MAD MORNING
It had been two weeks since Aurie is comatose, and the air in her hospital room felt colder than the sterile equipment. It is 9 AM. Amelia Fortuna and her husband, Carlisle, stood near Aurie's bedside, a picture of false concern.
Amelia began the interrogation: "So, what are you going to do?"
Hugh snapped, addressing Carlisle, his voice dangerously even. "Madame Fortuna, will Sir Fortuna leave us alone?"
Carlisle, trying to defuse the tension, offered a placating smile. "Don't get mad, Hugh. We are just~"
Hugh cut him off. He had been looking out the window, but now he turned, his fists clenched, his body language communicating that he was seconds away from physically attacking the Fortuna couple.
Hugh:"You fake parents! Faking you go here so I would know Aurie's here!!!"
Amelia:"Don't accuse us~"
Hugh's voice was a roar, filling the empty room: "WHERE IS AURIE??? WHERE'S MY WIFE???"
Carlisle stammered: "In uh..."
Amelia covers her hand over Carlisle's mouth, the gesture sharp and commanding. "Will you please leave us? Wait for me in the car, please." Carlisle, subdued by his wife, obeyed immediately.
Hugh turned back to the window, his face flushed red with rage, using the view of the overlooking hospital garden to anchor his sanity. He took a deep, shuddering breath.
Hugh:"WHAT MAKES YOU DECIDE TO GET AURIE? WHAT IS SHE TO YOU? A TOY? A MONEY THAT YOU CAN PUT IN A VAULT?"
Amelia walked behind Hugh, smoothing her dress, trying to compose herself and project an aura of control that Hugh was rapidly destroying.
Amelia:"You know, I don't like explaining~"
Hugh spun around, shouting: "THEN EXPLAIN NOW!!!"
Amelia:"Why are you shouting?"
Hugh's eyes were burning: "STOP ASKING ME BECAUSE I AM ASKING YOU!!!"
Amelia maintained her composed, entitled facade, trying to conjure a believable alibi. But Hugh had already reached his breaking point. He faced her again, his voice cracking with genuine pain.
Hugh:"YOU KNOW!!! I'M SO TIRED OF YOU, YOU STUPID, ENTITLED MOTHER!!! SHE IS MY WIFE!!! She is my life..."
Hugh's anger suddenly dissolved into raw grief. He began to cry terribly, the tears pouring down his face; the pain of feeling manipulated, controlled, and helpless washing over him. He was a man who had always obeyed his wife's corporate and personal mandates, but this final betrayal by her mother is too much. He felt a fierce resolution rise within him: "No way, I won't obey anymore!!!"
Hugh instantly snapped back into the corporate warrior, his index finger raised, pointing forcefully on Amelia's forehead. "You are so entitled, Madame Fortuna!!! I'm so full of you! Okay, you win this morning! Is Atty. Lanier talked to you about you & his MANIPULATED WILL? This is your first week."
The first week of the three-week countdown had barely begun, and Hugh had already unleashed the full force of his fury and his secret knowledge.
Hugh started toward the door of the empty, quiet hospital room. Just before he left, he turned his neck back to Amelia, delivering his final, cold decree. "I am your daughter's husband. A fact, Amelia. That's a fact!!! You, and Atty. Lanier will go to jail if you didn't restore what Aurie's will. When three weeks done, I'll get to know where Aurie is and her will?! That's what going to happened." Hugh emphasized his certainty by forcefully slamming the door behind him.
SWEET SON
It's 1 PM. Adiel was filled with worry for his father, Hugh, following the intense corporate stress and his mother's ongoing coma. He had driven to the family home in Beverly Hills. The same home he returned to after college while completing his post-college curriculum for Anesthesiology.
In the back garden, under the shade of a Gazebo, Adiel found his father reading the morning newspapers, a glass of black cold coffee at his side. Adiel walked up quietly.
Adiel:"Dad, coffee is bad for you."
Hugh was shocked a little, startled out of his concentration. He immediately stood up, opening his arms and hugging his son tightly. "Hey, you always here huh! Seeing a girl?"
Adiel:"No dad. I just miss going here."
Hugh:"You know, I really admire Aurie of naming you Adiel."
Adiel:"Stop, dad. C'mon, I'm 34."
Hugh:"And it was epic. Your name supposed to be Huxley but Aurie don't like the sound of it. And you're still my baby."
Adiel: You and mom told that to me, many time.
Both laughed, the sound warm and genuine, a brief respite from the crisis consuming their lives.
Adiel:"You know, we could really look for mom."
Hugh:"I confirmed it to you, even before, Aurie is with her parents."
Adiel:"Why not here?"
Hugh:"You know, son. It's better to be uh..." Hugh rubbed his chin, a playful, jokey gesture from Adiel's childhood, and continued. "... to be lowkey." They both laughed again.
Suddenly, Hugh's tone shifted, slipping back into his strategic persona. "You know, son. I told you before that: 'Make your enemy think you're dumb'."
Adiel frowned, gazing at his father with a new intensity. "Why dad, is grandmom Amelia is now our enemy?"
Hugh stopped reading the newspapers. He closed the papers crisply and put them on his left side, ready to address the difficult question.
Hugh:"Amelia is a difficult person, you know that." He couldn't reveal the truth about the manipulated will yet, only the simmering feud.
Adiel's voice softened: "I miss mom."
Hugh's expression hardened, his resolve returning. "I know, and Amelia will pay."
Hugh stood up again, removing his bathrobe to reveal his swimming trunks. Before diving into the pool, he gave Adiel one last, confident command. "Don't think to much son, we're Aurie's family. That's a fact. Go, dive with me."
Adiel smiled, appreciating the invitation, but his mind instantly reverted to the conflicts his father didn't know about: Sejun and Cassandra. He asked himself, "Why I remember Cassandra now?! Tsk tsk tsk."