Chapter 48: Rachel Was Sick
Chapter 48: Rachel Was Sick
"If you can't do it, I'll give someone else that position of yours" Victor said with a stern face.
After hearing him say that, the incumbent planning director's face paled.
Hurriedly, he said, "Mr.Sullivan, I promise I'll hand in a perfect proposal before you get off work today."
Afterwards, he hurried towards the door clumsily carrying all the documents.
Just when he was about to open the door of the office, Ivan came in.
"Ivan," he greeted.
After that brief interaction, he walked out of the office without waiting for Ivan to respond.
From the corner of his eye, Ivan could see that the planning director's back was drenched in sweat.
And seeing him bolt out of the room like a bat out of a cave, Ivan was not surprised.
Victor was a perfectionist, and work was his top priority.
Not only was he strict with his own work, but he was also critical of his subordinates performance.He wouldn't allow the slightest mistakes at all.
Thus, people began to say that if someone were to get a job in the Sullivan Group, they would either be burned out or die from exhaustion due to Victor's obsession with perfection.
But even so, the company was one of the top five corporations in the world.
That reputation alone was alluring enough to make people willing to kill for a job there.
"Mr.Sullivan, the meeting with the American branch is about to start."
Ivan handed in the documents needed to be checked and signed by Victor.
Victor opened one of the folders, and when he finished reading and was about to sign it, he suddenly remembered something that the planning director said earlier.
"What's going on in the archive room?" he asked.
"Since when did the planning department have so much time to waste sorting out tons of documents themselves? Tell Rachel that if she can't do her job, she should just resign immediately! The Sullivan Group has no room for useless employees!"
"Actually, Mr.Sullivan, Miss Bennet is sick.She hasn't been to work for two days," Ivan replied.
Indeed, Rachel was feeling under the weather.
Not long after she returned home that night, she collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep at once.
Abby had cooked something for her.
When she got out of the kitchen and was about to call Rachel, she saw her sleeping on the living room sofa.
Her lips looked pale, and beads of sweat continuously ran down her forehead.
Startled by this sight, Abby touched Rachel's forehead and instantly gleaned that Rachel had a high fever; her body was burning hot! Wasting no time, Abby called Andy while trying to wake Rachel up.
"Miss Bennet! Wake up! Miss Bennet!"
Clearly, Rachel could hear Abby but not enough to make out what she was talking about.
She just thought that it was so noisy that she frowned and said in a hoarse voice, "Abby, don't be so noisy.I'm really sleepy."
After saying that, Rachel lost consciousness.
By the time she woke up, it was already the next morning.
It was at the break of dawn, and a chilling breeze came in from under the half-closed door, leading to the balcony.
Feeling exhausted, Rachel instinctively touched her forehead, only to realize that there was a wet towel on it.
She got up while removing the towel from her head.
Out of the corner of her eye, she found Abby sitting beside the bed.
Her arms were folded, and her face was resting against them.
It seemed that Abby had fallen asleep.
Additionally, there was a basin of cold water beside her feet.
Judging from what Rachel had seen, it appeared as though Abby took care of her all night, and had just fallen asleep.
However, it didn't look like Abby was at peace while she was sleeping.
Rachel removed the blanket from her body and covered Abby with it.
The moment Abby felt the blanket cover her, she woke up.
All night long, she was worried about Rachel's health, so even though she had fallen asleep, she made sure not to fall asleep too deeply "Oh, Miss Bennet! You're finally awake.I'm so glad!"
As Abby sat upright, her creased eyebrows relaxed a little.
Rachel chuckled.
"Did I wake you?"
"No, ma'am, you didn't."
Abby shook her head, sounding worried.
"Are you feeling better now? Are you nauseous or feeling any discomfort at all? Would you like something to eat or drink?"
"I'm feeling a lot better.It's probably because my fever has gone down, and I've been sweeting a lot.I don't feel any discomfort, but I do feel a little feeble.Actually, I feel refreshed, thanks to you.You don't need to worry about me."
"That's great to hear!"
While Abby was saying that, she used a thermometer to measure Rachel's body temperature.
When she found that her temperature had returned to normal, Abby felt relieved.
"You almost scared me to death last night, Miss Bennet.When I came out of the kitchen, I saw you lying unconscious on the sofa, and you were burning up!"
All Rachel could remember about that night before was how Victor forced her to drink an entire bottle of red wine, and that she threw up several times before coming home.
She could only remember bits and pieces of everything that followed thereafter.
Perhaps she was already coming down with a fever on her way home, and that might be the reason she had little to no recollection of what happened later on.
"What happened after that?" asked Rachel.
"After I found you lying unconscious, I immediately contacted Mr.Torres, and he arrived a few minutes later.You had a really high fever, and I wasn't strong enough to carry you.Mr.Torres was the one who carried you upstairs.I helped you ingest some antipyretics, and put a towel on your forehead to lower your temperature.Your fever only started going down around five in the morning."
Then, Abby took the towel from Rachel's hand.
Rachel glanced at the bedside table and saw a box of ibuprofen and a glass of water.
Before she could ask where Andy was, something dawned on her.
She picked up the box of medicine, and asked, "Abby, did you just say that… I took the antipyretics?"
"Yes, you did."
Abby was stunned by Rachel's serious tone.
After a short pause, she continued, "Your fever was really high last night, and your body temperature was already at 39.5°C.If you hadn't taken the medicine, your fever wouldn't have gone down, and it could've gotten even worse."
As Rachel stared at the medicine box, her eyes darkened.
‘'Antipyretics, huh?’'
During the early stages of pregnancy, pregnant women weren't usually allowed to take medicines without doctor's guidance because it could have some side effects on the fetus.
‘'If I'm really pregnant, and I took one of these, then…'’
"Miss Bennet, is there something wrong with the medicine?"
Abby asked tentatively, noticing that Rachel was staring intently at the box of ibuprofen.
"Huh? Oh, no, it's nothing.There's nothing wrong."
Rachel was pulled back to her senses, and she put down the medicine box.
"Are you really okay?"
Abby was just trying to make sure Rachel was okay.
"I am.Don't worry."
To change the topic, Rachel asked, "I'm hungry.Can you get me something to eat, Abby?"
When Abby heard that Rachel wanted to eat, her eyes lit up, and she immediately said, "Okay! What would you like to eat, Miss Bennet? I'll prepare whatever you want."
"My fever has just gone done, so I think I can only eat something light."
"In that case, I'll cook some millet porridge with red dates for you." Abby grinned.
"Last night, I saw how much you threw up, and you had just recovered from a fever.Millet porridge will be good for your stomach, and the red dates will recover your strength.They're very healthy."
"Sounds great," Rachel replied with a smile.
Still smiling at Rachel, Abby helped her lie down to rest.
Then, she left her bedroom and went to the kitchen to prepare the porridge.
As soon as the door was closed, the smile on Rachel's face disappeared.
She looked down at her belly, her pink, supple lips pursed into a straight line.
All of a sudden, her eyes glinted with certainty.
It seemed that she had made up her mind.
‘'I should probably check if I'm pregnant.I can't keep guessing like this.I should go have a physical checkup to make sure that I'm pregnant or not.What if I'm not pregnant? If that was the case, I'm just overthinking and scaring myself.'’ NôvelDrama.Org holds © this.