4
I don’t know where the strength came from, but I fought back, shoving him away with a sudden, desperate surge of adrenaline.
“Julian, I’ll say it one more time,” I gasped, my voice raw. “I never schemed my way into your bed! If I had tha kind of power, do you really think I’d be letting this homewrecker walk all over me?”
A shocked murmur rippled through the crowd of patients and staff that had gathered in the doorway.
Julian’s face went purple with rage.
‘You’re the one who destroyed my relationship with Sybil! Have you forgotten what you did to her? If you hadn’t used your cheap tricks to climb into my bed, she never would have been so devastated that she threw herself into the river that night! She’s had health problems ever since!”
As if on cue, Sybil let out a few delicate, theatrical coughs.
stared at them both, a bitter laugh bubbling in my throat.
The irony was crushing. When Wheeler Corporation was on the brink of collapse, facing a PR nightmare, n
one in the business world would touch them. It was his grandfather, the elder Mr. Wheeler, who came beggi ng to my family, proposing a marriage alliance to secure a bailout from Thorne Banking. The old man ha been adamant about one thing: Sybil Bristow was not to be part of the family.
And yet, after all my family had done, Julian had turned all his resentment on me, casting me as the villair
who had torn him from his one true love.
met his furious gaze, my own voice cold as stone. “Don’t you forget, Julian, I’m the one you married. If you ruly believe I’m the third party here, then why don’t you convene the Wheeler family elders? Let them official y recognize Sybil Bristow and write her into the family legacy.”
Julian froze.
Sybil’s soft voice filled the silence. “Rosalie, Julian, please don’t fight over me. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have come here. If I’d known you disliked me this much, Rosalie, I would have stayed far away. It’s all my fault…”
Hearing Sybil’s fragile voice, Julian snapped out of his stupor.
He rushed to her side, helping her up with infinite tenderness. “Are you alright? It’s my fault. You’re still reco- vering. You shouldn’t be here, dealing with this.”
Sybil clung to his sleeve, her eyes red as a single, perfect tear rolled down her cheek. “It’s my fault, darling. Don’t be angry with Rosalie. I shouldn’t have exposed her little act… her pretending to be hurt just to get your attention. I made her angry. It’s only right that she’d want to hurt me. It’s all my fault…”
Chapter 2
Julian’s brief moment of guilt vanished, replaced by a towering rage directed at me. “Rosalie Thorne,” he snarled, “I’m going to expose your cruel, twisted nature to everyone, right here, right now!”
He grabbed me by the hair again and began to drag me toward the stairwell.
“Is your heart made of stone, Rosalie?” he raged as he pulled me along. “Sybil is already so fragile, and you still have the audacity to treat her like this? You will get on your knees and apologize to her today! If you don 1, you can forget about ever setting foot in a Wheeler home again!”
I twisted, trying to free myself, my voice sharp with defiance. “Julian, if you’re that blind, go see a doctor! You ‘re treating the little tramp who almost destroyed your family’s company like a treasure. You are the biggest
fool I have ever met!”
His hand faltered for a second, then his grip tightened, his anger escalating.
“You’ll do anything for attention, won’t you, Rosalie? Now you’re stooping to slandering Sybil? A vicious, selfi sh woman like you doesn’t deserve my love!” He spat the words. “Since you love playing the victim so much I’ll give you a real reason to cry. And if you get hurt for real this time, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself
With that, he kicked me viciously in my surgical wound, sending me tumbling down the stairs.
I didn’t even have time to scream before I was rolling, end over end, down the hard steps.
I landed in a heap at the bottom, a pool of blood slowly spreading out from beneath me. I could hear the distinct, sickening crack of my own bones as I fell, and a collective gasp went up from the onlookers.
Julian stood at the top of the stairs, hesitating for only a moment before his face hardened into a mask o
disgust.
“I can’t believe how well-prepared you are,” he shouted down at me. “You really will stop at nothing, won’ you? You are the most calculating woman I have ever known!”
He started down the stairs, and once again, kicked me hard in my wounded side.
“You deserve this, Rosalie. You wanted to be sick? Fine. Now you can be sick for the rest of your life!”
“Stop!”
A voice of thunder echoed from behind him.
I forced my blurry eyes open, reaching a trembling hand upwards.
“Grandpa…”
Julian froze, stunned.
A team of doctors rushed past the elder Mr. Wheeler, hurrying down the stairs to my side. They carefully lifted my clothes to examine the wound.
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Chapter 2
Shards of bone were now protruding from the skin, a gruesome, jagged mess.
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‘The secondary trauma is severe,” one doctor said, his voice grim. “The stitches are completely torn, and the wound has been ripped open even further. If we don’t get her into surgery immediately, she’s not going to
make it.”
The elder Mr. Wheeler exploded in a fit of rage. “Assemble the best medical tearn in the country! If you can save my granddaughter-in-law, you’re all fired!”
Julian stepped forward, desperate. “Grandpa, don’t believe her! It’s all makeup! It’s just props! Look, I’ll show
‘ou!”
He reached down, about to grab one of the bone fragments sticking out of my skin.
he sharp crack of a slap echoed in the stairwell.
How did the Wheeler family produce a monster like you?”
Julian stood there, stunned, his hand frozen in mid-air. He stared at my twisted, broken body as the doctor: oaded me onto a stretcher, and for the first time, a flicker of doubt crossed his face. For the first time, he eemed to realize I might not be acting.
He looked panicked.
Hidden in the crowd, Sybil Bristow, seeing her protector fall from grace, scurried away like a rat abandoning
I sinking ship.
Julian scanned the crowd, but couldn’t find her. Still, he defended her. “Grandpa, she was trying to hurt Sybil She brought this on herself! If it wasn’t for her, Sybil never would have jumped into the river-”
The elder Mr. Wheeler, shaking with rage, brought his heavy cane down on Julian’s legs.
She jumped in the river because she knew she’d been caught selling out Wheeler Corporation! If she hadn’ nade that desperate move, what the Wheeler family would have done to her would have been far worse
han death!”
Julian stared at his grandfather in disbelief. “Grandpa… did she buy you too?”
The accusation nearly gave the old man a heart attack. He raised his cane again, ready to beat his grandson
nto submission.
