A long time passed until the doors to the operation studio were pushed open, revealing a surgeon in a large white coat. “Any of his family here?”Tiffany wiped her tears away before approaching him, exclaiming, “Me! How is he?”The surgeon took off his mask and breathed a sigh of relief. “No harm was made to his vital organs, though his right kidney sustained slight, non-critical damage. He lost quite a lot of blood from the assault, but he should be fine with a timely blood transfusion. Doesn’t this count as a case of crime already? Perhaps you should take this to the cops.”Tiffany looked at Mark with a plea for help in her eyes. He shook his head and replied, “We’ll handle this, Doctor. Thank you.”Filing a report to the police was unthinkable. Seaton’s own country recognized him as a dead man, so if they reported this attack to the authorities and exposed Seaton as alive, it would turn into an investigation involving two or more sovereign nations, which was a typically unbearab
Melanie presented a small bowl of soup to Tiffany, cooing, “Hey, hey! It’s okay, we know what happened. You must be scared out of your wits, aren’t you? Here, let the warmth sooth you.”A little while later, Jackson’s senses gradually returned. Seeing him opening his eyes, Tiffany loomed and threw herself onto him with a gleeful hug. “I-I can’t believe it—I thought you were gonna die! You frickin’ scared me!”Jackson’s eyes popped wide open as traces of bloodshot redness surfaced to his cheeks. Arianne, noticing his uncanny look, quickly pulled Tiffany away from him. “Let him go, girl! He’s still weak from his surgery and everything—what you’re doing can really hurt!”Jackson exhaled a long breath after he was freed from Tiffany’s clutches. “I… I swear to God, you’re gonna kill me by accident one day, bae… Go and see if my wound’s torn open!”Melanie swiftly pulled his sheet away and examined him. “You’re fine, Jackson. All’s good, no worries. It probably only hurts a bit more now
“Don’t tell my mom about this,” Jackson quickly said. “Tell Tiffany to keep her trap shut. I’m not badly hurt. I’ll be discharged in a few days. Go home, all of you. It’s getting late.”After leaving the hospital, Alejandro lit a cigarette. “I don’t think Seaton wanted Jackson dead. You were closer to Seaton, so you should know that Seaton was a medical student years ago. He should know precisely where to stab a man in order to take his life. Even if he’s forgotten his medical knowledge, he wouldn’t have just stopped at one stab if he really wanted to kill a man. It wouldn’t have been difficult for him to kill Tiffany too. It’s obvious that it wasn’t his intention. It’s probably just a warning to us, and a means to let off some steam.”“Since that’s the case, we have to station some bodyguards at the hospital, just in case,” Mark calmly said. “We all have to be careful from now on and avoid falling into Seaton’s grasp again.”Alejandro narrowed his eyes. “Are you worried about me?”
Arianne wasn’t sure if she should laugh or cry. “Stop bickering. It’s the middle of the night, and everyone’s exhausted. Let him focus on driving. There are four lives in this vehicle.”Tiffany stroked her belly. “That’s right, four lives. You’d better focus on the road; who knows if my shock from today affected the baby? I’ll get a check up tomorrow when I visit Jackson at the hospital.”“We’ve sent people over to the hospital to take care of him,” Arianne said with a frown. “You shouldn’t leave the house alone. What if you run into trouble, and no one’s around with you? No matter how worried you are about Jackson, you’d better stay at home for the next few days. If you really need a check-up, I’ll go with you and have Brian drive us there. It’ll be safer with a man with us.”When they arrived home, Arianne immediately fell asleep when her head hit the pillow. She truly couldn’t move any more.The next morning.She got up as usual and went to the office with Mark. Then, she reali
“Same thing,” Mark calmly replied. “He has zero identity. It’s not easy to find him if he wants to hide himself away. I’m afraid we’ll just have to wait until he shows his face again.”“Even Jackson, who’s great at self-defense, has been cut down. If you or I run into Seaton, we might actually lose our lives…” Alejandro latched onto Jackson for some mystifying reason.Jackson gritted his teeth angrily. “What are you implying? Some things can’t be overcome, okay? He f*cking snuck an attack on me. Stop looking so mystified. Just wait until I’m out of this hospital. I’ll knock you down first. You’ve certainly got a big mouth, you villainous pest.”Alejandro laughed instead of getting enraged. “You may be pissed, but you can’t do anything about it, can you? If you want to beat me up, I’ll stand right here, perfectly still. I swear that I won’t fight back, as long as you can get out of bed and raise your fists.”“Enough,” Arianne said helplessly. “Why are you two acting like kids at a t
Mark stepped out of the wrecked bedroom. His expensive leather shoes were now stained with residue from the explosion. He was no calmer than Arianne. He walked towards the staircase and sat on the balcony. “Do you have a cigarette?”Alejandro pulled out a cigarette and handed it to him. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen you like this. The kid is fine. He’s not at home. I’ll go look for him right now.”Mark took a few puffs of his cigarette before he could gradually calm down. He called the housemaid over to ask her about the situation. Based on the housemaid’s reply, a man dressed in a utility uniform arrived at the house around 1PM, claiming to check on the air-conditioning. He was wearing a face mask and baseball cap. She couldn’t see his face too clearly. Henry was not around at the time, so only one housemaid followed the repair man upstairs. Everyone thought that Henry had called the repair man over, so no one questioned it.The housemaid stood by and watched the man at th
Hearing this, Arianne immediately answered in Mark’s place. “Yes! We’re going, right now!”Mark didn’t object. The corners of Alejandro’s lips curved into a smile. “That’s the right choice! I have to rush home for dinner. Stop dallying. Give the Tremont Estate staff a long holiday. I can’t sustain that many mouths, nor do I lack any staff.”Finally, only Arianne, Mark, Aristotle, and Mary went to the Smith Manor together. Aristotle couldn’t be separated from Mary, so she had to come along.Melanie personally prepared a large meal when she found out that Mark and Arianne were coming over. She used to be waited on, hand and foot, when she lived with the Larks. Now that she was married, she didn’t have any other interests aside from taking care of her baby, so she managed to hone her cooking skills.Melanie’s welcoming attitude made Alejandro very uncomfortable. “They’re not guests, no need for such a ceremony. Can’t you tell the staff to cook instead?”Melanie shot him a look. “Yes,
Although both of them had very similar identities, with Alejandro being Mark’s younger brother from another mother and Aery being her younger sister from another father, how was it that they were being treated so differently? It was probably because some people knew when to admit their mistakes and change while others refused to.Humans are never perfect and will make mistakes, but some are worthy of being forgiven while others aren’t.The harm that Aery had inflicted on Tiffany was irreversible and that incident had long but been a thorn in Arianne’s heart. Although Alejandro was involved in that matter, Aery bore a much larger responsibility because Alejandro had never intended to harm Tiffany in the first place.Furthermore, Alejandro’s actions may have been quite extreme, but it was all for a good reason. There was no way for him to avoid any conflict with Mark due to his identity as the Tremonts’ illegitimate son. However, Aery was able to prevent all misunderstandings with Ari