Chapter 32
Chapter 32
“You’re too kind, Miss Spritz.” Victoria stared directly at her, every syllable forced out of her throat.
No one knew the truth two years ago better than her and Bella.
“You were my friend, after all. How could I bear to blame you?” Bella sighed. “If I really did blame you, I would’ve sued you two years ago, and you wouldn’t be released from prison so easily.”
“Should I thank you, then?” Victoria suppressed the fury raging within her heart, her expression filled with ridicule.
Easily?
During her two-year stint in prison, she had to endure humiliation from those people every single day. She almost died a few times, yet Bella was claiming that she had it easy!
“There’s no need to be so formal between us.” Bella took her hand while saying worriedly, “I heard that you were attempting suicide just now. Did you get hurt?”
“I’m fine, sorry for the disappointment.” Victoria forcefully removed her hand from Bella’s, then wiped it against her own clothes. She found it unhygienic.
“Why would I be disappointed?” Bella bit her lip, saying in all earnesty, “If something really happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to get over it for the rest of my life.”
Victoria was disgusted by her fake behavior, so she lowered her head and kept silent.
“It’s getting late, so it must be pretty difficult to hail a taxi now. Why don’t I ask my driver to send you home, and I’ll go home after that?” Bella expressed sincere earnesty on her pretty face, ignoring the
drip bottle by the bed as if she didn’t know that Victoria was ill.
Meanwhile, Victoria was so pissed by Bella’s shameless display that she trembled. However, when she saw Christian from the corner of her eye, her fury turned into reluctance and endurance. She pursed her lips and walked up to the bed before putting on her shoes.
Bella slightly lowered her gaze, hiding the fleeting glee in her eyes.
“Stay in the hospital and heal your illness. You don’t have to come to work for the next few days.” Christian took out a cigarette, holding it between his slender index finger and middle finger. In the end, he didn’t light it up and put it back instead.
Bella blinked while asking in surprise, “Are you sick, Victoria?”
Victoria frowned, ignoring her. In terms of acting, she couldn’t win against Bella.
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Bella sighed, then said in helplessness and pity, “If I really sent you home tonight, Chris might think I was doing it on purpose.”
“Weren’t you?” Christian glanced at her, half-smiling.
“Of course not.” Sorrow appeared on Bella’s face. “Don’t think of me like that, Chris. Even though Victoria caused me to lose my ability to dance, I truly don’t blame her.”
Christian chuckled for some reason and chose not to respond. Instead, he said to Victoria, “Go back to work when you get discharged. Don’t try anything funny.”
“Okay.” Victoria released her hands’ grip on her clothes, then tightened it again. After some hesitation, she said, “Thank you for giving me time to stay in the hospital.”
She couldn’t control her own heart. She knew she should’ve given up on him by now, but whenever he offered her the slightest bit of care, she felt her heart thumping again.
She knew she was terrible, but she couldn’t change it.
Love was an addictive affair. Even if she knew it was poison, she regrettably couldn’t break free.
“You’re welcome.” Christian allowed himself a small smile, her silhouette reflecting in his dark eyes. “You have to get better so that you can live, and it’s only by living that you can—” He leaned in closer to her ear. “Pay back the debts you owe.”
Victoria’s heart froze. She felt as if her entire body was placed in a fridge, and she was chilled to the bone.
She watched as Christian and Bella left the ward together. The handsome and beautiful couple roused jealousy in others, but as for her… She lowered her head to look at the work clothes on her body, as well as the needle mark on her hand. She smiled desolately.
From the beginning until the end, she was a mere clown trying to get in between a match made in heaven. She was extremely foolish and pitiful.
…
It was late fall, and the chill of the night went deep into the bones.
Ding!
The doors of the lift opened, and Christian wheeled Bella out of the lift. They proceeded to leave the hospital. “A rehabilitation appointment at 10.00PM? Your doctor is quite the eccentric character.”
“Oh, don’t mock me, Chris.” Bella pouted, looking like a proud little woman. “The rehabilitation appointment was an excuse. I just wanted to come and pay Victoria a visit.”
“Is that so?” Christian queried, a dark look in his eyes.
“Of course.” Bella placed her right hand on the handle of the wheelchair, lowering her gaze as she said, “I heard that Victoria wanted to commit suicide, so I rushed over as soon as possible. I was afraid that something might happen to her.”
“It hasn’t even been an hour after Victoria’s attempted suicide, but you already received news about it. You have quite the connections.” Christian hummed a little, speaking meaningfully.
“It was just a coincidence.” Bella’s eyes glistened. She had been tailing Christian after the banquet, and when she saw him coming to the hospital, she followed suit.
She didn’t expect that he had rushed to the hospital just to visit Victoria!
She felt a little upset inside as she probed, “What about you, Chris? Why are you here? Did you also come to visit her because you heard she attempted suicide?”
Christian paused in his tracks, striding as he circled to the front of the wheelchair. He looked down at her, his gaze dark.
“I’m only asking.” Bella smiled, but her heart grew uneasier as time ticked by. “Chris, you don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”
Could it be that Christian really came all the way here just to visit Victoria?
“Bella.” Under the dim streetlights, Christian’s expression was unclear.
Bella hummed in response and looked up at his handsome face, her eyes tinted with adoration and longing.
She liked hearing Christian call her name. Every time he pronounced her name, her heart would race.
“You are a smart person. You should know which questions you should or should not ask, as well as things you should or should not do.” Christian supported himself with his right hand on the wheelchair. His suit wrinkled a little as he bent over.
Bella’s heart skipped a beat as she blinked, saying, “Me, smart? My mom always calls me silly, though.”
“Pfft.” Christian straightened up, chuckling for some reason. He walked over to the Bentley parked at the side.
After getting into the car, he rolled down the window and said calmly, “Stop following me. You might bump into my car if you follow too closely. It’s dangerous.”
Bella’s smile froze on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but he didn’t give her a chance. He rolled up the window and soon disappeared from her line of sight.
“If I really were smart, I wouldn’t have used my leg as a bargaining chip.” Bella placed her hand on her broken leg. She looked up at the ward Victoria was in, mumbling, “Victoria, why did you conovelxo.com fast updateme back so shamelessly?”
…
Victoria only stayed in the hospital for a day before leaving. She didn’t have much money, so she couldn’t use all of it on the hospital bill.
“Oh, you’re decent enough to come back?” Daisy lay on the bed, bandages wound around her head. She looked a little funny. “I thought you died somewhere out there.”
“Daisy, if you don’t want to get beaten up again, you should keep your mouth shut!” Gabrielle was putting on makeup, and when she heard what Daisy said, she retorted with a frownContent bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.