But she was, after all, the goddaughter he had sworn to his mother, having grown up in the Clarkson family.
She was considered one of them.
Under such circumstances, he couldn't bring himself to dig into her affairs.
He only thought about making things right for her.
But he didn't want to put Christine in danger.
"Thing is,"
Gregory glanced at Dailey's sour expression and continued, "There's no concrete evidence. If she doesn't spill the beans, calling the cops won’t do squat."
"But you, you've got your ways to make her talk, right?"
"What do you say, should we head back and have a chat?"
Dailey tossed his tablet aside, pulled out a cigarette but didn’t light it.
He was silent for a long while before saying, "Once Christine is out of the woods, I’ll take her back with me."
"Sort out all that mess, then take her out for a proper adventure."
"Funny you should say that." Gregory snapped his fingers.
Dailey looked puzzled, "What?"
Gregory said, "We’re heading back too. Let's do it together."
...
Christine hadn’t woken up by evening, and both Dailey and Jane were worried.
Jane said to Gregory, "Let's take Chris back to Vista Town, have Mr. Abdul take a look."
Gregory took her hand in reassurance, "The person I called over is a doctor without borders, highly skilled. She said it’s nothing serious, the medication is working, and the allergic reaction has subsided. She should wake up soon."
He said it as much for Dailey's benefit as for Jane's.
But between him and Dailey, years of understanding meant they could communicate with just a look.
Such cheesy lines were never their thing.
Only with the women they loved.
Jane's eyes widened in shock, "You don’t have amnesia, do you?"
"No, that’s not it."
Christine shook her head, "I just think a drowning incident isn’t worth troubling Mr. Abdul over, let alone cutting your honeymoon short."
"It wasn’t just the drowning; you had an allergic reaction, too."
Dailey chimed in, "Before you passed out from the drowning, did you feel like you touched something?"
Christine was genuinely surprised, "I had an allergic reaction?"
"Yes." Dailey and Jane said in unison.
Then, Jane asked, "You never had allergies as a kid?"
As far as Christine knew, from the time she’d known her, she hadn’t seen her have any allergies.
Christine confessed, "Never had them. I thought I was pretty tough, didn’t think I could have something as frail as an allergy."
"But now that Dailey mentions it... I do remember, besides the seaweed tangling around my legs causing the accident, I did touch something else."
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