For several days in a row, Liam Foster didn’t set foot in the hospital even once.
I didn’t care at all—in fact, I found it peaceful. Every day, I changed my dressings on time and focused on healing, my only hope fixed on the day I could be discharged—half a month more, and I’d be on a plane to a foreign country, leaving this city full of betrayal and hurt forever.
But on the morning I was preparing to be discharged, the hospital room door was pushed open gently, and an unwelcome guest walked in.
It was Vanessa Bennett.
She carried a delicate food container in her hands. The arrogant, domineering look she usually wore was gone. Instead, she bit her lower lip lightly, her eyes rimmed red, looking fragile and pitiful. She tiptoed to my bedside, her voice soft like cotton.
“Sister Clara, I know I was wrong before. This is chicken soup I made myself. Try some—just… just take it as me making amends. I hope you can forgive me.”
I didn’t respond. I just stared at her coldly, because I knew Vanessa never showed kindness without a reason.
Sure enough, Vanessa hesitated, rubbed her fingers together, and spoke carefully.
“Um… the company wants to build me an ‘academic genius’ image lately, and you’ve won so many competition trophies before—it’s really convincing. Sister, could you lend me those trophies for a while? Just for a bit. I’ll return them after I finish filming the promotional materials.”
Lend trophies?
I almost laughed at how outrageous her request was. Those trophies were honors I’d earned after countless sleepless nights and endless practice problems. They were the only light left in my dark youth. I curled my lip, the mockery in my tone undisguised.
“If you want to pretend you’re a genius, go earn it yourself. Or what—can’t pass, don’t have the ability, so you want to borrow someone else’s achievements to make yourself look good?”
After saying that, I withdrew my gaze, turned around, and continued packing my things for discharge, not even bothering to look at Vanessa again.
After being choked off like that to my face, the fragile expression on Vanessa’s face cracked for a split second. A flash of malice darted through her eyes. But she quickly pulled it back, stepped forward, and lifted the container toward me, her voice trembling with tears.
“Sister, I’m only borrowing them, it’s not like I won’t give them back. How can you say that about me? I know you’re still angry, but I really need this opportunity…”
I didn’t budge. I kept packing the items on the table.
Seeing I wouldn’t take the bait, Vanessa’s eyes flicked sideways. She deliberately set the container at the edge of the table, leaving more than half of it hanging over the side. When she saw I still didn’t react, she hardened her heart and suddenly loosened her fingers.
Clang—
The container crashed to the floor. Scalding chicken soup splashed out instantly, spreading across the ground. The air filled with a rich, heavy aroma mixed with the sharp sound of porcelain shattering.
Almost at the same time, the door was shoved open violently, and Liam rushed in. The first thing he saw was the mess on the floor—and Vanessa’s red-rimmed eyes. He strode over and immediately pulled her behind him, his voice packed with panic.
“Vanessa, are you okay? Did it burn you?”
Vanessa bit her lip. Tears fell like broken beads, but she didn’t say a single word—she only shook her head pitifully.
Liam looked even more distressed. Without asking permission, he lifted her skirt hem, and when he saw the faint red mark on her calf, the pain in his eyes turned into fury in an instant.
He whipped his head toward me, accusation in his voice sharp as an ice spike.
“Clara Bennett! You’ve gone too far! Vanessa came here to apologize to you and bring you chicken soup—she’s done this much already. Why do you still have to make everything difficult for her?!”
“I’m making things difficult for her?”
I stopped packing, turned to face him, my chest rising and falling violently with anger—so furious I almost laughed.
“She came to borrow my trophies. I said no. And that means I’m making things difficult for her? Liam Foster, just how far does your heart lean? It’s probably sunk into the Mariana Trench by now—so far you’ll never pull it back!”
I pointed at the wreckage on the floor, my voice cold enough to freeze.
“She dropped the chicken soup herself, and you come in here blaming me without even asking what happened? If you protect her so much, if you feel sorry for her so much, then just be with her already! Why keep coming to provoke me at all?!”
I thought that even if Liam favored Vanessa, hearing those words would snap him into some kind of clarity.
But instead, his anger burned hotter. The disgust in his eyes scraped across my face like a blade as he cursed me word by word.
“Clara Bennett, stop twisting the truth! Vanessa is your half-sister. She’s been so good to you, and you treat her this viciously—doesn’t your conscience hurt?”
“It’s just a few stupid trophies. You think they’re that precious?”
His voice dripped with contempt.
“Your reputation is already completely ruined anyway. The whole internet knows you’re a promiscuous slut—what use are those trophies to you? You might as well lend them to Vanessa. At least you’d be helping her!”
The word “slut” was like a poisoned blade, stabbing straight through my heart.
After saying that, Liam didn’t even look at how pale my face had gone, or how my body was trembling. He simply scooped Vanessa up in his arms and hurried toward the door, his voice urgent.
“Vanessa, don’t be scared. I’m taking you to get it treated right now. It won’t scar.”
The room fell silent in an instant, leaving only the spilled chicken soup and shattered porcelain on the floor.
I stood there rigidly, as if every drop of blood in my body had frozen. Liam’s vicious insult echoed again and again in my head.
I was a slut?
After everything that had happened—my name destroyed, my reputation shattered, the whole internet spitting on me—wasn’t it all caused by him?
He was the one who turned Vanessa’s explicit photos into mine. He was the one who publicly ended our engagement. He was the one who threw filth on me again and again. He was the one who personally pushed me into an irreversible abyss.
And now he turned around and cursed me with the most vicious words?
Liam Foster, you really are something.
The crushing pain in my chest made it hard to breathe. And only then did I belatedly notice a burning pain spreading over my calf.
I looked down. A large section of my pant leg was soaked in chicken soup. My skin had already blistered into a swollen red patch, and along the edges, tiny beads of blood were starting to seep out.
I clenched my teeth, forcing down tears and pain. I bent over to pick up my luggage, limped out of the hospital room, and went to the emergency department downstairs alone to have the burn treated.
By the time the wound was handled and I returned to that so-called “home,” it was already late at night.
The moment I unlocked the front door with my key, my phone rang. It was the admissions office from the overseas school. The teacher on the other end asked gently, “Miss Bennett, hello. About housing after you enroll—would you like the school to arrange accommodations for you?”
I paused, thought for a moment, then refused calmly.
“No, thank you. I’ve already rented a place near the school in advance. I won’t need the school to arrange housing.”
“Alright, then we won’t reserve a dorm for you. Wishing you the best.”
After I hung up, I was just about to push the door open and step inside when Liam’s voice came from behind me, carrying a faint, barely perceptible confusion.
“Renting? Renting what?”
My movement stalled.
I turned slowly, and there, not far away by the elevator, was Liam supporting Vanessa—clearly just returning.
