Take My Breath Away

As a result, Sheffield felt very confused about his own body for some time. After all, he used to be a doctor. He was well aware of the changes inside his body—change in sleep, appetite, and blood circulation.

One day, Sheffield found that the Angelica Roots he had stored away were getting fewer and fewer in number, which made him suspicious.

Soon after, he caught his son red handed, secretly adding Angelica Root powder into his bowl of porridge. A misdeed, to which Godwin admitted full responsibility in the end.

Ever since, Sheffield couldn't help dreading the idea of his son switching Angelica Root to Datura when he was older. What if Godwin decided to add poisonous herbs instead to his food in the future?

As such, he decided to stop his son from learning about traditional Chinese medicine in its entirety.

Godwin, however, was passionate about traditional Chinese medicine. When Sheffield forbade him from learning about Chinese medicine, he snitched on him to his grandfather. Needless to say, Sheffield would never dare to speak over Carlos, so he had no choice but to turn a blind eye to Godwin's love for Chinese medicine.

Matthew couldn't stay calm anymore that afternoon when he watched Erica lying still in a coma. He paced around the ward in an irritable mood before he decided to pay the attending doctor a visit.

The man frowned and coldly asked, "Didn't you say that my wife would wake up today from her coma?"

The attending doctor wiped the cold sweat off his forehead and said, "Mr. Huo, don't worry. Mrs. Huo will be awake before tomorrow morning."

Matthew cast a cold glance at the doctor, who was so frightened that he immediately shut his mouth.

The man warned him coldly, "If my wife doesn't wake up before tomorrow morning, I'll burn down this hospital!"

"Y-yes, Mr. Huo!" The doctor had no choice but to agree.

In the evening, Matthew, who had returned to Erica's ward from his son's ward, received a call from Owen. "Mr. Huo, she's here!"

"Okay, I'm coming now."

After hanging up the phone, Matthew walked to the bedside, kissed the forehead of the woman whose eyes were still closed, and softly whispered, "Rika, I'm going out for a while. When I come back, I want you out of bed, okay?"

The woman didn't respond. Stifling his sympathy, Matthew turned around and strode out of the ward.

The group of bodyguards that stood outside the ward all stood straight at once and saluted Matthew.

He nodded back at them and went to the opposite ward. Inside the ward, Damian was leaning against the bed, attentively listening to Wesley telling him a story.

"Dad!"

Matthew felt a little better when he heard his son calling him. He walked over and touched the little boy's head. "Does it still hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt, Dad!"

"Well, just get some rest tonight. If you're feeling better tomorrow morning, you can go home." Luckily, Damian didn't suffer any serious injuries. He could have been discharged from the hospital that day, but Matthew didn't want to take any risk with his son's health. After all, he was attacked by an unknown animal, so Matthew made him stay in the hospital for close observation.

"Okay!" Damian was relieved to hear that he could be going back home tomorrow. "But, what about Mom?"

Matthew replied affirmatively, "Mom is fine. Sleep well tonight and she will be up tomorrow morning!"

"Okay!"

Matthew then greeted Wesley before leaving in a hurry.

As soon as he left, Carlos and Debbie came to the hospital to take care of the injured mother and son.

After leaving the hospital, Matthew went straight to a dock where a slightly old ship was parked near it.

Dozens of bodyguards surrounded the ship, as Matthew entered the underdeck cabin led by his trusted men.

There was a faint musty odor inside the damp cabin that filled Matthew's nostrils. A woman was tied to a pillar. Her eyes were covered tightly and her mouth was stuffed with a duster cloth.

Owen and six other bodyguards were watching her in the room. After Matthew came in, Owen went over to take off the blindfold from the woman's eyes, but he deliberately left the duster cloth in her mouth.

Noreen slowly squinted her eyes open and gradually adapted to the light. At last, her eyes fell on Matthew, who had a malicious expression on his face. A shiver travelled down her spine, shaking her to the core. She kept mumbling through the gag in her mouth. Clearly, she was trying to say something.

The man seemed unmoved by the look of remorse in her eyes. He took off his coat and handed it to his subordinate next to him.

Slowly rolling up his sleeves, he picked up a whip hanging on the wall and cracked it in the air to attract everyone's attention.

The sharp sound of the whip shook Noreen back to her senses and her face displayed a deathly pallor.

Matthew looked at the whip and said, "I'll give you one chance."

The bodyguard next to her immediately removed the duster cloth from the woman's mouth. When she could finally speak, she immediately said, "Mr. Huo, what are you talking about? Ah!" Before she could finish her words, Noreen was silenced by the excruciating pain that surged her entire body.

The whip left an open wound that hurt so badly that she had to shut her eyes and grit her teeth to withstand the pain.

Dizzied, the pain almost knocked her unconscious as she whimpered helplessly.

Matthew's eyes widened in anger and he screamed, "How dare you hurt my wife and my children? I will show you what the true meaning of suffering is!"

Erica was lying comatose in a hospital bed after she broke two of her ribs when she shielded Matthew from a falling roof beam.

Of course, he wouldn't spare Noreen even if she begged him!

"No, I didn't..." she answered with difficulty, gritting her teeth.

Crack! He whipped her again. The woman felt a similar burning pain coursing through her whole body, but this time she didn't even have the strength to scream.

Matthew took the wet tissue from the bodyguard and wiped the blood off the whip. "I won't take no for an answer. I want everything you have on Michel Wang, nothing more, nothing less."

On the verge of passing out, she raised her head with great difficulty and looked at the man in front of her, who maintained a calm composure, as if he was not the one who had just whipped her. "Michel... I'm not very close to him, and he doesn't tell me... everything..."

As soon as Matthew dropped the wet tissue on the floor, he whipped Noreen again. In an instant, the whip was stained with blood again.

"Ahhh!" Noreen was starting to lose consciousness.

Owen shook his head helplessly. This woman had to be the dumbest woman in the world. In his ten years of serving Matthew, he had never seen his boss strike a woman so hard and with so much hatred.

Matthew's actions were a reflection of how angry he really was.

It became very clear that Erica and the boys were everything to him.

Matthew's hatred was so venomous, he couldn't even look the woman in the eye. "I have many ways to make you yield. With every second of mine that you waste, I will double your suffering!"

Noreen was fully aware of her current situation. As she was Michel's mistress, she definitely wouldn't expect Matthew to let her go. In the end, she decided to place her last hope on Michel. "Mr. Huo, what do you want to know?"

Playfully throwing the whip in the air and catching it, Matthew said, "I'm giving you one chance at life. Tell me everything you know and don't waste my time anymore!"

Michel, that cunning old fox, never gave Matthew an opening for him to attack from. The people Matthew had sent in the past to gather information about Michel's crimes all came back empty handed.

The bloodied floor was proof of how hard Matthew had whipped her. Somehow stifling the pain, Noreen explained, "Michel... He took bribes and made false accounts. We are a couple..."

Crack! Matthew whipped her until her back was a bloody mass of open flesh in front of everyone else to witness.