Chapter 2

“Why?” She asked no one in particular as tears subconsciously rolled down her face.

"No, this can't be happening… It couldn't be… “Her Jayden” wouldn't do something like this to her.” Aria chanted those words in her mind over and over again like a mantra, but the more she tried to tell herself that this wasn't real, the more she found her heart breaking.

She took her phone and dialed her husband's number again, but after dialing his phone number several times, she still couldn't reach him.

“Jayden, please pick up,” Aria yelled into her phone, her voice laced with desperation and frustration, but still no one answered.

“Ma'am, is everything alright?” Stella, the head maid and the oldest of all the maids asked after seeing her young mistress's tear-stained face.

The mistress had been smiling from ear to ear a moment ago, and Stella couldn't understand what could have possibly happened within this short time to cause her to react like this.

“It's nothing, Stella… J—Just tell the driver to get ready and take me to Hunt Corporation; I want to see my husband. I—I'll go upstairs and get ready,” Aria stuttered, trying to keep her composure even though she felt like shouting and screaming since her heart was breaking apart.

In the next few minutes, Aria had already changed into more decent clothes and sat in the car, making her way to the Hunt Corporation headquarters.

~~~

1st class hospital,

In front of the door of the intensive care unit, there was quite a big sight. All the members of the Hunt family from the main branch were present.

Old Master Hunt, the current head of the Hunt family and the chairman of Hunt Corporation, was present.

Mr. Austin Hunt, the father of the twin boys Jayden and Kayden Hunt, together with their mother Mrs. Audrey Hunt, the current matriarch of the Hunt family after Old Master Hunt’s wife passed away, was also present.

At the far end of the hallway stood a lone figure; he exuded coldness and aloofness at one glance. He stood away from the remaining group as if he wasn't even part of them. He was Kayden Hunt, the cursed twin and the black sheep of the Hunt family.

Kayden had just returned from prison a week ago after staying there for three years.

The door to the operating room finally swung open, and the family doctor, Dr. William Murphy, walked out after five hours of surgery.

“The patient is currently out of danger but…”

The family members had just heaved a sigh of relief at the doctor's words when they heard him add the “but” word, and their hopes plummeted back to the ground as they all moved their attention back to the doctor.

“The young master is currently experiencing a severe spinal cord injury leading to a complete loss of motor and sensory function below the neck downwards…”

“Would you speak in lay terms to make us understand what is happening to my son better?” Mrs. Audrey asked, interrupting the doctor, her gaze full of worry and fear.

“The patient is currently suffering from a condition known as tetraplegia. This means he is paralyzed from the neck downwards, affecting all four limbs—arms, legs, and torso—resulting from damage to the spinal cord in the neck region,” the doctor began.

“This means he has lost the ability to move or feel sensation in his arms, legs, trunk, and other parts of the body below the neck,” he concluded.

After Dr. William finished speaking, everyone was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Kayden, who had now joined his family after he saw the doctor coming out of the operation theater and was now standing a few inches away from his grandfather, decided to break the tense atmosphere.

“What are the treatment options available, doctor? Can something be done to bring my brother back to his former self? Is there anything we need to…”

“Enough! You can stop pretending that you care; do you think I don't know you were the one behind this? Why did Jayden get into an accident the same day he decided to meet you?”

Mr. Austin: “Audrey!”

Old Master Hunt: “Daughter-in-law!”

With both her father-in-law and her husband calling her name so sternly and watching her with a disapproving gaze, Mrs. Audrey could only clamp her mouth shut, but she couldn't stop glaring at this evil spurn.

Audrey hated Kayden with all her might, and with the way she treated him, one might think she wasn't even the one who gave birth to him.

Anytime Audrey recalled that day, 27 years ago, when the monk prophesied that one of the twins she was carrying was going to be the one to bring doom to the Hunt family and cause them to be bankrupt, she had never been able to smile and lift her head high in the Hunt family.

That dark cloud loomed above her head and refused to disappear.

What made her even angrier was that it had given her husband, Austin Hunt, the audacity to father an illegitimate child. She was quite lucky that the bitch gave birth to a girl. If not, wouldn't that illegitimate child be fighting over the Hunt family assets with her dear boy, Jayden?

“Can he be moved to a regular room now?” Old Master Hunt asked the doctor, who nodded.

“Yes, old Master, the young master can be moved to a regular ward, and I'd advise you to be careful of what you say in front of the patient. The emotional impact of the patient’s condition is highly significant, and he would require psychological support, counseling, rehabilitation, therapy, and long-term care,” Dr. William advised.

The old master nodded and asked,

“Is he conscious now? Can we see him?”

“Yes, old Master, you can see him as soon as he is sent to the VIP ward, but I'd advise you not to overcrowd the room to prevent any risk of infection; this is a critical stage for the young master,” Dr. William said and walked back to the operating theater.

Old Master Hunt saw that Dr. William was no longer around and turned to look at Kayden and beckoned him to his side.

“Kayden, can you tell us what you and your brother spoke about before the accident?”

Kayden saw his grandfather's pensive gaze, and he inwardly sneered in his heart.

‘Ha! How ironic? His grandfather was also suspecting him; was that how they viewed him? As a monster who wants his brother dead?’

“Do you also think I had something to do with my brother's accident? Fine, here's a recording of our conversation. You can play and listen to it yourself,” Kayden said and pressed the recording pen into his grandfather's butler, Robert's palm, before he turned to walk away, not once looking back.