Chapter 129: Injury
Chapter 129: Injury
The girl excitedly returned to the dining room, grabbed a piece of bread, and prepared to eat breakfast while watching the show. After thinking it over, she chose a relatively safe position: the dining room doorway.
Less than a minute later, just as Drew stretched her neck in anticipation, several rapid sounds of arguing came from upstairs.
“Eric Williams, I’ll never forgive you again! You bastard, you huge bastard!”
Amid that voice, Aniston stomped down the stairs from the second floor, glared viciously at Drew, who was watching the commotion, and grabbed her suitcase to leave.
“Janie, wait for me. Don’t be impulsive.”
Eric’s voice rang out. Then a figure wearing only a pair of trousers appeared at the bend of the V-shaped staircase. Seeing Aniston pick up her suitcase and try to leave again, Eric grew anxious and failed to watch his step. His foot missed the stair, and with several thumps, he rolled down the stairs.
“Wow.” Drew opened her little mouth wide. Seeing Eric roll down the stairs, she was not too worried. Instead, she looked somewhat gleeful, because that section of the staircase was less than two meters high.
Aniston also saw this scene and vented her anger by cursing, “Serves you right.”
Unfortunately, things seemed a little unexpected. Eric rolled all the way down the stairs and collapsed flat on his back on the floor. Immediately afterward, blood began to gush from his forehead, and his whole body stopped moving.
The atmosphere froze for a moment. With a crack, the porcelain bowl filled with oatmeal porridge fell to the floor and shattered. Drew rushed forward in terror.
“Eric, are you okay? Hey, say something! You… don’t scare me!” Drew threw herself beside Eric, calling his name while wiping the blood from his forehead. But she found the more she wiped, the more blood there was. It directly stained the cuff of her pajama sleeve red. After checking carefully, she finally discovered a wound about one centimeter long on his forehead, with blood continuously gushing out from it. Eric had already passed out.
Aniston had originally been furious and wanted to leave, but when she saw this scene, she hesitated before putting down her suitcase and walking over. When she went around Drew and saw the blood constantly spilling from Eric’s forehead, she panicked too.
“How… how did this happen?”
Drew helplessly held Eric’s head in her arms and clumsily pressed down on the wound on his forehead. A large patch of blood had smeared across the front of her pajamas. Her eyes were red like a little rabbit’s as she raised her head and shouted at Aniston, “Bitch, call an ambulance! If anything happens to Eric, I’ll kill you, I swear!”
Aniston shuddered from Drew’s hysterical threat, rushed to the phone, and fumbled as she dialed 911. At this time, Virginia, who had hastily dressed, also came downstairs and saw the scene. She immediately rushed over as well.
“Drew, let me do it. Let me.”
“Get away! Get away! You bitches, it’s all your fault! Otherwise, Eric wouldn’t have been hurt. You bitches, bitches…”
Although being cursed by Drew like this made Virginia feel awful, she was still a mentally mature woman and knew this was not the time to argue over it. “Drew, it won’t be easy to stop the bleeding like this. Is there a first-aid kit? Quickly tell me where the first-aid kit is.”
“Eric’s bedroom, on top of the wardrobe,” Drew answered without hesitation. Virginia quickly got up and ran upstairs.
“It seems… he should be laid flat on the floor…” Aniston, who had finished making the call, came over again. Seeing Drew kneeling on the floor and holding Eric in her arms, she could not help offering advice based on the vague medical knowledge she knew.
Drew coldly glanced at Aniston. Carefully pressing the wound on Eric’s forehead, she laid him flat on the floor. After thinking for a moment, she took off one of her cartoon slippers and placed it under the back of Eric’s head.
Watching Drew, Aniston inexplicably felt a slight sourness in her heart. She was supposed to be Eric’s official girlfriend, right? Why did this scene make it look as though she were the third party instead? And seeing Drew’s current crazed leopardess appearance, Aniston instinctively felt a little afraid. It was as though if she stepped even slightly closer, she would be swallowed alive by a wild beast.
Virginia quickly returned with the first-aid kit. “Drew, let me do it. I know some first aid.”
Drew silently moved back a little. Only after seeing Virginia skillfully stop Eric’s bleeding and bandage his wound did she relax slightly. She glanced at Aniston standing nearby. “Didn’t you say you were leaving? You can get lost now. Don’t ever come looking for Eric again.”
“I…” Aniston finally grew angry too. “I’m Eric’s girlfriend. What right do you have to order me around? You’re just a pet he keeps!”
