Chapter 5

The hospital room was deathly quiet.

Drained of all strength, I leaned against the glass window outside the ICU, staring without blinking at the old woman whose body was covered in tubes and monitors.

The doctor had told me privately just now that when the old lady had been brought in, her body temperature was dangerously low. A severe lung infection and excessive shock had triggered acute heart failure.

Even though she was now in the ICU receiving conservative treatment, her life could be in danger at any moment.

My swollen, trembling right hand rested lightly over my left wrist, which was completely dislocated and deformed. A sharp, piercing pain pulsed there in waves.

But it was as if I couldn’t feel pain at all.

“Sophie Reed, are you done making a scene? I had to ask the nursing home before I found out you were here.”

At the end of the hallway, Brandon came striding over with a fruit basket and premium ginseng in hand.

“Nina was just too anxious. She’s young and doesn’t know better. I’ve already scolded her. I’ve had my secretary cover the old lady’s hospital bills and follow-up recovery expenses this time. This ends here. Stop clinging to it and come home with me.”

I didn’t even turn my head. I stared blankly at Grandma behind the glass, my voice as faint as a thread. “Okay.”

I couldn’t even be bothered to explain another word. Because I knew that the unilateral divorce procedure the Foreign Ministry’s protection driving unit was handling for me would take full effect in ten days.

All I wanted now was to wait until Grandma’s vital signs stabilized, then take her to London immediately and leave this filthy city forever.

Brandon assumed I was the same as always, that as long as he gave me an out, I would obediently lower my head. He smiled in relief and reached out to touch my hair. “That’s more like it. Once I’m done with this busy stretch, we’ll bring Grandma home together.”

I tilted my head slightly and avoided his hand. Then I closed my eyes and stopped looking at him.

Brandon seemed a little embarrassed. After giving a few instructions, he turned and left.

But I had underestimated how vicious those two could be. They had no bottom line. They could even trample every drop of blood and bone from others for their own sake.

Two afternoons later, I hurried back to the ward with a newly issued lab report in hand.

But the entrance to the ICU was already in chaos. Several doctors and bodyguards were forcefully pushing Grandma’s hospital bed toward the elevator.

My heart tightened. I rushed over like a madwoman and blocked the bed. “What are you doing?! My grandma can’t be moved. She has severe heart failure!”

The nurse’s eyes darted away. She was so anxious that her eyes had gone red. “Ms. Reed, I’m sorry… Mr. Foster gave strict orders. We have to take the old lady to the top floor. Ms. Young had an accident during an ocean party. She lost a lot of blood, and the blood bank was critically short of Rh-negative blood. In the entire hospital, only the old lady is a match…”

It felt as if a thunderbolt had struck me in broad daylight.

“She just came back from being rescued in the ICU! Drawing her blood is the same as killing her!”

I used my body to block the bed with everything I had, my hoarse voice warping out of shape.

Just then, Brandon’s hurried footsteps came from the elevator.

He walked over with a dark expression and yanked me aside.

“Sophie Reed, stop making trouble!”

Brandon’s voice was full of irritation and urgency. “Shawn only had one sister. I can’t just watch her die! They’re only taking a little blood from the old lady. Nothing will happen. I asked the doctors. As long as they control the amount, it won’t be fatal. If there are any consequences, I’ll take responsibility!”

“You’ll take responsibility? What are you going to use to take responsibility?!”

I gripped his sleeve tightly, my eyes bloodshot. “Brandon Foster, touch your own conscience! How did my grandma treat you back then?!”

“Sophie, now isn’t the time for this!”

Brandon’s face darkened completely. He didn’t even bother to give me another explanation.

He waved directly at the bodyguards and doctors behind him, his tone cold and resolute. “Take the old lady upstairs. Transfer all the doctors from the cardiology department and the emergency department to the top floor. Fully cooperate with Nina Young’s surgery!”

“Brandon Foster—!!”

My scream echoed through the hallway, but my swollen, deformed left hand had no strength at all. I could only watch helplessly as Grandma’s hospital bed was pushed into the elevator.

And Brandon didn’t even look back once. He disappeared to the top floor with everyone else.

The vast intensive care area instantly fell into dead silence.

All the doctors and nurses on duty had been forcibly transferred away by Brandon.

An hour later, the cardiac monitor in the ICU suddenly let out a sharp, single tone.

Beep—

That piercing sound was like a razor-sharp knife, instantly slicing the world inside my chest to pieces.

Like a madwoman, I shoved open the doors of the ICU.

There were no doctors on duty. No nurses to resuscitate her.

In the empty sterile ward, only the cold machine rang out in a monotonous, ear-splitting cry.

I staggered to the bedside. My knees gave way, and I crashed heavily to the floor.

“Grandma…”

Trembling, I reached out with my right hand and grabbed the shriveled hand resting on the bedsheet.

That warm hand that had once held mine as I grew up was now rapidly losing its warmth, turning cold and stiff.

The back of the old woman’s right hand was covered in massive purplish bruises left behind by a rough, excessive blood draw.

At the needle mark, there was even a dark red strand of blood that had already clotted before anyone had the chance to wipe it away.

“Grandma… Open your eyes and look at Sophie. We’re going to London. We won’t stay here anymore…”

Without warning, tears surged out, huge drops smashing onto the old woman’s lifeless face.

I pressed my face against Grandma’s cold forehead, desperately trying to warm her with my own body heat. But all I touched was a deathly chill, like stagnant water.

The grief was so extreme it jammed in my throat, turning into hopeless sobs.

In this world, the only family member who had loved me with all her heart died in a room without a doctor.

And the person who had drained her blood was the lover I had spent seven years of my youth lifting up with my own hands.

Just then, in that almost suffocating stillness, the phone in my soaked pocket suddenly lit up.

Numbly, I slid open the lock screen.

On the screen was a photo Brandon had sent.

Brandon was sitting beside the bed in a luxurious ward on the top floor, holding Nina’s hand with the utmost tenderness.

Beneath the photo was a message from Brandon: Sophie, Nina is out of danger. I already had the caregiver send the best supplements over to the old lady. Once this busy period is over, we’ll bring Grandma back to the new house together.

I stared at that line of text. Tears mixed with blood slid from the corners of my eyes and fell onto the white bedsheet.

“Ha… haha…”

A very soft, very broken laugh slipped from my throat.

Brandon Foster, the blood debt between us is settled.