The Man Who Waited vs. The Man Who Wasted novel Chapter 496

Jocelyn offered a faint smile. "It's fine. I'm actually here to take her to the hospital."

With that, she turned back and knocked on the door again.

The neighbor, driven by morbid curiosity, pressed his face against a dirty window to peer inside.

After staring for a few moments, he suddenly shrieked.

"Oh my god! Holy mother of god, someone else is dead!"

Jocelyn's heart dropped into her stomach. Abandoning all pretense of politeness, she threw her weight against the door.

But the wood looked flimsy, and it stubbornly refused to budge in the critical moment.

The neighbor's frantic yelling quickly drew a crowd.

A burly man shoved his way to the front and kicked the door right off its hinges.

A foul, musty odor rolled out of the damp room, making Jocelyn gag.

On a flimsy cot lay the young girl, nothing but skin and bones. Her face was deathly pale, looking completely lifeless.

Jocelyn sprinted to the bed and pressed her fingers beneath the girl's nose.

Thank god, she was still breathing.

Jocelyn immediately dialed 911.

The ambulance arrived shortly after, and the paramedics rushed the frail girl into the vehicle.

Jocelyn followed closely in her car all the way to the hospital.

The girl was immediately wheeled into the emergency room.

Jocelyn paced the waiting area, her anxiety spiking with every passing minute.

She had never met this child, but a promise was a promise. She had sworn to take responsibility for her.

Don't die!

Jocelyn prayed silently.

Time crawled by agonizingly until the emergency room doors finally swung open.

Jocelyn practically ran to the doctor.

"Doctor, how is she?"

"Are you family?" the doctor asked.

Jocelyn decided to be honest.

"We're not related, but I promised her late father that I would take care of her."

The doctor shook his head grimly.

Thinking of this, Jocelyn immediately pulled out her phone.

But as her thumb hovered over Julian's name in her contacts, she froze.

Jocelyn, you absolute idiot.

Just last night, she had sworn to herself that she wouldn't drag Julian into any more of her messes.

What was she doing right now?

But if she didn't call him, who else could possibly help her?

Nina was wheeled out of the operating room.

She was still unconscious from the anesthesia.

Her face remained ghastly pale. Despite being thirteen, she was so tiny and frail that it broke Jocelyn's heart to look at her.

The staff transferred Nina to a private room.

Tubes snaked in and out of her frail body as she lay with her eyes tightly shut.

The sheer fragility and helplessness of human life was painfully apparent in that quiet room.

Jocelyn sat beside the bed for a long time.

Should she make the call... or not?