A cold smile tugged at the corner of Drew’s mouth. “So what if I’m a pet? At least I’m not like you, a stubborn and stupid woman who only knows how to throw self-righteous little tantrums in front of him all day.”
“You’re the stupid one!” Aniston retorted frantically, then pointed at Virginia. “I’m his girlfriend. Shouldn’t I be angry when he… when he does this?”
“What’s wrong with an outstanding man like him playing with a few women?”
“You…” Aniston was left speechless by Drew’s powerful logic.
Virginia carefully finished bandaging the wound on Eric’s forehead, then placed a hand over his chest to feel his heartbeat. Only then did she slightly relax. Hearing the two girls’ morally skewed and logically confused argument, she was just about to stop them when the doorbell rang.
“The ambulance is here,” Aniston said softly. Drew immediately forgot the argument and rushed out to open the door.
Only after the ambulance drove up to the villa did Virginia get up and hide upstairs. She did not want outsiders to discover her here. After all, her relationship with Eric was not something that could be exposed openly. Seeing Virginia’s action, Aniston subconsciously wanted to hide upstairs too, but when she glimpsed Drew waving her small hands and anxiously explaining something to the approaching medical staff, she stopped.
The medical staff treated Eric briefly again before carrying the still-unconscious Eric into the ambulance. Seeing Drew get into the vehicle, Aniston could not help following. The ambulance drove away from Eric’s mansion and roared toward the nearest hospital.
The paparazzi who had been waiting outside Eric’s house were practically ecstatic when they saw this scene. Sensing sharply that something major must have happened, they immediately started their cars and followed.
In less than an hour, news that Eric had been injured, lost consciousness, and been hospitalized spread through the Los Angeles news media.
“This station reports that young director Eric Williams accidentally fell down the stairs this morning and remains unconscious. This is a live report from our reporter outside Cormier Surgical Hospital in Beverly Hills.”
The television screen switched to an exterior shot. In front of a hospital, forty or fifty reporters from various media outlets had almost completely blocked the entrance. The camera happened to capture Al Pacino, wearing sunglasses and a stern expression, stepping out of a commercial vehicle and quickly being surrounded by a large group of reporters.
A young blonde female reporter stood in front of the camera, holding a microphone as she said, “Eric has now remained unconscious for three consecutive hours. According to currently disclosed information, Eric Williams has varying degrees of bruising on his back, elbows, and knees, but the most serious injury is the violent impact to his head, which also caused heavy blood loss. At present, it is still impossible to determine whether this injury will lead to more serious consequences. As everyone knows, brain trauma is one of the most difficult injuries to predict.”
Inside the hospital, Jeffrey and Kapoor were the first to arrive. After them came Al Pacino, Tom Hanks, and other actors close to Eric. The two directors of The Others and Scent of a Woman also arrived one after another. After Eric underwent a series of examinations, he was sent into a ward. Everyone gathered in an office to listen to the attending doctor’s analysis.
“The CT and MRI results show that Mr. Williams has no symptoms of skull fracture or internal bleeding, so there is currently no need for excessive worry.”
“Dr. Duncan, when will he wake up?” Drew, standing at the very front of the crowd, asked anxiously.
Dr. Duncan hesitated for a moment. “He should wake up within eight hours.”
“Why should? Doctor, does that mean even you can’t be certain?”
Dr. Duncan honestly nodded.
“How can that be? You’re a doctor. How can you be uncertain? Aren’t you the best doctor here?” Drew was so agitated she almost lunged forward, but Jeffrey pulled her back. “Drew, don’t be rude.”
Seeing Drew’s miserable appearance, one bare foot, the front of her pajamas still stained with blood, Dr. Duncan did not mind the girl’s rudeness. Instead, he patiently explained, “Miss Barrymore, with Mr. Williams’ degree of injury, according to past experience, he should already have woken up by now. But he has not awakened according to common patterns, so I cannot give you an accurate answer. We still need to patiently observe and wait.”
Drew irritably waved her hand. “No. I want him transferred. I want to go to the best hospital in Los Angeles. I…”
Jeffrey held Drew’s shoulders and said softly, “Drew, stop making trouble. This is already the best neurology hospital in Los Angeles.”
Dr. Duncan added, “Perhaps at this time, you can try speaking beside the patient’s ear. It may help wake him.”
