Chapter 4

Mom frowned in dissatisfaction, assuming that I was trying to play to her sympathies.

"That's enough. You can drop the act now. I know that you want to make me regret what I did—to make me think that I owe you. But let's not twist the facts. I'm the one who arranged the surgery, so I'm perfectly aware of the entire procedure.

"Pretending to be so weak now will only make me think that you're being a hypocrite. You're not behaving like a man at all."

She stepped closer and reached out to grab me. "Let's go back to the villa. I've already asked the household staff to prepare a grand feast."

My strength drained from my body the moment her hand touched my arm.

I was hit by an intense dizzy spell. My knees buckled before I crumpled to the ground with a loud thud.

"Terence!" Mom shrieked, reflexively reaching out for me.

She lost her balance when I fell against her. She shoved me angrily, shouting, "What do you think you're doing? Can't you even stand up right?"

I collided against a sharp edge of a stone block when she shoved me, coincidentally slamming against my festering wound.

I let out a muffled groan. My muscles contracted as sweat immediately drenched my body.

"How long do you plan to keep up this act, Terence? Just touch yourself for a moment. You're burning up. You must have intentionally stayed out in the sun for a long time. Am I right?"

Crouching, Mom continued to nag even as she tried to pull me up to my feet. "Just drop the act. I saw you earlier. You were walking perfectly fine, so why are you pretending to faint after seeing me? You just want me to feel sorry for you and make me think that I owe you for the rest of my life!"

"It's not an act…" I mumbled weakly. "It really hurts… Mom…"

I also wished that I was just putting up an act. I wished that the director would ask us to stop in the next second. I wanted to stand up, dust the dirt from my clothes, and calmly tell everyone that I was done with my part.

But I couldn't.

Mom finally noticed that something was amiss.

The pungent smell of blood permeated her senses when I moved.

"What's that smell?"

Mom covered her nose and frowned deeply. Following the scent of blood, her eyes eventually fell to my waist.

A large puddle of gruesome, blackened red liquid had already pooled beneath me.

"T-This…" she stammered before she gritted her teeth and swiftly lifted the hem of my shirt.

She seemed to freeze at that moment.

I didn't have a minor wound on my waist. It also wasn't covered up with clean, sterile gauze.

Instead, I had a massive incision that looked like a writhing centipede that had been messily stitched up with a rough thread.

The skin around the incision had turned a sickly purplish-black, while thick, foul-looking pus oozed from the wound.

Richard immediately turned away and started vomiting when he laid eyes on the wound.

Mom's face turned as white as a sheet as her entire body stiffened.

"Terence… What happened? Where's Dr. Loden? Where did he go?"

She frantically pulled out her phone.

I continued lying on the floor and stared up at the gray sky. I could feel my consciousness slipping away. Seconds before I succumbed to the darkness, I heard Mom screaming in despair.

"Ambulance! Call an ambulance now! Don't scare me, Terence! I was wrong! I admit that I was wrong!"