Chapter 31

“You’re still getting your strength back. You need to eat up.”
Robbie sighed, and forced himself to take a spoonful of soup.
The moment it hit his tongue, nausea rose up fast. He pushed the bowl away. “Auntie, I really can’t eat.”
“Then don’t,” Sofia said, not making a fuss. She picked up the bowl and dumped the soup in the trash.
“When you’re hungry, just tell me what you want and I’ll get it for you.”
A little while later, the doctor stopped by, checked Robbie over, and said he’d need to stay a few more days for observation.
Hearing that, Robbie wrinkled his nose at the hospital smell clinging to him and glanced at Sofia.
“Auntie, I want to take a shower.”
“Sure,” Sofia said easily.
She helped him to the bathroom door. “Think you can handle it yourself? I’ll be right outside. Just holler if you need me.”
Robbie hesitated. At home, the housekeeper always helped him wash up-he barely even knew how to shower by himself. Whenever he’d been sick in the hospital before, Reese would take care of everything. She’d even carry him if he was weak, worried he’d slip and fall.
But Sofia clearly wasn’t planning to help. He bit his lip, nodded, and stepped inside.
He hadn’t thought the hospital floor would be even slicker than the one at home. The second the water hit, his foot slipped out from under him and he crashed to the ground, his elbow slamming into the tile. Tears sprang to his eyes from the pain.
“Auntie, it hurts,” he called out, voice shaking.
The water kept running. Sofia sat out in the hospital room, scrolling on her phone. She might’ve heard something but didn’t move. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ.net
Robbie waited a while, shivering. Maybe the water was too loud for her to hear.
He had no choice but to grit his teeth and struggle up on his own. His arm was already turning purple, throbbing every time he moved, and he couldn’t reach his back to wash it at all.
His nose stung. Tears spilled down his cheeks. He missed his mom so much. If Mom were here, he wouldn’t be this helpless.
In the end, all he could do was stand under the water for a bit, then wrap himself
in a towel, dry off as best he could, and put his clothes back on.
“Auntie, can you help me dry my hair?”
He walked out, still rubbing at his wet hair, and saw Sofia glued to her phone, not even looking up. His heart sank even more.
“Is Robbie’s family here?” A nurse pushed open the door. “Can someone come to the nurse’s station to sign a form?”
Sofia finally set her phone down. “Robbie, be good, okay? I will be right back.”
Robbie climbed onto the hospital bed with tears in his eyes. After a long moment, he picked up his smartwatch and called Reese.
“Hello?”
Just hearing his mom’s voice on the other end made him lose it. Tears trickled down onto the blanket.
“Mom, I’m hungry. Can you make some sweet potato soup and bring it to the hospital? And… I miss you. Can you come stay with me?”
Reese was busy adjusting an Al model when she heard him sniffling. She frowned.
“I don’t have time. Where’s Grandma and your dad?”
“Great-Grandpa and Grandma went home. Dad just went to the office,” Robbie said, sounding even more pitiful.
“You’re at the hospital alone?” Reese didn’t really buy it. She knew the Ratcliff family wouldn’t just leave him completely by himself.
“Um… Auntie’s here,” Robbie admitted, guilt creeping into his voice.
Reese’s fingers hovered above the keyboard. “I’ll have the housekeeper make soup and drop it off. I’m working, so listen to your Auntie, okay?”
The call ended with a cold click. Robbie stared at the watch, stunned.
Why did Mom hang up so fast? She used to call every day, checking on him until he got annoyed.
If he was sick, she’d always be there, no matter what. Now she actually said she “didn’t have time?”
Sofia came back in and immediately saw his red eyes. “What happened?”
Robbie threw himself at her, crying hard. “Auntie, can you be my mom?”
Maybe if Auntie was his mom, she’d make him good food and help him take a bath.
Sofia looked at the tears soaking into her shirt, annoyance flickering in her eyes. But when she heard what he said, she couldn’t help but smile. “Silly, you can’t just swap out your mom like that.”
Back in her office, Reese stared at her computer, lost in thought.
Alan came in and dropped a stack of files on her desk. “Here’s the data from the
Clever Cloud dispatch system. Do you think this is useful?”
Reese flipped through the paperwork without thinking-then stopped cold.
The neural feedback algorithm on the page was almost identical to the data she’d worked on seven years ago in her old lab.