Herbert?
I forced my eyes open and pushed myself up. When I saw who had come, my nose stung with tears.
Herbert looked at me and quickened his steps.
"Vic, don't move!"
"Are your legs any better?"
I shook my head. If Silvia hadn't been in the room, I would have told him one thing plainly.
Because the moment my father learned my legs could heal, he'd cripple them a second time.
I reached out and held on to him, like someone who'd fallen into a pit and finally found a way out.
Silvia called out, "Herb, sis is going to be fine. Don't worry."
She walked over, her eyes fixed on Herbert with open longing. As if I couldn't tell she wanted my boyfriend too.
"Silvia, you can go now."
"I don't want to see you. Before he got here, you were laughing at me in the most mocking tone."
Silvia's face crumpled with hurt. "I did not. Why do you always slander me, sis?"
"We may not be sisters by blood, but I never once laughed at you!"
She'd barely finished when my father and stepmother came back with a tray of plain porridge and side dishes.
Silvia quickly wiped her eyes and squeezed a meek little smile onto her face.
"Daddy!"
"Silvie, why are you crying?"
Diana set down the porridge and hurried over to hold her.
"I'm only crying because I feel so sorry for sis."
My father nodded, satisfied, then reached out and stroked her head.
"I've always known you're a good girl."
I couldn't stand another second in the same room with them.
I gripped Herbert's hand and looked up at him, pleading. "I want to be discharged. But I don't want to go home."
"You could take me to your place—"
"Vic, you're a girl. You can't live with a man before you're married."
I turned my head and looked at my father, cold. Whether he cared about my reputation or had something else in mind, we both knew the truth.
Herbert tightened his hand around mine, and the warmth of it gave me strength.
"Sir, Victoria Henson is the only woman I'll ever want in this life. There's nothing here that could ruin anyone's reputation."
"She'll be my wife sooner or later. My home is her home too."
In that moment, the emotion pushed the grief clean out of my heart.
Silvia, hearing Herbert's words, went dark and twisted in the face.
With Herbert saying that, my father could hardly object.
The weight on my chest finally lifted, and hope for that Ivy League place began to come back to me.
After ten days in the hospital, I was finally able to leave.
My left leg could bear weight with a crutch, but the right one was worse and still needed time.
Herbert told me to rest and heal without worrying, said he'd get in touch with the university's dean, and that once my legs were better I could go back to school.
When I heard that, I cried from happiness.
When my father and the others came to see me, they kept staring at my legs.
It scared me enough that I shrank behind Herbert, and afraid I'd start panicking again, he quickly had a bodyguard help me back to my room to rest.
I thought I'd finally have some peace. I didn't expect Silvia to push the door open and walk straight in.
"What do you want? Get out!"
"Oh please. You think having Herbert around gives you a spine?"
"Let me tell you, it won't help you."
Then she lifted her head and swept her gaze around my room, the greed in it impossible to hide.
"Victoria Henson, everything you have right now is just a dream."
"Because very soon, I'll be taking your place. Not only will I be Mrs. Mason, I'll get Daddy's company too."
Seeing how sure of herself she was, unease rose in my chest.
But then I thought of how much Herbert loved me. He would never throw me away.
She read exactly what I was thinking, and laughed out loud.
"What an idiot."
"Facing an opponent as brainless as you, I've lost even the urge for revenge."
With that, she left.
But I only grew more uneasy, so I took my crutch and went to find Herbert.
I never expected that at the door of the study, I'd hear him talking with my father.
"If you'd been a little more ruthless last time, you could have snapped her legs clean off."
