work as scheduled for me."

"And what is this work of yours?" Neil asked impatiently.

"Trust me, I was doing my job or else Mr. Rodrigo would kill me. I didn’t—"

"What was your work at his residence?" Neil repeated, uninterested in anything other than that.

"I... I was to perform some surgical procedures on a little girl, I mean his daughter. Mr. Rodrigo didn’t want to be caught delivering some substances into other countries as that would ruin his reputation and send his old ass to prison, so he made me perform the procedure on the girl to hide the substance within her body. I told him the risk, but he didn’t seem to care enough for the girl and ordered me to do the job. At first, I did one procedure to hide it in her stomach, and thanks to my skills, she came back alive after the delivery was complete. But she was sick for a whole month, throwing up every meal she ate..."

Neil listened to the sickening things performed on little Mia, with rage surging through his veins and clouding his mind.

"The second procedure was performed in her stomach five months after the first one. We almost lost her that time, but thankfully she survived. The girl was strong. It was a miracle she kept on surviving. Sometimes I wished she’d just die and rest from all the pain she had to endure. I know I wasn’t supposed to feel anything while doing the job, but... there were times I couldn’t bear to look into her eyes.

"The last procedure was performed on her right thigh because we couldn’t do any more in her stomach. I told Mr. Rodrigo that we could lose her, or she could get paralyzed in the leg. But he pointed a gun at me and told me to shut up and do my work unless I wanted to die. I recall he used to refer to the girl as a thing, not a human nor his child. That was my last procedure of planting substances within her body, but it wasn’t my last surgery on her..." He trailed off, a look of remorse masking his face as he tried to avoid Neil’s grey eyes.

"Why are you making me go through this all over again, Mr. Wayner?" he cried. "I regret everything I did in the past, and I’ve paid for my sins with the lives of my family after I quit my job with Kelvin!"

Neil angrily grabbed his bloody collar and pulled him along with the electric chair up. With a vein throbbing on his forehead, he gritted, "Don’t bullshit me into feeling sorry for you! You’re an asshole and a heartless bastard! I want to rip off your head so badly my head hurts from listening to the shit you did to my woman. If you know what’s fucking best for you, you better tell me every single thing you did to her, or may God help you!"