Chapter 3

"Give me a few more days. Let me handle things here first."

He called me urgently:

"Didn't we agree on six months? Are you having second thoughts?"

"No, there's just some trouble. I need a little more time."

"The professor's recommendation letter should arrive soon. Check for it and register your name at the branch office."

In the middle of the night, I woke up tormented by chest tightness and heart palpitations.

I reached for the medication on my nightstand and swallowed it in one gulp.

But the symptoms didn't ease—they got worse.

Nausea, a dull pain in my frontal lobe, wave after wave. Painful memories I had temporarily forgotten all came flooding back into my mind.

I couldn't help grabbing any sharp object nearby and scraping it hard across my skin.

I didn't sleep all night. At dawn, I discovered that the medication on my nightstand had been replaced with vitamins!

Blood rushing through my body, I ignored the intense dizziness and charged straight into Derek's master bedroom, grabbing him by the collar.

"Derek, did she switch out my emergency antidepressants?"

My finger pointed at Vivian in his arms. I was disheveled, like a madwoman.

The next second, he covered my mouth and forcibly dragged me out of the bedroom.

Once again thrown onto the cold floor, I couldn't help but laugh bitterly.

Laughing at myself for forgetting the pain once the wound healed.

Last time, Vivian had secretly unfastened my climbing safety harness, causing me to fall from eight meters high.

After I came out of the ICU, the man gently comforted Vivian, then turned to me with harsh words:

"If you don't have the ability, don't do extreme sports anymore. Look how scared you made Vivian."

Seeing him carefully close the door, afraid of waking the person inside, I asked with some desperation:

"Do you know what it's like when depression attacks..."

He cut me off. Without saying a word, he quickly pulled me to the living room.

"I know you're suffering. But if you just endure it, it'll pass. If Vivian gets stimulated, she could suffer brain death!"

"I drove her to mental illness for your sake. Can't you show her a little more tolerance?"

I sneered mockingly. "How else should I be tolerant? Wash my neck clean and hand her a knife to play with?"

"You..."

He glanced at the bedroom and issued a command like a favor:

"I promise you, after she gives birth, we'll get married. But in front of her, you have to keep playing the role of housekeeper and accommodate her in everything."

He looked at the time, assumed I had agreed, and went back to accompany Vivian without looking back.

I opened my phone and asked the doctor for another bottle of medication.

"Has your condition gotten worse? You need to manage your emotions. Don't let it develop into severe depression."

I comforted the doctor instead, not telling him why I was going through the medication so fast.

It was late morning when Vivian finally woke up moaning.

"Derek, my chest feels tight..."

Derek panicked instantly, holding her tightly to comfort her.

When the doctor said the cause was accidentally taking antidepressant medication, his eyes darkened with unclear emotions.

"Derek, I just thought the things Elena ate in front of me looked delicious. I didn't mean to..."