Chapter 5 A Rescue on Livestream
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Isabelle was in disbelief. This woman was seriously asking her to apologize to that disgusting old man?
What kind of mother says something like that?
Libby didn’t even notice the look on Isabelle’s face. In her mind, she thought she was already going out of her way to be kind to this new daughter.
She even tried to calm her husband. “Roy, don’t take it personally. Isabelle just got home–she doesn’t know us yet.”
“To her, we’re basically strangers.”
“You love her now, and one day she’ll understand.”
Isabelle sneered. “There’s no misunderstanding. I’m not apologizing. He knows damn well whether he was tucking me in or trying to feel me up.”
She turned to Lennon. “Let’s go.”
Libby panicked when she realized Isabelle was really leaving. She burst into tears. “You’re seriously leaving? But this is your home–where else could you go?”
Tiana had said the production team would be filming at the house tomorrow. How could Isabelle not be there?
They’d already been paid for her participation. What if the show asked for the money back?
“Let her go!” Roy snapped, equal parts guilty and angry. “She just can’t handle living in a poor home. She probably wants to run back to her adoptive parents!”
“They’ve got Tiana now–their real daughter. You think they’ll still want a fake like you?”
Isabelle gave him a slow, mocking look. “I don’t care that this place is poor. I just don’t want to live with a pervert.”
Her words set Roy off. He lunged at her.
Lennon quickly stepped in to block him.
“Sir! Please calm down! Hitting her won’t solve anything,” Libby said, trying to play peacemaker–but Isabelle noticed. She wasn’t actually trying to stop Roy. She was just trying to avoid becoming collateral damage.
Or maybe, deep down, she was hoping Roy would hit her.
“Swear to God, I’ll beat her to death today!”
Roy was wasted and out of control. Lennon couldn’t hold him back.
He lunged like a rabid dog. Isabelle stepped out from behind Lennon and slammed her foot into Roy’s side, sending him crashing to the ground.
Aaron stood there frozen, jaw practically on the floor.
Way fiercer than Tiana.
“I’m not Tiana,” Isabelle said coldly. “Save your macho crap for someone else.”
“Are you even really my parents? You’re both ugly as sin, and I look like this. We don’t look a thing alike.”
She blurted out the suspicion she’d been holding back.
“And that old bastard’s behavior? Doesn’t exactly scream ‘fatherly love.””
Roy and Libby were stunned into silence, watching as Lennon led Isabelle out the door.
Once they were outside, Lennon couldn’t help asking, “What did you mean back there–saying you don’t look like them? If they’re not your parents, then who is?”
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Chapter 5 A Rescue on Livestream
“Do I look like either of them to you?” Isabelle shot back.
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Lennon thought about it. Yeah… now that she mentioned it, she really didn’t. But wasn’t the whole point that the babies had been switched?
Before he could say anything else, a small child’s voice rang out from the shop next door.
“Grandma, wake up! Somebody help!”
Isabelle heard it too. They both rushed over.
The next–door shop was cramped. The floor was wet, and an old woman was collapsed on the ground. A little boy was sobbing and trying to shake her awake.
Lennon moved to help, but Isabelle stopped him. “Don’t move her. I’ll handle it.”
She knelt beside the woman and began first aid–quick, confident, and precise.
Lennon was stunned.
Isabelle gently laid the woman flat and began checking her condition.
“Can you hear me?” she asked as she worked.
The woman seemed to react to the child’s crying, struggling to respond. “Ah… I…”
Isabelle made a fast diagnosis–stroke.
The facial droop, twitching limbs, and slurred speech were all signs of a cerebral infarction.
“Call 911. Tell them the patient’s showing signs of a stroke and they need to get here fast.”
As Isabelle massaged key pressure points to relieve the woman’s symptoms, Lennon instinctively followed her lead and made the call.
After he hung up, he finally asked, “How do you know it’s a stroke? What if you’re wrong and the doctors come based on false info?”
The realization made him break out in cold sweat.
A neighbor from next door had also heard the crying and came over.
Seeing the elderly woman on the ground with two strangers hovering over her, his expression darkened. “What did you two do to Madam Cordelia?”
“Are you alright, ma’am?” he called, approaching.
Isabelle held up a hand. “Don’t move her. We already called 911.”
“911? Are you serious?” The neighbor was suspicious. He didn’t know whether these two had gotten into a fight with her. Just in case, he called his wife over to keep an eye on them while he went to call the police.
“Andy, say something, kid. Did they hurt your grandma?” the man asked as he pulled the boy to his side.
“No,” Andy said, shaking his head.
But the neighbor’s wife didn’t trust a child’s word and said they’d wait for the police to arrive before jumping to conclusions.
Isabelle ignored the back–and–forth and asked if there was a clinic nearby.
“There is. Why?” the woman asked warily.
“I…” Isabelle began, but Lennon quickly pulled her aside.
“Are you trying to get us in more trouble?”
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Chapter 5 A Rescue on Livestream
He lowered his voice. “This has nothing to do with us. Calling 911 was enough. Don’t push it.”
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He thought Isabelle was being reckless. Anyone else would’ve run the other way to avoid getting involved–but she was trying to play hero?
Their whispered conversation only made the neighbors more suspicious.
The police station was close, and officers arrived even before the ambulance.
“What’s going on here? Why is this woman on the floor?” one officer asked sharply, eyeing Isabelle and Lennon.
Lennon stopped Isabelle from answering and explained, “We were coming out of the store next door when we heard a child crying. We came over and found the woman collapsed. We called 911 right away.”
One neighbor jumped in, “Officers, you can’t just let them walk away! They were whispering over there just now–who knows what they were plotting. What if this is all their fault? Who’s gonna pay the medical bills if they vanish?”
The police considered that. “Got it. We’ll bring them in for questioning.”
A crowd had gathered outside, drawn by all the noise.
Coincidentally, a livestreamer named Michelle had come to the old district to explore local shops–and caught the scene on
camera.
“Looks like something’s going on here…”
“An old woman collapsed inside. Seems to involve two young people. Even the police are here. Wonder what the conflict is.”
Michelle aimed her phone toward Isabelle, Lennon, and the unconscious woman.
She didn’t dare film the officers directly, only catching the edge of a uniform.
“Guys… is it just me, or does that girl look really familiar?”
Her camera lingered on Isabelle.
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