I frowned. I was spiraling into a swirl of emotions. I wanted to speak, but Sheridan held my hand. He leaned over and whispered, "That's no point intervening. The Hathaway family is not willing to pay the compensation at all."
I was stupefied. Staring at Orchid's ashen face, I suddenly felt utterly helpless. Regardless of what I did, the outcome would still be the same.
Seeing that I seemed gloomy, Laura stared at me and said with a smile, "Miss Reid, thank you so much. But I hope you will not intervene in this matter. This is my family's business and it's inappropriate for you to intervene."
Was she trying to be courteous?
But she was right, it was indeed none of my business.
In the end, there was nothing we could do except watch Rick drag the helpless child away. The rest of the family soon calmed down.
I didn't know what to say.
"Miss Reid, I'm grateful for what you did. I will go and apply for Abby's identification papers, but you have to hand over the money first. It's not easy for me to raise her and I'm sure you are aware of the health complications she will experience after she has donated her kidney. There are a lot of things she can no longer do and frankly, she will turn into a disabled person. As such, I don't want much. I just want to be compensated fifty thousand and I'm sure that Miss Reid is able to afford it. I hope that I will be paid by today and from today onwards, we have nothing to do with each other."
I pursed my lips and stared at him. For a moment, I was at a loss for words. From his perspective, his greed did make sense, but the fact that it was justifiable made me feel even more disgusted.
After a long time, I opened my mouth and said, "I'll give you a million dollars and we will go and get everything done. From then on, I'll be adopting this child and we have nothing to do with you people. You are not allowed to get in touch with her in the future no matter what happens. Do we have a deal?"
Gail was dumbfounded. He glanced at Abby and his lips curled into a smirk. "Yes, we have a deal. I didn't know that she was worth this much. Let's go, we will go and get everything ready."
I expected him to hesitate before making this deal, who would have known he was actually delighted to hear this. Although Abby was still a child, I was certain that she understood the entire conversation and all her siblings could also hear our conversation. All of them would suffer emotional trauma from this.
Next, we went to the town and got all the documents dealt with. He then stared at me and said, "Miss Reid, I believe it's time I get the compensation."
I pursed my lips and asked Sheridan to hand over the money. He handed over a suitcase filled with cash. Gail was so excited that he left with the money in his arms almost immediately.
Abby stood beside me, her gaze fixated on Gail as he strode away, hopped onto his motorcycle with his wife and left. He didn't even say his last goodbyes to his own daughter.
Looking at her, I reached out to hold her hand. I squatted beside her, raised my hand to wipe the tears from her face and said, "Abby, you're going to be living with us in the future. Is that okay?"
She glanced at me and nodded slightly. The expression on her face was much more mature than her actual age. "Okay!"
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