After hearing this suggestion, Drew immediately turned and ran toward Eric’s ward. Once the girl’s figure disappeared, Jeffrey asked, “Doctor, does that method really work?”
Dr. Duncan smiled bitterly. “I just wanted to give Miss Barrymore something to do. Her emotions are too unstable. She may collapse.”
The room fell silent, and no one said anything more. Everyone left the office and came to the door of Eric’s ward. Seeing Drew lying beside Eric’s ear and murmuring something almost neurotically, none of them went closer. They could only stand in the corridor outside.
Several nurses passing by saw stars like Al Pacino and Tom Hanks there and were eager to approach, but when they saw everyone’s grim expressions, they tactfully retreated.
In the end, Jeffrey, the oldest among them, said, “Why don’t all of you go back first? There’s no use staying here. Kapoor and I will stay here.”
After hearing this, everyone took their leave one after another. In the end, only Jeffrey, Kapoor, and the stubborn Aniston remained. She also wanted to go to Eric’s bedside, but seeing Drew’s half-crazed appearance, she felt somewhat afraid.
After eight hours passed, Eric still had not woken up. Even by that evening, Eric still showed no sign of waking. Drew went mad again, crazily transferring all her worried anger onto Aniston. Two bloody scratches appeared on Aniston’s neck before Jeffrey and Kapoor pulled Drew away. Aniston also began to regret things. When Drew pounced on her, she had even forgotten to fight back.
By night, many people could no longer sit still. Fox’s Barry Diller and Columbia’s Amy Pascal appeared at the hospital one after another under the night sky. The large group of reporters still blocking the hospital entrance became excited again and tried to surround the two for interviews, only to be pushed away by their tough bodyguards.
The two first went to the ward to visit Eric, then, as expected, asked the helpless attending doctor about Eric’s condition.
“Doctor, there won’t be a possibility of him becoming vegetative, will there?” After hearing Duncan’s explanation, Barry Diller asked the question everyone most wanted to ask but did not dare ask.
Duncan rubbed the pen in his hand twice and hesitated. “The probability is very, very small, but… it is not impossible.”
Fortunately, Drew was still staying beside Eric’s bed. If she had heard that sentence, no one knew what madness she might have erupted into again.
Jeffrey and the others looked at one another, not knowing what to say.
The worry on Barry Diller and Amy Pascal’s faces grew heavier. They were not distressed for Eric, but worried for Fox and Columbia. Both companies currently had film contracts with Eric. If Eric’s upcoming film projects fell through…
After discussing without any result, Barry Diller and Amy Pascal had no choice but to leave an hour later.
Perhaps everyone was destined to be frightened by Eric’s incident for nothing. At a little after four in the morning the next day, Eric finally woke up after nearly nineteen hours unconscious. After the doctor examined him, Drew, with red eyes and messy hair, held Eric’s now-awake large hand and rubbed it affectionately against her face for a while before collapsing against the edge of the bed with a thud and falling asleep.
Jeffrey and Kapoor, who had stayed up all night, finally sat beside Eric’s hospital bed in relief. Seeing Drew’s reaction, Kapoor stood up and said, “Eric, should I carry Drew to the room next door to sleep?”
“No need. Let her stay here.” As Eric spoke, he pulled the girl up and laid her down beside him. Only then did he say to Aniston, who stood at the door with her hands behind her back, “Janie, come here.”
Aniston obediently came over. “Eric, since… since you’re awake, I’ll leave first.”
Eric reached out and held Aniston. “Don’t go, alright, Janie?”
Kapoor and Jeffrey tactfully stood and walked out. “We’ll go call the others and tell them you woke up. They must still be worried now. Hearing this news early will put them at ease.”
After the ward door closed, Aniston relaxed a little and sat down by Eric’s bed.
Eric strangely touched the two red marks on Aniston’s neck. “What’s this…”
Aniston glanced at Drew lying beside Eric, her gaze complicated. “You bastard… if you hadn’t woken up, Drew would have killed me.”
“Heh, she wouldn’t.” Eric moved his large hand upward and touched Aniston’s face.
“No, she definitely would.” Aniston pulled Eric’s hand down. “I think… we should break up. Maybe… maybe Drew is more suitable for you.”
“I only see Drew as… as a younger sister.”
Aniston did not continue arguing over this issue. Instead, she said, “But I… I really can’t stand your womanizing, Eric. When I was in New York, I could still pretend to comfort myself that all those reports about you were fabricated by gossip tabloids. But what I saw yesterday morning made it impossible for me to keep lying to myself. They were all true. I really can’t bear it anymore. So, could you… could you let me go?”
