Cristelle came to the hospital in a hurry. She didn’t bring any clothes to get changed. So she went to the bathroom to take a shower. There were two beds in the ward. One was occupied by Candace. The other was put next to it, so the family members or friends who came to visit would have a bed to sleep on if they wanted to stay over the night.
Cristelle poked her head out and found Linford was not in the room anymore. She let out a breath and walked out only in her underwear. She left a kiss on Candace’s cheek before switching off the lights and lying in bed next to Candace.
However, when she got back to bed, she suddenly felt something hard and warm behind her back. She yelped, but a pair of strong hands extended out to cover her mouth.
“Shush… It’s me. You’re waking up the baby.”
It was Linford.
Cristelle fell quiet. Linford thus let go of her. Cristelle tried to stay as far from him as possible. She glared at the man before her, “When did you get in the bed?”
Linford didn’t have any expression on his face, “I just did.”
“Why didn’t you make a sound?” Cristelle questioned.
“I don’t want to wake up Candace,” his answer was flawless.
Cristelle was so pissed off. And she was only wearing her underwear. She sat up, wanting to get in Candace’s bed.
“Candace hurt her leg so badly. You’d better not touch her. It took the doctors 10 hours to fix her damaged bones.” Linford’s tone was cold when he said that.
Cristelle faltered. Did she have to share a bed with Linford tonight?
“Just bear with the situation a bit, will you? Candace needs rest,” He said.
Cristelle was completely speechless at this point.
She could feel the warmth of his torso radiating toward her back. And the musk on his body was tempting. However, she just wanted to stay away. Linford sighed and gave her more blankets so she wouldn’t get cold.
“What happened to Candace exactly? Why did she end up in the hospital?” Cristelle was scared and anxious all day, and now she finally realized that she didn’t even know the reason yet.
Linford didn’t want to hide anything from her, “It’s her dance teacher.”
“I thought you let Drew investigate her. Didn’t he find anything?”
“Cindy is okay. Her twin sister Giselle is the culprit. I think someone paid her to hurt Candace.”
Did someone pay her?
Cristelle couldn’t bear the thought that someone would deliberately hurt a five-year-old.
“So you’re saying that someone wants Candace to lose her leg? Why would they target Candace? They should have come after me.”
“Maybe it is one of my enemies.” Linford faltered and turned away, not wanting to continue the conversation anymore.
Cristelle’s head was a mess, “I’m sorry… I should have listened to you yesterday.”
Linford’s voice was cold, “If I was the one who fell off the horse that day, would you treat me the way you treated Jasper?”
What kind of question is this?
Cristelle sighed and nodded, “I would.”
Linford instantly became less angry, “Did you get worried about my safety for even a second yesterday? If I failed to control that horse, I would have spent the rest of my life in a wheelchair.”
Cristelle nodded, “I was worried. But you managed to tame the horse anyway. I only said those things because I confirmed that you were not in danger anymore. I don’t want you to have any conflicts with Jasper. He has nothing now. I don’t want you two to end up in a fight so those people can talk about it.”
“So you’re telling me that he deserves your attention because he has nothing? And I don’t even deserve a talk simply because I’ve had everything in this world?”
Cristelle bit on her bottom lip, not knowing how to answer that.
When would he understand her intention? She was doing that to eliminate the conflicts. So people wouldn’t think Linford Bradley was a bully.
Linford heaved a deep sigh as he noticed Cristelle was not talking anymore, “Jasper is the oldest son of the Johnson, and they’ve trained him as the future leader of their family since he was a boy. Even if he insisted on giving up his right to inherit what was his, his mother wouldn’t agree at the end of the day. If he acts like he’s in love with you, you’d better make sure he really is. Or things will turn out ugly.”
With that, he turned away and closed his eyes. Linford was deeply heartbroken while saying those words, but he had to endure it as he didn’t want to scare her away. He hates to act helpless in front of this woman, like what Jasper had done to trick her.
Cristelle sighed deeply. Her head was a mess at this moment.
****
The next morning, at Darwin’s mansion.
Tanya refused to let Darwin leave today, “Darwin, could you please not go to work today? We need to go to the hospital and visit Candace. Her leg almost broke. She’s such a poor thing. It broke my heart hearing the news.”
News traveled across the city overnight. Linford Bradley and Jasper Johnson fought on the racing course out of jealousy. Cristelle didn’t even care about her own daughter when she got to know that Jasper got hurt.
Tanya had seen the most twisted version of the story on TV this morning.
Darwin went dumbfounded as he heard what Tanya said, “What? What happened to Candace’s leg?”
Tanya switched on her phone and showed an article to Darwin. The article was from a journalist’s social media. It was about Cristelle sending Jasper to the hospital and ignoring her daughter.
“What the heck! This is nonsense!” Darwin couldn’t believe that Linford would fight someone for a woman. It was immature and stupid. It didn’t sound like things Linford Bradley would ever do.
Clara showed up to make things worse, “But they said it’s true. Candace almost lost her right leg, and she’s still lying in the hospital now. We should go visit the poor girl immediately.”
Darwin was enraged after reading the news online. He knew that woman was trouble!
“Get the car! Just get the car prepared!” He growled.