His Destructive, Toxic Love

"Mama..." Brock lunged at Eliza, rubbing his little face against her neck, "I missed you so much."

Eliza, caught between surprise and delight at seeing Brock, responded, "Mama missed you too."

Chelsea's eyes sparkled with satisfaction. "I figured you'd be missing your little one, so I brought Brock over."

"Thank you, Chelsea. I've been insanely busy lately," Eliza said, her gratitude clear.

Chelsea understood completely and offered, "Don't worry about a thing. You focus on your work. As Brock's godmother, it's my job to take care of him."

"Actually, things are almost sorted. I've scheduled the surgery with Dr. Roosevelt for the next couple of days. After that, my dad will need some recovery time, then we'll bring him home." Chelsea nodded, taking Brock back into her arms. "Let me know if there's anything else I can do."

"There's not much left, really. How have things been for you? You've got a lot going on too," Eliza asked, concerned.

Chelsea's family issues were a tangled mess, and she didn't want to burden Eliza. She just smiled, "Same old, just tackling them one by one."

"Don't stress yourself out."

"Mm-hmm."

Just then, the hospital room door swung open.

Casper strode in, with Caleb right behind him.

Chelsea recognized him instantly and blurted out, "You creep!"

Eliza: ...???

Casper: ...???

Caleb frowned, puzzled by Chelsea's outburst. "I'm not a creep, I..."

"It was him. In the elevator earlier, he

was trying to..." Chelsea's voice

shook with emotion, but Caleb cut her off angrily, "Hey, cut it out! wasn't thinking anything like that."

Casper: ... Thinking what exactly?

He turned to his brother, his eyes narrowing, "Did you harass someone?"

"No, no, no, bro! You know me better

than that Caleb stammered, desperate to clear his name. He

turned to Chelsea, "Miss, I didn't do anything to you, did I? Please

explain." en

"Who are you calling miss? Do I look like your miss? With your sneaky looks, you don't seem like a good

person at all," Chelsea shot backetContent property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

holding Brock close. She turned to Eliza "I'll take Brock away for now, to avoid any more trouble."

Eliza: ...What on earth happened that I don't know about?

"Who are you calling trouble?" Caleb demanded, following Chelsea, clearly annoyed. "You hit me, and now you're acting like you're in the right?"

"What did you do to her?" Casper asked his brother suspiciously.

Caleb's lips moved as if he had a lot to say, but he chose silence. Hanging his head, he muttered, "Bro, I really didn't do anything to her. I'm the one being wronged here." "Fine, you step out. I need to talk to Valerie."

"Okay, you guys talk."

The hospital room door closed behind Caleb.

Casper's gaze softened as he looked at Mikey, lying quietly on the bed, concern etched on his face. He then turned to Eliza, asking in a low voice, "How's your father doing?" "Not bad. We've scheduled the surgery with Dr. Roth for the day after tomorrow," she replied calmly.

Casper nodded, then asked, "Everything else okay?"

"Why? Do you need something?" Eliza asked, frowning in confusion as she looked at him.