‘All right, that's about enough…’
Alfred hadn't even finished speaking when his assistant came rushing in from outside.
The man shot a glance at me, kneeling on the floor, then turned to Alfred and spoke, his face grim.
‘Alfred, the freighter we have out in international waters just picked up the signal from Old Mr. Winfield's private jet.’
Alfred's face went white in an instant.
He looked over at me, about to say something,
when Scarlett grabbed his forearm.
‘Alfred, I don't think she has any idea she did anything wrong. Even now, at a moment like this, she's using her father to scare you!’
Alfred's eyes turned cold all at once.
He shoved me away with a violent push,
strode straight to my mother's hospital bed,
and aimed his fist at the blanket over her head, clenching it tight and driving it down hard.
After a few blows,
blood streamed out from beneath the blanket in an instant,
leaving streaks of bright red across the snow-white bedding.
‘Alfred, let go!!’
I lunged forward like a madwoman and clamped down on his wrist with everything I had.
He showed not the slightest intention of stopping.
The force behind his fist only grew heavier.
I screamed it again and again until my voice cracked, the taste of blood spreading salty across my tongue,
and still I couldn't hold back his fist.
Then, all at once, my mother's limbs began to convulse violently.
Dr. Finch rushed over in the same instant,
threw Alfred off, yanked back the blanket, and froze at the sight of my mother's ashen face.
‘Something's wrong! We're losing her! Get her to the OR, now!’
Alfred stared at my mother convulsing without pause, his whole body rigid.
When he came to himself, he kept waving frantically at the lackeys who'd trailed in behind him.
‘Hurry! Get her into the operating room!’
The words had barely left him when a nurse came hurrying over.
She looked at Alfred and Dr. Finch, trembling as she spoke.
‘The operating room… the operating room's lost power… we can't run emergency procedures…’
Alfred seized the nurse by the collar, his voice shaking.
‘Then what are you standing around for?! Use the hospital's backup generator!’
The young nurse glanced at Scarlett, standing behind him.
‘Miss Simmons said the backup generator can't be used without her order. Otherwise she'd show us what it means to lose two lives at once…’
Alfred whipped around to face Scarlett.
‘Scarlett, did you say that?!’
‘Yes!’
In the moment it took him to turn, tears had already covered Scarlett's whole face.
She looked at the anger written across his features and dropped to her knees before him with a thud.
‘Alfred, please forgive me for being so willful…’
‘Just now Shelagh didn't show the slightest hint of remorse. Instead she used the old chairman to scare you. I don't think she has any idea she did anything wrong at all…’
‘I don't care about myself, but I'm worried about you. If word of this gets out someday, how will you ever command any respect at the company…’
