No Strings Attached

Chapter 346

This was an unfamiliar number from overseas, but Edwin would recognize it anywhere.

His eyes snapped up, locking onto Clara's. His voice trembled slightly. "She's fine, how are you?"

Ian's voice was laced with unbearable pain. "Give the phone to her."

Edwin promptly moved beside Clara, bending down gently. "It's Ian, he's alright."

Upon hearing this, Clara's gaze momentarily froze. It took her a good ten seconds to process Edwin's words. She snatched the phone from Edwin's hand and spoke in a quivering voice, "Ian?"

As she called out his name, tears began to cascade down her cheeks.

Ian closed his eyes in anguish. "Clara, I'm okay. We're on lockdown here, but I'll be back in a few days. Has Elude arrived?"

"He's here. Dad's surgery was a success," Clara managed to say through sobs.

"That's great. I didn't break my promise to you, Clara. Have you been eating and sleeping properly?"

"I have. I just had a bowl of beef stew and half a dozen dinner rolls."

Hearing the sob in her voice, Ian soothed, "Clara, stop crying. Take care of yourself and the baby. Wait for me to come back, okay?"

"I will. We'll wait for you."

"Alright, I borrowed this phone, gotta hang up now."

Reluctantly, Ian ended the call. The strength he'd been holding on to suddenly deflated. The phone slipped from his grasp, and his eyes slowly closed.

Beside him, Ryker shouted, "Ian, if you check out, I'll have your son call me 'Dad.' Y You can’t die!"

Ian didn't respond to Ryker's threat. The light in his consciousness dimmed until darkness took over.

"Ian, wake up!"

"Ian, you can't die. What about Clara and the kid? Come on, wake up!"

Ryker smacked Ian's face desperately, trying to rouse him, but despite turning red from the slaps, Ian remained unresponsive.

They were so close to escaping when they stumbled into the chaos of war again. Children screamed throughout the conflict zone. Ian couldn't help himself and ran back to save them, getting struck by a bullet in the abdomen. His blood was pooling on the ground. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

As the conflict subsided, Ian found a phone on an enemy officer and called Clara. He just wanted to know she was okay and needed to hear her voice.

A field doctor rushed over, eyeing Ian's wound. "The bullet might have hit the spleen. He needs surgery now, but the risk of infection is high here."

Ryker asked urgently, "When is the medical team arriving?"

"I don't know. They should be here under normal circumstances, but I doubt they'll make it in time with the fighting up front."

"What do we do?" Ryker, usually so carefree, was visibly panicked. His wild eyes searched the doctor's face for assurance.

The doctor looked around and said, "Let's get him onto that stone slab. I'll perform the surgery."

She gestured to a few others. "Come, give me a hand."

They placed Ian on the slab as the doctor donned gloves and a mask and then took out her surgical tools.

Ryker's heart skipped a beat. He grabbed the doctor's wrist, his voice icy, "Are you sure you can do this? If he dies, you're not walking away from this."

The doctor's eyes, the only part visible above her mask, narrowed slightly. Her voice was powerful and steady. "Surgery might not save him, but doing nothing guarantees he dies. Your call."