Chapter 7 Keep Pretending

The next day, Lexi stormed into my hospital room again. "Ryder, Lachlan fell off the stage while rehearsing for you."

I looked at Lexi in confusion, then at Lachlan, who was sitting in a wheelchair with his ankle wrapped in gauze. I did not understand why she was making such a fuss. His ankle was already bandaged.

"Lachlan's scared. Could you go to Calix Sanctuary on the Eastside and pray for him? Consider it a small gesture between friends."

I shook my head. "I don't want to."

For one thing, I had no idea when Lachlan and I had become "friends." More importantly, my body could not handle that kind of exertion.

Back in the basement, my enemies had tortured me by hanging me up with two heavy stones tied to my ankles.

After two hours, my joints had been throbbing with pain, and I could not put any weight on either foot.

Even now, walking more than a few steps hurt badly.

Calix Sanctuary had a rule that anyone who came to pray had to climb the mountain on foot. If I went, I would wreck my ankles before I even made it to the foot of the mountain.

I took the X-rays from my nightstand. "The joints in my ankles are injured. I can't overexert myself."

Before Lexi could say anything, Lachlan immediately burst into tears. "Ryder, if you don't want to pray for me, just say so. How could you fake medical records to fool Lexi? Isn't that basically threatening her with your own health? Do you really care so little about Lexi that you'd scare her just to get at me?"

I almost laughed.

He actually had the nerve to say that. The date was right there on the X-rays. What was I supposed to do, predict the future and forge them before I even had the X-rays taken?

However, when Lexi heard him, her expression changed completely. She slammed her hand against the table. "Ryder, I really have spoiled you. Now, you're even using your health to threaten me? Fine. I'll let you keep pretending."

Lexi called in her bodyguards.

"If he doesn't want to leave the room, then he doesn't have to. Hang him up. Don't let him down until he admits he's faking his injury."

Before I could explain, her bodyguards tightly bound me and hoisted me into the air.

Seeing that I was already looking pale, her secretary, Tristan Croft, quietly tried to intervene. "Mr. Brooks was just rescued. His injuries haven't healed yet. Maybe you should let this go."

Lexi's face remained tense, and she said nothing.

I still had old wounds all over my body. Suspended in that painful position, my joints were stretched until they ached, while the restraints dug into my old injuries and tore them open again.

Blood seeped through and left scattered red stains across my white shirt.

Lexi's expression tightened. She stepped forward to see how I was doing.

Lachlan sighed. "Could Ryder have prepared for this in advance? Maybe he hid a blood bag under his clothes."

Lexi stopped in her tracks.

Despair washed over me. Was she really going to believe Lachlan again?

Just then, Lachlan reached into the bottom drawer of my nightstand as if performing a magic trick.

To my shock, he actually pulled out a bag of blood.

I was stunned. Before I could even process what was happening, Lexi slapped me hard across the face. Her voice trembled. "Ryder, I was so worried about you. And this whole time, you were just playing me?"

Then, she turned to the bodyguard and said coldly, "If he wants to bleed, then let him bleed. Get the whip and hit him. Keep going until he learns not to play games with people."

The bodyguard pulled a whip from inside his coat and cracked it across my back.

I screamed.

Lexi stared at me coldly. "Keep pretending."