Once Bitten, Twice Shy

At the hospital, a nurse wearing white clothes and a mask pushed a small cart through the corridor and stopped at the door of a particular ward.

Two police officers stood at the door and reached out to stop her.

The nurse showed her work badge and said, "I was asked by the doctor to check the patient's blood pressure."

The policemen confirmed that she was telling the truth before letting her pass.

The nurse opened the door, pushed the cart in, and gently shut the door behind her.

Inside the room was Penelope, who was laying on the hospital bed with one of her hands cuffed to the bed's iron railing.

The nurse stepped forward and said softly, "Ms. Schmidt, I'm here to check your blood pressure. Could you raise your arm please?"

Ten minutes later, the door opened again.

The nurse lowered her head and pushed the cart out of the room. After closing the door, she nodded at the two police officers and walked away.

…

Samantha went to work as usual since her physical condition had improved during that period.

After all, it was important to stay active in life lest one get sick by lying in bed every day.

Timothy would send her to and pick her up from work whenever he had the time, but a lot of his work was delayed because he had spent weeks taking care of her. The accumulation of many important, long-overdue projects left him with no choice but to deal with them.

As a result, Samantha refused to let him drop her off and pick her up. She frequently took a taxi to and from work.

Driving was a big no because she was pregnant and accidents might happen.

In recent days, however, she wondered if her hormones were on overdrive because she constantly felt as though someone was watching or following her.

However, she never noticed anything unusual.

She raised her eyes and glanced at the clock on the table. There were another ten minutes before it was the end of the workday, and since it was a Friday, many other colleagues were already getting into the weekend mood and called their friends to plan a meal or a karaoke session.

Time passed in a flash, and just as everyone was packing up and preparing to leave, Victoria walked out of the office suddenly.

Her face was extremely serious as she said sternly, "Breaking news. I've sent the link to the group chat."

That sentence caused everyone to halt what they were doing and their expressions immediately became tense. Everyone reached for their cell phones to see what was going on.

Samantha clicked into the chat group and saw the link shared by Victoria.

A big explosion occurred about five minutes ago in Doublecross Industrial's factory. The fire was spreading and the situation was critical, but the entirety of the situation was as yet unknown. On-site anchors and reporters were required, while cameramen were also needed to arrive immediately at the scene and provide support.

Victoria said sullenly, "You've read it all, right? Our team needs to send over two anchors, two reporters, and a cameraman."

As soon as she said that, Annabelle—the temp secretary—had a worried look on her face. "Ms. Goldman, we have enough reporters and cameramen, but the only anchor we have now is Ms. Carol Hooper. The other anchors are on duty outside and won't be able to rush back in time."

Victoria glanced across the hall and finally looked at Samantha. She opened her lips and asked, "Can you do it?"

Samantha was not qualified to perform such an assignment as a rookie anchor, because the rules state that she must accumulate at least one year's worth of experience in the station. Once she passes the review, she can then be put on the list of anchors who can be assigned to field tasks.

However, exceptional circumstances call for exceptional measures.

At the end of the day, rules were meant to be broken.

Samantha did not shirk from the critical situation and nodded without hesitation. "Yes."

Victoria curled her lips in satisfaction. "Very well. Get yourselves ready and set off immediately."

Samantha and Carol answered in unison, "Understood!"

Lychee TV's bus arrived at the scene about 30 minutes later and the group proceeded to get out of the bus.

The scene was already extremely chaotic by then. There were firefighters, police officers, and doctors, with a few wounded individuals thrown into the mix. Although the explosion had stopped, the fire was so great that it continued to spread to the surrounding area.

Samantha and Carol were each assigned a reporter and a cameraman to gather information on the situation and do a live report of the situation from different locations.

Since there were many workers in the factory when the explosion occurred and plenty of them got wounded, their family members all rushed over after receiving the news. Everyone was so heartbroken that they rushed madly to the scene and caused even more chaos.

Samantha had to back off repeatedly when the horde of people rushed over. She covered her abdomen with one hand and continued to fulfill her duties in the live broadcast, all while doing her best to maintain her breathing and body temperature.

However, the crowd started to swell and everyone was so concerned for their own family that the scene was in complete chaos. The police had their hands full too, and it did not take long for the crowd to overwhelm both the reporter and cameraman who followed Samantha.

"Ms. Larsson..."

The reporter called out to her anxiously but could only watch helplessly as the crowd separated them more and more.

Samantha was forced to pause the broadcast and covered her abdomen with both hands to avoid the crowd.

She then tried her best to reassure the impulsive family members.

Although she understood their urgency, their panic-stricken frenzy added to the chaos and would cause more trouble to the fire and rescue personnel.

Her words slowly but surely calmed the emotions of the victims' family members who were surrounding her.

She then said, "Everyone, please clear the area and give way to the fire and rescue personnel. That would allow your relatives and friends to be rescued as soon as possible."

Everyone nodded and followed her instructions as they turned around and walked out.

Samantha let out a sigh of relief and followed them out.

Only one person from the crowd stood there to stare at Samantha instead of walking out. The person then walked over to her and suddenly delivered a blow to Samantha's neck.

Samantha had a bad feeling the moment the person attacked, but she reacted quickly enough and leaned back to dodge the person's hand.

However, Samantha's neck was not the target and the person swiftly directed their other hand toward her lower abdomen.

The next second, Samantha felt a sharp object pressing against her stomach.

Her heart skipped a beat as she glanced down.

It was an extremely sharp blade.

Samantha's movements stopped abruptly and she glanced from the side to see her attacker.

The person was wearing a black windbreaker and was completely covered. Donning both a hat and a mask, the only exposed part of that person's face was their eyes.

However, that was enough for Samantha to recognize who it was.

The attacker was Penelope, who ought to have been in prison at that moment.

Penelope was staring at her with deep-seated resentment that was as frightening as a viper's stare.

She placed her hand around Samantha's neck once again while still pressing the dagger in her other hand against her stomach. Without saying anything more, she forcibly dragged Samantha away.

Penelope's strength was surprisingly great and Samantha had no choice but to go along because she was worried about the child in her stomach and was being dragged away forcefully.