###Chapter 4
“No!”
I instinctively lunged for the medicine, grabbing onto Freya’s foot.
There was no strength left in my hand, yet Freya screamed and toppled onto the ground.
A tall figure stormed in.
“Freya!”
Cody darted toward her. His cold leather shoe trampled down on my fingers, pain exploding through me like shattering bones, and darkness clouded my vision.
He gathered the sobbing Freya into his arms. “Freya has only stayed here for a few days, and you dared to use such a heavy hand on her?!”
Freya’s face glistened with tears. “Karina scolded me for destroying your happiness and told me to leave. Forget it, I know she’s angry. I’ll move out, don’t blame her.”
“I didn’t…”
“Shut up! Look at you, like some jealous shrew. So ugly.”
Cody’s cold voice sliced through my words, his face like iron.
Sweat chilled my body, and my vision blurred. The last thing I saw was him walking away with Freya in his arms.
That was fine too; what he trampled was not only my fingers, but also my most genuine heart.
“Mrs. Karina!”
The butler’s anxious cry shattered the last thread of my fading consciousness.
When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a hospital bed. The window outside showed nothing but darkness; it was already night.
The doctor’s respectful voice drifted in. “Karina not only has a gastric perforation, but also two fractured fingers, and she is still running a fever.”
“Get the best specialists,” Cody ordered. “Use the finest medicine, don’t let her suffer.”
“Please rest assured, we have already used the best resources.”
Cody turned back and saw that I was awake. A fleeting trace of guilt crossed his eyes. “Does it still hurt?”
I shifted slightly; my stomach felt as though pierced by ten thousand arrows, and the fingers wrapped in gauze burned with searing pain.
But no matter how much my body ached, it was nothing compared to the pain tearing through my heart.
I lowered my gaze, my voice faint. “Isn’t there a banquet tonight? You should go.”
To my surprise, Cody did not leave. His eyes lingered on me with a complicated look. “I forgot today is your birthday. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I thought of the way his gaze never strayed from Freya, and a bitter smile tugged at my lips. “Would telling you have mattered?”
“Of course. No matter what I was doing, I would come right away to accompany you.”
“Happy birthday, darling.”
He slipped a diamond bracelet onto my uninjured hand, his gaze tender yet resolute.
I froze.
Darling? Cody, how long had it been since he last called me that?
He kissed my forehead softly. “Freya isn’t angry anymore. After all, you two are sisters. Get along well from now on.”
At his words, I lowered my lashes. “Hmm. You should go back and accompany the guests.”
“Why are you always driving me away?” Cody asked, his tone inexplicably tinged with irritation, though still gentle.
I was caught off guard. “But isn’t tonight’s banquet significant?”
That banquet was held especially for Freya, with the purpose of opening more doors for her. The guests must all have been wealthy and powerful, people even Cody could not afford to offend lightly.
Yet, unexpectedly, Cody smiled. “Everything has already been arranged. Tonight I’ll stay with you. I won’t leave.”
After a while, Cody got up and stepped onto the balcony to take a work call. Soon, footsteps followed.
Carlos came in carrying a fruit basket, and his wife walked in behind him with a bowl of oatmeal.
Blame clouded my son’s eyes. “Honestly, such a rare chance to spend time with Aunt, and you just had to fall sick now, making the whole family revolve around you to find happiness?”
Gigi Cameron tugged at his sleeve lightly, then opened the lunch box with a practiced smile.
“This is oatmeal Aunt made herself for you, Mom. It’s good for your stomach, please eat more.”
The moment I spotted the yam in the oatmeal, I knew it was Freya’s doing. I pushed the lunch box aside.
“I’m allergic to yams. I won’t eat it. Take it away.”
At that, even my daughter-in-law, Gigi’s smile faltered, her face darkening slightly. “Then, Mom, you should rest early.”
She closed the lunch box, then left the ward with my son.
Their whispers carried back to me as the door closed.
“Never once in all these years did she mention being allergic to yams, but suddenly now she is. What drama.”
“If only Aunt Freya had been your real mother, then Mrs. Partridge wouldn’t have just been a worn-out, tired-looking woman.”
“She’s never contributed anything to this family, yet she still keeps up that cold front. Who is she trying to fool?”
I closed my eyes, shutting out the children’s voices as they faded into the distance.
Yet why did their words still cut me so deeply, leaving me bleeding inside?
Fever and disappointment dragged me into a heavy drowsiness. Cody returned from the balcony and saw me murmuring uneasily in my sleep.
As he gazed at my pale face, memories stirred of many years ago, when the girl he had married into the family was still young. She had once been beautiful, full of vitality. Like any girl in love, she would cling to him every night, whispering his name with devotion.
Before he had the chance to cherish that youthful face, time had already etched its traces across her brow.
A finger brushed gently against my skin, the ticklish touch stirring me awake. My eyes opened drowsily. “Cody?”
He looked at me. This was his wife, his woman. In his eyes, strands of burning emotion began to spread.
I was still dazed when his thin lips pressed against mine.
“Karina…”
His voice grew hoarse, and the sound of shattering glass suddenly came from the doorway.
