5
Just then, the doors to the operating room swung open.
A team of surgeons emerged, their faces grim. One of them shot a cold glare at Julian. “The patient is in critical condition. It would be best if the family remained quiet out here.”
Then, they turned respectfully to the elder Mr. Wheeler. “Sir, the secondary trauma your granddaughter-in-law sustained is catastrophic. We may need to bring in more specialized support.”
3/12
12.58
Chapter 2
“Do it!” the old man boomed. “Whatever it takes! I don’t care about the cost, just save her!”
“You’re all being fooled by her…” Julian muttered, still in denial.
12.50
The lead surgeon shot him a look of pure exasperation. “I’m a doctor. Do you really think we don’t know wha we’re looking at?”
With a final, contemptuous glance at Julian, they hurried away.
In the hours that followed, the full might of the Wheeler Corporation was mobilized. Coolers of blood pack were rushed to the OR. The nation’s top specialists began arriving one after another.
It was only then, watching the frantic, high-stakes ballet of life and death, that the truth finally seemed to penetrate Julian’s thick skull.
The realization that I was genuinely, critically injured finally hit him.
Guilt washed over his face, and he sank into a chair, holding his head in his hands, completely lost.
But his grandfather wasn’t finished with him. A man in a sharp, black suit approached.
“Mr. Wheeler,” the man said, extending a hand. “I’m the lead attorney who handled the PR crisis for Wheele Corporation all those years ago. No one knows the truth of what happened better than I do.”
For as long as I was in surgery, Julian was forced to listen to the unvarnished history of his own ignorance.
When I finally woke up, my parents, who had flown in from overseas, were by my bedside. The elder Mr Wheeler was with them, his expression somber.
The moment I saw my parents, the dam broke. Tears I didn’t know I had left streamed down my face.
The sight of my grief broke the old man’s heart. “My dear child,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “You’v suffered so much. It’s our Julian… he was a fool…”
Tooked at him, my voice a weak whisper. “Grandpa… I want a divorce.”
The door to the room burst open and Julian rushed in. “No! I won’t allow it!”
He stumbled to my bedside, grabbing my hand, his eyes filled with a desperate, pleading sorrow. “Rosalie, i was all my fault. Please, forgive me. Just don’t divorce me. I’ll do anything for you, anything.”
gave him a single, empty look and turned my head away. I couldn’t bear the sight of him.
Julian grew frantic. “Rosalie, I won’t sign any divorce papers. It was just a misunderstanding, a terrible mist ake. We can’t just end it like this.”
My father shot to his feet, his face a mask of fury. “A misunderstanding? My daughter is lying here, broken because she loved you, and you want to dismiss it all as a ‘misunderstanding’?”
He then turned to the elder Mr. Wheeler, his voice dangerously low. “If this matter is not settled to my daugh ter’s satisfaction, Thorne Banking will withdraw all its capital from Wheeler Corporation. And you know, Mr
4/12
12:58
Chapter 2
Wheeler, that once we pull out, no one else in this country will dare to invest in you.”
12.58 4
I reached out a weak hand and gently tugged on my parents’ sleeves. “Mom, Dad… I need to speak with Juli- an alone for a minute. There’s something I need to say to him.”
I was the one who had been blind. I didn’t want them to carry the weight of my mistake.
They agreed, and left the room.
Julian seemed to take this as a sign of hope. A small, relieved smile touched his lips. “Rosalie, you do stil
have feelings for me, don’t you? Are you going to forgive me?”
A dry, mirthless laugh escaped my lips. “Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if I just got out of the way and let
you be with your precious Sybil? Or do you still find me so repulsive that you wish I were dead?”
His voice grew strained. He swallowed hard. “Don’t say that. You know it was all a misunderstanding. Rosal
ie, why didn’t you just tell me you weren’t acting? If you wanted Sybil gone, you could have just said so. Dc you think I wouldn’t have agreed? What do I have to do to make you believe me?”
He paused, a look of sudden, dawning comprehension on his face. “I understand now. You hate me because you lost the baby, don’t you? It’s okay. Once you’re out of the hospital, I’ll make it up to you. I’ll spoil you, treat you like a queen. We’ll have other children, I promise.”
I looked at him, my gaze cold and steady, pushing down the tearing pain in my own heart.
“The doctors said that after the initial injury, when I was just pinned under the beam, I might have been able
to have children again someday. But after what you did to me… after the secondary trauma… I can never
have a baby of my own.”
I let the words sink in.
“He was only four weeks old, Julian. I was on my way to the construction site that day to tell you… to tell you
we were having a baby.”
“But you… you killed him with your own two hands.”
The color drained from Julian’s face. He stumbled backward, his eyes wide with horror, until his legs gave out and he collapsed onto the floor.
At that exact moment, a commotion erupted outside the door.
My mother’s furious voice rang out, mingled with Sybil’s pathetic, cloying sobs. “I’m here to see Rosalie! Why wouldn’t Julian let me in?”
When Julian finally staggered to the door and opened it, he found Sybil looking disheveled, her hair a mess from my mother’s angry assault.
The moment she saw Julian, she tried to throw herself into his arms, weeping piteously.
But this time, Julian sidestepped her with a swift, cold movement. Sybil sprawled onto the floor in a gracele-
5/12
12.58
Chapter 2
ss heap.
12:58
She looked up, stunned, at the cold, unfamiliar man standing before her. “Julian, darling…?” she whispered.
He glared down at her. “Don’t you ever call me that again, you vile creature! I know the truth.”
