Chapter 5

I grabbed the glass water cup from the table and threw it hard at Vanessa's feet without hesitation.

"Crash!" Glass shattered, water splashing everywhere.

"Ah!" Vanessa screamed and collapsed to the floor, tears instantly pouring out like broken pearls. "Chloe, are you crazy!"

Ethan flew into a rage, striding over and pulling Vanessa protectively behind him.

"Chloe! What the hell is wrong with you!" he roared.

I laughed coldly, my chest heaving violently with anger, pulling painfully at my wound.

"Good intentions? She came to my hospital bed to show off and called me a bottom-feeding gold-digger---that's her good intentions?"

Vanessa hid behind Ethan, crying pitifully, trembling all over.

"Ethan, I didn't... I just thought Miss Hartley must be happy getting the villa, so I wanted to congratulate her. I don't know what I said to anger her. Why would she do this to me..."

As she cried, she secretly reached out and, while Ethan wasn't paying attention, viciously grabbed my IV tube hanging by the bedside.

She yanked hard.

"Hiss---"

The needle instantly slid roughly out of the vein in my hand, blood spurting out and dripping onto the white sheets.

"You're asking for it!"

I forced myself to sit up despite the searing pain in my shoulder and back.

Using all my strength, I slapped Vanessa hard across her pitiful face.

"Smack!"

The crisp sound of the slap echoed throughout the hospital room.

Vanessa's head snapped to the side from the force, five bright red finger marks instantly appearing on her pale face. She covered her cheek, staring in disbelief.

"You dare hit her?!"

Ethan completely lost it. Like an enraged lion, his hands clamped around my wrists like iron vises, slamming me back onto the hospital bed.

"Chloe, you're completely unreasonable! When did you become such a vicious shrew!"

He pressed down on me from above, the fury in his eyes seeming ready to burn through me.

I struggled desperately, my wrists marked with red welts from his grip.

"Let go of me! Ethan Gray, you blind bastard!"

During the violent struggle, I heard a teeth-grinding tearing sound from my right shoulder blade.

Then, excruciating bone-deep pain swept through my entire body.

The freshly sutured wound had been forcibly torn open by him.

Warm blood instantly gushed out, rapidly staining my white hospital gown and spreading across the sheets in a large, horrifying red patch.

Ethan looked down and saw that glaring blood.

His pupils contracted sharply, veins bulging on the back of his hand, undisguisable panic and shock flashing through his eyes.

"Chloe..."

He instinctively released his grip, his voice trembling as he reached to cover my wound.

But just then, Vanessa suddenly covered her face, moaning in pain, her body sliding limply downward.

"Ethan, I feel so dizzy... I can't breathe... I'm so scared..."

Ethan's movement froze.

Between me, covered in blood, and Vanessa, "on the verge of collapse," he hesitated for less than a second.

"You brought this on yourself." He abruptly withdrew his hand, issuing a cold order. "When you learn to control your emotions and apologize to Vanessa, then we'll go get our marriage license."

With that, he scooped Vanessa up in his arms and rushed out of the room without looking back.

"Doctor! Come quick and check on Vanessa! She's fainted!"

His frantically worried shouts echoed through the corridor.

I collapsed on the hospital bed, watching the blood continuously flowing from my shoulder and back, my vision gradually blurring.

With trembling hands, I pressed the call button.

Doctors and nurses rushed in. Seeing the bed full of blood, their faces went deathly pale as they immediately wheeled me toward the emergency room.

"Patient's wound torn open a second time, massive hemorrhaging! Prepare blood plasma quickly!"

The pain of being re-sutured was even more unbearable than the first time. Without anesthesia, each stitch piercing through flesh felt like slow torture of my soul.

After the emergency treatment ended, I lay weakly in the hospital bed, my face paler than paper.

I took out my phone and dialed an encrypted international number.

The phone rang three times before being answered.

"Hello, Grandpa. It's me, Chloe."

On the other end, an elderly man's trembling, excited voice came through, filled with incredible joy.

"Chloe? You're finally willing to contact Grandpa! I found out where you were three years ago, but you refused to acknowledge me as your grandfather for that poor boy's sake, preferring to suffer! Have you come to your senses now? I'll send the private jet to pick you up right away!"

I closed my eyes, tears silently falling and landing on the pillow.

"Grandpa, I was wrong. I shouldn't have run away from home for a man. I shouldn't have been so foolish. I want to come home."