The crowd erupted at once, condemning me as they rushed to Vivian's side.
"A child would never lie! She definitely drugged him!"
Someone even raised a phone and shouted, "I already called the police. Let them handle her!"
I looked to Adrian in silent desperation, but he stood there without making any move to stop them.
The police arrived at the hospital soon after. Before they could finish saying they had received a report, Leo suddenly burst into tears.
"I hate it here! I want to go home!"
Adrian scooped him into his arms and walked past me without a trace of emotion. "You upset Vivian. Consider this your punishment. There's no proof anyway. They won't do much to you."
Vivian followed at his side. As she passed me, she leaned close and whispered so softly that only I could hear, "Vanessa, this is only the beginning."
With Adrian refusing to testify on my behalf, the police had no choice but to detain me overnight.
Late that night, someone entered my holding room. The door clicked shut behind him as he pulled out a photograph and held it beside my face, studying me carefully.
"Found you."
I frowned. "What…"
Before I could finish, his fist slammed into my face.
"Miss Bennett asked me to take very good care of you."
Blow after blow crashed down on me until I no longer had the strength to fight back. By the time anyone discovered what was happening, I was already half-conscious in a pool of blood.
I was rushed back to the hospital.
The doctor asked routinely, "Do you have an emergency contact?"
I shook my head. Neither my biological parents nor the Bennetts wanted me anymore, and if they called Adrian, he would only complain that I was causing trouble.
After the doctor left, I heard the nurses whispering outside.
"We tried calling her husband. A woman answered."
"Everyone knows about that family mess…"
"She refused to give an emergency contact. Probably too ashamed."
I closed my eyes and pretended to still be asleep. At some point, the pretense became real, and I drifted off.
When I woke again, Adrian was standing beside my bed, his face dark as thunder. I stared at him in surprise. So he had actually come.
"I left you there overnight to teach you a lesson," he said coldly. "And just to get my attention, you went this far?"
He slammed the thermos in his hand onto the bedside table. "This pathetic stunt won't work on me."
He stood so close that the unfamiliar perfume clinging to him made me dizzy. My gaze dropped to the mismatched buttons on his shirt, and a bone-deep weariness washed over me.
"When are we…"
"Enough. I'm taking you home."
The rest of my words died in my throat.
What I had meant to ask was "When are we getting divorced? As for that house, I had stopped wanting to go back long ago."
Aksara