Beatrice grabbed the medical tools from the doctor’s hands and threw them into the trash.
I stood up quickly and pushed Beatrice into the corner with my shoulder. My eyes were red with anger as I glared at her. “Beatrice, what is wrong with you?!”
“Robert, I just bought this entire building. If you want to act tough, then don’t treat those hands that betrayed me on my property!” she said.
The doctor suddenly stood up behind us, his eyes full of anger. “Ma’am, if we don’t treat this man’s hand now, it will be completely ruined! I don’t care what happened between you, but as a doctor, I am here to save lives! Please step aside. We need to treat his injury!”
He tried to walk toward me, but before he could get close, Sylvester pushed him away. Then the company’s security guards came forward together, blocking all the doctors outside.
Sylvester smiled, opened his phone camera and pointed it at me.
“Robert, if you admit that you leaked company secrets, we’ll take you to the hospital right away. We’ll even use Director Goldreich’s helicopter to send you to the best orthopedic hospital in the Capitol. If you refused, you can wait until you’re disabled.”
I stared hard at Beatrice. “Beatrice…”
She rubbed the place where I had pinned her earlier and said calmly, with a proud smile, “Why are you looking at me? Syl already gave you a choice. If you don’t want it, that’s your problem.”
Behind me, the doctors shouted anxiously, “Mr. Kleinn, if you wait any longer, your hand really cannot be saved! Protecting your hand is the most important thing!”
Thinking about the career I had loved my whole life and remembering the satisfaction in my father’s eyes when he realized I could inherit his artistic skill, I held back my tears.
Facing Sylvester’s camera, I forced myself to speak. “I admit… I leaked the company’s secrets.”
I repeated the entire script Sylvester had prepared.
Right after I finished, one doctor rushed forward and grabbed Sylvester’s arm. “We’ve already lost too much time. Earlier you mentioned your company’s helicopter—”
“The pilot, Mr. Park’s nephew, went back home for a wedding. The helicopter can’t fly.”
Beatrice cut the doctor off. She looked at me with a smile full of pride and disgust, then walked away.
The surgery on my hands lasted eighteen hours.
When they finally pushed me out of the operating room, I met a different doctor whose face pale was with exhaustion. She bowed to me.
“Mr. Kleinn, we really tried everything, but the results are not good… I’m afraid you won’t be able to draw again.”
The salty taste of my tears slid into my mouth, filling me with endless bitterness. But I forced myself to smile and looked at her with pleading eyes.
“It’s okay. Please give me some painkillers now. I need to be discharged. There are still many things I must do.”
“No. If we give you more anesthesia, your hand will definitely be ruined forever!”
I fell to my knees with a thud. “Please… I’m begging you.”
Two hours later, the painkillers took effect.
Smiling, I walked out of the hospital with my bandaged hand soaked in blood. If they destroyed me, then none of them would have peace either.
First, I went to the exhibition that my company was hosting in the city and tore apart all of my paintings.
Then I went back to the company and deleted all my ideas and sketches from my computer.
While I was destroying the unfinished paintings in Beatrice’s office, the door burst open. Beatrice and Sylvester rushed in.
