Steven hung up the phone and assumed a guilty expression. Next to him, Charlene was filing her nails when she darted a look at Steven and said in a carefree manner, “Steven, you and I are in this together. If you don’t handle this matter thoroughly, both of us will end up meeting a bad end when Brendan finds out that we’ve been involved in this. Do you understand?”Steven nodded with difficulty. He had always abided by Brendan’s orders, and Brendan had ordered him to obey Charlene’s instructions. However, he had not expected that the situation would grow more and more serious until it could not even be dealt with properly. Deirdre was disfigured, she had lost her child, and her eyes were now blind. “That damned Deirdre is still creating problems even after being disfigured and blinded!” Charlene clutched the nail filer so tightly that it cut her palm and made it bleed. Her eyes were filled with resentment when she said, “She’s still trying to seduce Brendan and use her disability
Deirdre wanted to hurt him even more. “I found it disgusting! I kept feeling disgusted about being pregnant with your child! I regretted being with you in the past, and if I could turn back time, I’d wish I’d never met you in my life!”Brendan felt as if he had been stabbed in his heart. Soon, he was struck by rage and astonishment. ‘Deirdre adored me deeply, and that is an indisputable truth. ‘However, she is actually claiming that she was disgusted and that she regretted being with me because of Sterling?’“Good, very well! Deirdre, you’re trying to challenge me, right? Do you think that I’m a good-natured person just because I haven’t punished you?”Brendan pinched Deirdre’s chin. “I don’t care if you really mean what you said. I’m going to make you regret saying those words to me!”Brendan left after slamming the door on her. Deirdre held her chest with her hands tightly. She was in so much pain that she felt suffocated, yet she remembered Brendan’s remark before he left.
Sterling’s expression grew solemn while Deirdre burrowed her face into his chest. He said through clenched teeth, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you already violated the hospital’s privacy policy when you recorded a video in the hospital. Please make way! We’re leaving!”Someone shouted aloud amid the chaos, “They’re all equally bad!”Soon, heavy objects were flung at them. These people had actually begun to attack them!Someone grabbed the drip stand on the side and swung it at Deirdre’s back. Sterling hastily turned Deirdre to the other side, yet his back was inevitably struck. Deirdre heard Sterling’s muffled grunt and asked hastily, “Sterling? What happened? Are you alright? Which part of your body is injured?”“I’m alright.”“You’re lying!” Tears streamed down Deirdre’s face. “You should go! These people are here for me. Please leave, I’m begging you! Don’t get injured because of me again!”Instead, Sterling hugged her tighter and said, “Deirdre, it would b
Charlene dug her nails deep into her palm, her face going pale. ”Bren!” she called out as she stepped forward. “The media is here! We have to go—now—before someone notices you here in the hospital and we have no idea how to explain it!A storm of impatience and frustration pooled in Brendan’s eyes. Why was the media here?He turned to Deirdre sharply. “Come back to me. There’s still time.”“No, thanks, Mr. Brighthall,” Sterling parried pointedly. His back—his entire body, in fact—still hurt from the impact, but he would not compromise when it came to protecting Deirdre. He hugged her even more tightly. He shot Brendan a steely glare, his eyes sharp as daggers. “You have no reason to trouble yourself, Mr. Brighthall. I’ll take care of Dee just fine.”“Sterling Fuller! You son of a b*tch! You think you’re worth jacksh*t to be able to defy me?!” Brendan bellowed. He was livid. Then, the media broke inside, getting stuck on the backdoor in a stampede. They wielded their camera stic
The voice sounded youthful. It belonged to a woman—a furious young woman.Deirdre could feel her heart shrinking in dread. “Who are you?”“Who am I? Who am I?!” Eva Heinemann sized Deirdre up with unreserved contempt. “Sterling is doomed because of you! Because of a stupid, irritating blind woman like you!”Deirdre grabbed the fabric of her own dress. “What happened to Sterry?”“What happened? Ha! Do you know how much Sterling has sacrificed to protect you? They took his picture—the media took his picture and spread it all over the internet, and now he’s doxxed! The internet is canceling him! Do you know how big of a deal this is to a doctor? Saving and curing people is literally his job! And now, thanks to you, he can’t ever work in a public hospital again!“And that Brendan Brighthall—he led the charge to cancel the Fuller family! Do you know that? Any deal his business ventures made that was even remotely connected to the Fullers has been automatically voided, but oh, there is
The man sounded impassioned, and yet Deirdre shivered. She was terrified. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Brendan had been waiting for a long time, his legs perfectly overlapping atop one another, his eyes settling on Deirdre’s suitcase before they turned stormy. His hands around the armrests tightened. “You even packed all your things!” He mocked her. “Lemme guess. Had nothing ruined your plan—say, had Sterling not gotten into the biggest trouble of his life—the two of you would have been on your way, merrily eloping!”Deirdre instinctively stepped between him and her suitcase. She dropped her eyes low and ignored his remark altogether. “Leave Sterry alone, okay?”“Sterry?” The intimacy of that nickname made Brendan’s ears bleed. He grazed the black diamond hooped over his ring finger and fidgeted with it slowly, almost as though to let out some of the fury burning in his eyes. “Why should I? He challenged me, didn’t he? Strutting around like some big d*mn white
“Sh*t, you don’t want this?” Brendan growled. His hands had turned into fists, and his eyes were nailed on Deirdre.This woman had scraped her knees for Sterling. Stripped for Sterling. She had no f*cking concept of shame if it meant he would leave that b*stard alone. And yet, the moment he wanted her to please him sexually—she balked!She balked at the thought of pleasing him, Brendan Brighthall! She balked as though she was refusing to court the Devil himself! Did she know just how many women would throw themselves at him and see the invitation as a privilege? So many women would wish they were in Deirdre’s place right now, stripping and teasing and pleasing him!He laughed mockingly. “God, you’re so pretentious. Fancy yourself a chaste, devoted maiden dying to preserve her purity now?”Deirdre’s face suddenly paled. A long beat later, she finally said, “Don’t you feel disgusted by the way I look, Mr. Brighthall? It’s… It’s one thing to make me grovel, but… this? Why must you…?”
The receptionist kindly escorted Deirdre to the front door. She thanked the former before adding, “Can you tell me where the closest pharmacy is?”The receptionist was not sure why she needed one, but she gave her the required directions either way. With help from her walking stick, Deirdre made her way to the pharmacy and asked for some morning-after pills. Despite how soft her voice was, it managed to attract some attention. A gang of teenage hoodlums made no attempt to hide their laughter. “Why would an ugly b*tch need morning-after pills?”Deirdre ignored them and went out of the store. She wasted no time, downing the pill without even asking for a glass of water. Yes, her tormented body was hardly fertile anymore, but she would not take even a one-in-a-thousand chance of bearing the Devil’s spawn. The receptionist had not actually left. She stood at a distance and watched Deirdre discard the pill package, feeling bewildered. After Deirdre left in a cab, she went to that exac