Chapter 3

I had Ethan arrange for Marcus to visit Claire’s mother under Claire’s name.

I went to the same hospital myself.

Just as I expected, Marcus was inside, chatting happily with Claire’s mother.

In my previous life, Claire had told her mother that I was the one who had pursued her.

Her mother had disliked me from the beginning and made things difficult for me in every possible way.

I had moved them into a luxury house, but she complained that the housekeeper had not cleaned properly and made me clean it again myself.

When we drove out for a road trip, she insisted that bringing an outsider along was inappropriate, so I had to drive personally.

She and Claire spent the entire journey eating and drinking in the back seat, while I had to stay focused on the road and could barely get a word in.

I had always assumed Claire’s mother disliked me because I was several years older than Claire and not her preferred type.

I also felt guilty toward Claire, so I endured all of her mother’s mistreatment.

But now, seeing the affectionate scene between them, I finally understood.

She had not disliked me for some other reason.

She had already chosen the son-in-law she wanted.

No wonder she had constantly looked down on me in my previous life while treating Sophie with such affection.

Their entire family was like a terrifying parasite attached to my body, draining the last bit of value from me.

With that thought, I pushed open the door and entered the hospital room.

There were more than just the two of them inside.

Several other people were there as well, and from what I had heard outside, they seemed to be patients who had previously shared the room with Claire’s mother.

Everyone inside looked up when I opened the door and walked in.

Marcus immediately stood up with the posture of a man defending his home and asked with a frown, “Who are you? This is a VIP room. What are you doing here?”

I gave a quiet laugh.

“Are you the security guard? Why are you asking me that?”

My words clearly stung Marcus, and he turned toward Claire’s mother with an aggrieved expression.

Seeing her beloved future son-in-law being mistreated, Claire’s mother immediately said, “Why are you being so rude? What kind of behavior is that… Wait, why do you look so familiar? Oh, you’re that man who’s been harassing my daughter!”

As soon as she said that, Marcus’s expression changed.

His eyes flickered as he stared at me.

From the looks of it, she had probably known about me from the very beginning.

That meant Claire’s first meeting with me—and even the later meeting at my company—might not have been as simple as I had believed.

I sneered inwardly twice, feeling disgusted by the shameless pair.

As expected, Claire had never told her mother the truth.

Her mother probably still believed that I had shamelessly chased after her daughter, and that I had arranged this hospital room merely to curry favor with her.

Claire’s mother continued complaining about me to the other patients.

“He speaks so aggressively. No wonder my daughter doesn’t like him. A grown man chasing after a woman like that—how shameless. He even followed her here. Look at him. He came to visit me empty-handed, without bringing a single thing, and he claims to be some rich businessman. He has no manners at all!”

I listened to her muttering and replied without the slightest courtesy, “What? You’re staying in a room I arranged, and you’re still not satisfied? Without my arrangements, you would never have gotten into a room like this.”

At that, Claire’s mother exploded.

“What do you mean? Do you expect me to worship you? Is that how you speak to your elders? I should tell my daughter to teach you some manners!”

The other patients in the room also looked at me with disapproval.

“That’s no way to speak to someone, young man. You chose to spend your own money arranging this room for her, so you can’t hold it over her head.”

“Exactly. How rude. Didn’t anyone in your family teach you manners? Who talks to people like that?”

Marcus saw everyone turning against me.

His eyes flashed, and he quietly opened the door wider, allowing the argument to spill outside and drawing curious onlookers to the hallway.

I noticed what he was doing but did not stop him.

Did he really think I would lower my head and apologize because of Claire?

I gave a cold snort.

“What a nest of ungrateful parasites. You use the doctors I arranged and spend my money on your treatment, yet you haven’t even thanked me once. Instead, you’re criticizing me for having no manners. You’re an old woman who has no respect for others, and you still have the nerve to lecture me!”

The moment I finished speaking, the atmosphere inside and outside the room froze.

One of the other patients immediately asked, “Didn’t you say your daughter found you a famous doctor from overseas and paid the medical bills with money she saved? How did it become this woman’s arrangement?”

Before Claire’s mother could answer, I said directly, “What do you mean, your daughter arranged it? If I hadn’t arranged everything, you wouldn’t even have this room. If your medical bills hadn’t been paid, the hospital would have thrown you out by now.”

The people outside began whispering among themselves.

Claire’s mother’s face turned bright red with rage, especially as the surrounding discussion made her feel increasingly humiliated.

“Thrown out? You’re the one who insisted on paying my medical bills and finding a doctor for me! If you hadn’t done that, my daughter wouldn’t even have looked at you!”

As soon as she said that, everyone began looking at me with contempt.

Marcus laughed openly from the side, silently mocking me for bringing humiliation upon myself.

I looked at Claire’s mother’s smug face and said mockingly, “I insisted? If your daughter hadn’t knelt down and begged me, I wouldn’t even have looked at you once!”

“Adrian!”

The moment the words left my mouth, someone shouted from behind me.

I turned around and saw Claire rushing over, breathing heavily.

Unfortunately, she had arrived too late to stop me from saying it.

I looked at her coldly through the crowd.

Everyone around us was staring at her as well.

My words had been like a blade tearing apart her last shred of dignity and exposing her completely in front of everyone.

The only person still speaking was her mother, who became even more aggressive when she saw Claire.

“Sweetheart! Look at this man. Listen to what he’s saying! How dare he…”

When I saw that her mother was about to say something even more outrageous, I was just about to reveal that Claire had become my kept woman.

But Claire stepped forward and dropped to her knees with a loud thud.

“Mom, please stop talking.”

Everyone was stunned by her action.

She then turned to me and said, “Mr. Cole, I know you’ve helped me a lot, but…”

She did not finish the sentence.

Yet any woman kneeling on the floor with a look of unbearable humiliation would appear pitiful to anyone watching.

As expected, the people around us began to look sympathetic.

Claire, you really knew how to manipulate people by making yourself look miserable.

I felt as if I had just heard the funniest joke in the world and said disdainfully, “Claire, don’t tell me you think you’re pitiful. In this world, hardly anyone can simply kneel and beg once before someone pulls out several hundred thousand dollars to save their mother’s life and arranges a job with a six-figure salary.”

“I put down my work and came all the way here because I wanted to see how your mother was doing, not because I wanted to come here and be insulted. Besides, your mother doesn’t look sick at all.”

“Claire, you’re pitiful? What about all the people in this hospital who can’t afford treatment? Aren’t they pitiful?”

After saying that, I did not bother looking at her reaction and walked straight out of the hospital room.

Claire, if you wanted everyone to think you were pitiful, then I would let them see exactly how pitiful you really were.

Claire’s mother had no idea how much she had actually benefited from me.

She continued cursing me, saying that even after her daughter had knelt down, I still refused to let the matter go.

She had no idea that the other people in the hospital were now looking at her strangely.

In the past, whenever she complained about me to the other patients, they would humor her with a few words, especially because they knew she had connections at the hospital.

But after this spectacle, everyone could only think about why someone like her deserved to have anyone pay for her treatment.

Naturally, they began to dislike her in every possible way.

As I walked away, I called my assistant.

“Arrange it. Transfer Claire’s mother back to a regular room.”

Claire, your mother, your good days are only just beginning.