Eric tightened his grip on Aniston’s small hand. “Forget it, Janie. Let’s not talk about this for now. I’ve been planning to produce a television series recently. Do you want to play the female lead? I promise this television series will make you even more famous than those movie stars.”
Aniston tugged hard at her small hand but could not pull it free. “I don’t…”
“I really can’t think of anyone more suitable than you, Janie. You don’t want me to hold another open casting call, do you? If that happens, many girls will appear around me. You know, my willpower has always been relatively weak.”
“You…”
“Alright, then it’s settled.”
“I…”
Aniston was stubborn, but Eric was even more forceful. It perfectly matched the saying that one thing subdued another. Under Eric’s unreasonable and pestering offensive, Aniston muddleheadedly agreed. By the time she reacted, the girl realized she was already lying on Eric’s other side. Like Drew, she had stayed awake all night, so she soon fell asleep beside Eric.
Although Eric had woken up, perhaps because he woke too late, the newspapers had already been printed.
In any case, the next day, news of Eric’s long unconsciousness appeared in the papers.
“Eric Williams Injured in Accident, Running Out of Time Filming Plan May Be Delayed; Columbia May Lose Heavyweight Negotiation Chip.”
“According to inside information, Williams has remained unconscious for a long time and may be at risk of becoming vegetative. If this condition becomes reality, several film contracts he signed with Columbia and 20th Century Fox may fall through, and Firefly, currently developing with strong momentum, will face an uncertain future.”
These two kinds of reports appeared in large numbers in newspapers. But after Fox Television promptly clarified the news that Eric had woken up, these sensational reports became nothing but empty paper. Although they caused Columbia and Fox stocks to briefly fall after the market opened in the morning, once the news was clarified, they quickly stabilized.
At the same time, some people focused on other angles. This alternative emphasis also attracted a large number of readers, such as a report in the Los Angeles Metro: “As everyone knows, Eric Williams currently has no relatives. Although child star Drew Barrymore is very close to Williams, the two are neither related by blood nor legally connected. It is said that Eric Williams had not previously made any will. If an accident were to happen to Eric Williams, his enormous fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars would have no heir and might face possible takeover by the federal government.”
In the ward, although Eric felt that he had completely recovered, under the doctor’s recommendation and everyone’s insistence, he had no choice but to remain in the hospital for several more days.
Looking at this report from the Los Angeles Metro, Eric smiled and said to Drew beside him, “Maybe I really should make a will. Girl, how much do you want?”
“Of course all of it is mine.” Drew was boredly flipping through a magazine. She glanced at Eric. “Did you forget what our relationship was in 17 Again?”
“Uh… I thought you’d say, ‘I don’t want a penny, I only want you to be safe.’ You actually want all my property. That really hurts me.”
“Hmph!”
While Eric was boredly staying in the ward and considering whether to make a will, British paparazzi thousands of miles away discovered another matter. Eric’s publicly known father was indeed dead, but his mother’s identity was a mystery. This discovery made many paparazzi ecstatic. If they could find the whereabouts of Eric Williams’ mother, it would definitely be explosive news.
As the birthplace of paparazzi, British paparazzi were indeed skilled at digging deep. They soon found Eric’s childhood residence in London, then visited neighbors around Eric’s old home one by one. Sure enough, they discovered some clues.
“She was a very elegant woman…”
“Even when she went out, she always covered her face with a veil. I never saw her true appearance…”
“She was probably a young lady from a rich family. But after giving birth to the child, she disappeared. Ralph really stepped in dog shit luck…”
After exhausting tremendous effort, the British tabloids only found these fragmentary bits of information. In other words, no one remembered what Eric Williams’ mother looked like. This instead gave those tabloids more room to work with. They unanimously believed this might be a fairy tale about a princess falling in love with a groom. Although the ending was not good, she had given birth to an outstanding son.
These fabricated reports quickly reached America, and Eric unsurprisingly saw them. But he instead felt relieved. It was best if they could not find her. If a “mother” he had never met really appeared, he truly would not know how to deal with it. It was best to let this mystery remain forever.
After April Fool’s Day, Eric underwent another detailed examination and successfully left the hospital. This storm could be considered completely over. Preparations for Running Out of Time had already been fully completed. During the remaining few days, Eric began working with Cruise and Hanks to build chemistry, waiting for the film to officially begin shooting on April 5.