Chapter 120
Indeed, Sidney didn’t sleep a wink that night.
When he got up the next morning, dark circles ringed his eyes, and he felt completely out of it the whole drive to the hospital. He didn’t fully snap back to reality until he sat at his desk, only to look up and see Alice walking in.
She still had that smug, entitled look on her face as she eyed him like he was a nobody.
“Didn’t I tell you to quit already?”
sidney flinched and stepped back, his lips trembling. “Ms. Lambert, I got dragged into this. You can’t just use me and throw me out. We live in a lawful society.”
Disgust flickered in her eyes. Sidney talked too much.
Dr. Tanner, the money’s already in your hands. It’s too late to back out now. You can’t afford the consequences of crossing me, so you’d better do exactly as I say. Or else…”
The threat was clear as day.
After she left, Sidney slumped into his chair, drenched in sweat. He couldn’t shake the fear that someone might try to run him off the road again. He had gotten lucky once, but would he be that lucky a second time?
He couldn’t die. He had to stay alive.
Just then, he heard that familiar voice from last night–Grace.
She was standing outside Alice’s ward.
The second Alice saw her, her face twisted with shock and rage. “Grace?”
Wasn’t the Lambert family’s bodyguards out hunting her down? How the hell was she bold enough to show up here in broad daylight?
Alice’s expression changed instantly. Her eyes welled up, and her fury was replaced with a carefully crafted look of fragile innocence.
“Grace, I already begged Mom not to send you to a psychiatric hospital. Why did you have to come all the way to the hospital just to mock me? I already lost my baby. Isn’t that enough for you?”
Grace glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, Carmen and Yancey were right there.
Carmen lunged forward with her arm raised, ready to deliver a slap, but Grace caught her wrist mid–swing. “Mrs. Lambert, is it just your thing to always greet me with a slap?”
Carmen was shaking with rage. “How dare you show your face?”
Grace let go of her wrist, calm as ever. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve got nothing to feel guilty about. Why wouldn’t I show up?”
“Oh please, you think you’re innocent? Do you even hear what people are saying about you? Heartless, ruthless, a walking curse!”
The words had barely left her mouth when a hundred–dollar bill came flying at her face, smacking her right on the cheek.
Grace’s smile didn’t fade. “If you really hate me that much, then take this hundred–dollar bill and go back to the night you slept with Quentin. Just make sure to use protection this time.” Carmen stared at her in disbelief. And a second later, she was so furious that she passed out cold. Grace’s words hit so hard that even passersby froze in shock. A couple of nurses rushed over, caught Carmen, and helped her into a nearby ward.
Grace didn’t even blink. She lowered her gaze and started walking away, but Yancey stepped in front of her and said, “Is that really how you talk to your own mother?”
She looked up, her innocent eyes brimming with tears as she asked, “What do you expect me to say? I’ve actually been meaning to ask you–would you really risk having a kid out of wedlock?
She lowered her head and wiped the tears from her cheek
Then, she continued, “Sure, you’ve been messing around with Alice. But you’re still technically my fiancé. And I don’t believe you’d be stupid enough to let a woman you have such a jeopardizing relationship with end up pregnant.”
Yancey had been gearing up to tear into her, but looking at her teary eyes and hearing her trembling voice, he suddenly couldn’t say a word.
Until now, Grace had always come at him full–force, never once backing down. She had gone out of her way to insult and belittle him every chance she got.
But at that moment, she looked shattered–as if she were begging for him to save her.
“Grace, what… What are you trying to say?”
“You really don’t get it? Alice was never pregnant. This whole thing–every bit of it–was staged. But no one in the Lambert family or in the entire Druville is willing to believe me. I came here today to set the record straight. The truth doesn’t need defending.
“You all want to throw me in a psychiatric hospital? Fine. Go ahead. I won’t fight it anymore.”
Grace had switched tactics. Yancey was the kind of man who’d rather break than bend. Pressing him too hard would only feed the resentment brewing inside him.
All it took was a little weakness on her part, and his macho pride would come rushing to the surface.
The reason she chose to say af! this right now was simple–the argument was happening just outside Sidney’s office, and he could hear every word loud and clear.
If Sidney wanted a way out, he needed someone powerful to latch onto, and Yancey was exactly that person.
Yancey slowly reached out, wanting to comfort Grace. But just then, Alice stepped out of her ward.
She looked deathly pale and was barely able to stay on her feet. “Grace, I don’t know why you’d slander me like this. You’re clearly not in your right mind right now.”
