Before long, Audrey was taken to the hospital by Julian, and tube after tube of blood was drawn from her body.
The doctor was pacing anxiously nearby. "We really can't take any more, Mr. Ashcroft. Miss Winslow has been frail ever since she came back. Drawing this much blood at once could put her in serious danger..."
"Enough!" Julian cut him off through clenched teeth. "Keep drawing."
The needle slid slowly into her skin. Audrey watched her blood run through the clear tubing and into the bag.
She suddenly remembered how, when she had first returned to the Winslow family, Julian had looked at the scars on her arms with nothing but heartache. He had found the best cosmetic surgeon to remove them, and he had even made different soups for her every day to help her regain her strength.
"Audrey, you've suffered too much all these years. From now on, I'll protect you."
Those memories were still painfully vivid, yet now Julian had locked her in a confinement room for the sake of that mother and daughter, and was practically bleeding her dry.
Tears slipped from Audrey's eyes. Her vision blurred more and more until everything went black, and she lost consciousness.
When she woke again, she found herself lying in a hospital bed, with a maid tending to her at her side.
"Miss Winslow, you're awake?"
The maid hurried over to help her sit up the moment she opened her eyes.
"Thank goodness. I'll go tell Mr. Ashcroft and Mrs. Winslow right away. You have no idea how worried they were when they saw you faint..."
Worried?
Audrey let out a bitter laugh. If they had truly cared about her, how could they have ignored her condition and taken so much blood from her?
Sure enough, in the days that followed, no one came to see her again.
Now and then, she overheard bits and pieces about her parents and Julian from the nurses.
"The girl in the room next door is unbelievably lucky. They treat her like a princess. Her whole family dotes on her like she's the most precious thing in the world."
"Exactly. It was only a cut on her forehead, and they still brought in the hospital's top specialists for her. They even send her nourishing meals and tonics every single day."
"And her family and boyfriend never leave her side. They're constantly there taking care of her. She's spoiled beyond belief."
Seeing Audrey lying alone in her room the whole time, one of the nurses asked kindly, "Miss, where's your family? You lost so much blood and nearly died. Why has no one come to see you?"
Audrey only gave a faint smile and answered calmly, "I don't have a family."
"What do you mean, you don't have a family?"
Julian shoved the door open and demanded, his brows drawn tight.
Sensing the tension, the nurse awkwardly slipped out of the room.
Julian looked at Audrey lying on the hospital bed, and at last his tone softened. "Audrey, if you hadn't made mistake after mistake, would I have needed to use your blood to save Lillian? As long as you stop making things hard for Lillian from now on, Edward, Beatrice, and I will treat you the way we used to."
The way they used to?
Audrey smiled.
There was no going back. She could never return to when she was seven.
Seeing her smile, Julian mistook it for surrender and quickly said, "It's good that you've finally come to your senses. This time, you really went too far. You upset Lillian for days."
He glanced at Audrey's pale face, then hesitated before continuing, "But since what's done is done, and Lillian has already forgiven you, we won't press the matter any further... There's just one thing. Three days from now, I'm going to hold a fake wedding with Lillian, so her mother can serve her sentence in peace..."
