Chapter 03. Fatal Accident

"Did I have an accident on that trip?" she tried to guess. Her memory was still very clear about the time when she and her friends were preparing to travel through Earth's orbit.

"Orion, Alhena, Aldebaran, where are you? Are you okay?" The girl closed her eyes again. She never expected to have an accident on her first trip to space.

She tried to get up but couldn't. Her whole body felt very weak and stiff, it is making her very difficult to move. Even raising her hand required all her strength.

"What happened to my body?" she wondered.

"Eh?" Her gaze was fixed on the figure of a man who was sleeping next to her.

"Who is that man?" Her forehead wrinkled as she continued to discover new things since waking up from her sleep. Slowly, she removed all the strange objects attached to her nose and mouth.

"I'm thirsty."

Seeing a bottle of mineral water lying on the floor, her eyes lit up. Moving one of her hands towards the object while focusing her mind, she intended to use her power to grab it.

She couldn't! The mineral water bottle only rolled a few centimeters from its place.

She tried again, but the result was the same.

"What's happening? Why is my strength weakening?" Violla stared blankly at her palms.

"Is it because of the injury that I experienced?" she thought to herself, then slowly reached for her neck.

"My necklace!" the girl panicked. It was a gift from her mother, Queen Allane, on her birthday. Did she drop it somewhere? It was impossible; the necklace had become a part of her, so she would immediately notice if something happened to it.

Then what happened?

Knock... knock... knock...

The sound of knocking suddenly came from the door, and Violla reflexively closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.

At the same time, Erik woke up from his sleep. The man quickly walked towards the door and opened it, revealing a nurse.

"Excuse me, sir. I need to check on Miss Violla's condition again," the nurse said with a friendly smile.

Erik glanced at his wristwatch; it was already half-past three in the morning.

"Please come in," Erik replied, welcoming the nurse into the room.

Just as the nurse turned around, her breath caught in her throat when she saw that Violla's breathing apparatus and infusion tube had come loose.

"Violla!" Erik shouted in panic and quickly approached the stretcher. The nurse with him immediately ran over and checked the girl's vital signs.

Just as Erik was about to press the emergency button, the nurse said, "Miss Violla is fine, sir. Don't worry."

"Huh?" The furrowed brow on his face showed that he was confused at the moment.

"Really?"

The nurse nodded, "You should not remove the equipment attached to her body without our knowledge, sir. Luckily, she's okay. I will call a doctor to examine her condition further," the nurse said as she was about to leave.

"It wasn't me who did it," Erik said quickly. But his words were ignored by the nurse.

"Did someone come without my knowledge? But how? I locked the door earlier," Erik muttered, then he brought his finger to Violla's nose. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he felt her normal breathing.

The man still hadn't found an answer to the strange occurrence when the nurse and doctor arrived. They immediately examined Violla's overall condition.

The doctor then instructed the nurse to remove all the medical equipment previously attached to the girl's body, except for the infusion tube. The nurse reattached the infusion tube that had come loose from the girl's hand.

"Hey... hey... what happened? Doctor, why are you asking them to remove the equipment?"

"Mr. Erik, you are very lucky. Miss Violla's health condition has significantly improved compared to our last examination. If I may say, her condition now is not much different from that of a healthy person in general. I was surprised after examining her. This is a very rare occurrence. Just a moment ago, Miss Violla had a seizure and was in critical condition. You should be grateful," the doctor interrupted Erik's words.

"This is a general overview I can provide, Sir. Tomorrow, we will perform a CT scan and MRI to further determine her condition," he added without diverting his attention from Miss Violla.

"Really? Oh my God, this is truly a miracle for me. Brother, your daughter has successfully fought through her critical condition," Erik said as he immediately prostrated himself on the floor, his feelings of emotion and happiness mixed within him, causing tears to well up in his eyes.

"Does this mean she will soon wake up from her coma?" Erik asked as he stood back up.

"Hopefully, Sir," the doctor replied.

"Okay, it seems like you also need a lot of rest. If there is nothing else, I will take my leave. There are still things I need to attend to," the doctor added.

"Oh, of course. Please, Doctor," Erik replied.

The conversation in the room was not lost on the girl who was still closing her eyes.

"Violla? Who is Violla? And who is Erik? What are they talking about? I don't understand at all."

"Did something go wrong here?"

Suddenly, she felt a jolt in her body. It was a signal wave emitted by her necklace indicating that it was nearby. An uneasy feeling immediately overwhelmed her. She wanted to get up and find her necklace, but the presence of the unfamiliar man who was still by her side made her give up her intention.

"Okay, I'll wait until he leaves," she thought to herself, trying to be patient.

Meanwhile, Erik had been sleeping for several minutes and no longer felt sleepy at all. He tidied the blanket around Miss Violla's body.

"Miss, please wake up soon," Erik murmured.

"I will take care of all your belongings until you wake up. I will not let anyone touch your things," he added when he suddenly remembered Miss Violla's mother and step-sister.

Although they had always shown a good and caring attitude towards Violla and Mr. Stefan, behind their actions, they harbored very evil intentions.

Erik realized something was amiss when the investigation into Mr. Stefan's accident was closed without any results. The police said that the accident was due to a malfunctioning brake and declared it a normal accident with no involvement from anyone else.

His memory was still very clear that before the accident, precisely before Mr. Stefan used the car, he had checked the car thoroughly and everything was functioning properly.

Because of this, Erik did not give up and continued the investigation without the involvement of the police, using the power and connections left behind by his adoptive brother. He investigated without the knowledge of Mr. Stefan's wife. And only a few weeks ago, he found out that the mastermind behind the accident was Mr. Stefan's wife.

Since then, his evaluation of the woman had changed.