I stood up and grabbed my bag.
"I'm leaving."
I tried to keep my voice steady, but the hand clutching my bag strap had already started trembling.
Ryan frowned and reached out to stop me. "Emma, what are you doing? It was just a joke. Do you really have to react like this?"
"I don't think it's funny." I looked at him with reddened eyes, though my voice stayed stiff and cold.
It was the first time I had ever openly talked back to Ryan in front of other people.
Ever since the day he pulled me out of the river after I nearly drowned at eight years old, I had convinced myself he was the one.
I listened to everything he said. Even when he treated me badly, I never argued.
When he told me to dress more modestly, I quietly changed my clothes.
When he called me fat, I starved myself to lose weight.
The people around him mocked me as his pathetic lapdog, and I pretended not to hear it.
But right then, those teasing stares pierced into my skin like needles. And the person I trusted most chose silence.
Ryan's expression darkened. He wasn't used to me speaking to him like this, especially not in front of his friends.
"What, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?"
In the tense silence, Vanessa suddenly stepped forward and hooked an arm around mine. "Emma, don't be mad. Everyone's just joking around because they care about you!"
Then she turned toward the others with a helpless smile. "This is my fault. I should've remembered Emma's sensitive and not teased her like that."
Just like that, with a few casual sentences, the problem became me being too sensitive to take a joke.
I stayed silent. Because at moments like this, no matter what I said, it would only become more proof that I "couldn't take a joke."
But Vanessa clearly had no intention of letting me off the hook. She casually draped an arm over my shoulder and shot the group a playful look.
"Honestly though, Emma's figure really is kind of irresistible. Can't exactly blame men for liking it. Ryan lost the game earlier and still hasn't done his punishment yet, right? How about we make Emma go get the number of the hottest guy in the bar? We'll just count that as Ryan's punishment."
Instinctively, I responded, "I'm not doing it."
The words had barely left my mouth when someone suddenly shoved my shoulder.
I stumbled backward, crashing straight into a solid chest. Warm breath surrounded me instantly.
Startled, I spun around in panic.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to..."
My voice fell, but the angry reaction I expected never came.
"Her figure really is beautiful."
The man's voice drifted down from above me.
"Healthy. Balanced. Perfect, honestly."
I looked up.
The man had sharply defined features, and his deep-set eyes carried a cool restraint completely out of place in a noisy bar like this.
I stared blankly for several seconds before finally matching the face in front of me with those cold, distant eyes from the consultation room earlier that afternoon.
It was the doctor.
Vanessa had been waiting for a spectacle this whole time. She had probably already planned out how to humiliate me even further after I got scolded.
But now, not only had this striking, impossibly refined man shown no disgust toward me, he had openly complimented my body in front of everyone. The smile on Vanessa's face froze instantly.
It took me a full three seconds to recover my voice.
"Thank you." I wasn't even sure which sentence I was thanking him for.
A faint flicker of disappointment passed through Daniel's eyes before his expression returned to the same composed restraint he wore back in the clinic.
He didn't respond to my thanks. After a brief pause, he said, "If you'd like, you can come by the hospital for a complimentary personal styling and wardrobe consultation. It's one of our additional services."
I looked up at him.
"Your cosmetic surgery hospital offers that too?"
Daniel replied calmly, "Occasionally. Depends on the director's mood."
"Then please thank your director for me." I said it sincerely.
Daniel paused briefly, the corner of his lips shifting almost imperceptibly. "The director says you're welcome."
I blinked. Only then did realization finally dawn on me.
He was the director.
Daniel Bennett. The sole heir to the Bennett Group, the most prominent family conglomerate in Riverton.
And not far away, back at the booth, Ryan stared at us with an expression so ugly it seemed barely contained.
