At the same time, I shielded the shrine inside the clinic.
Inside rested my master Gabriel Reed’s memorial plaque.
Even if everything else in the clinic were smashed, I wouldn’t care—I could always replace furniture and equipment. But Gabriel’s memorial plaque could never be damaged.
The bodyguards, for now, hadn’t laid hands on me. Chloe Miller, however, had no such restraint. She suddenly kicked me hard in the stomach, sending me sprawling to the ground.
She crouched beside me, yanking my hair, slapping me viciously across the face several times. With a cruel, gloating smile, she hissed:
“I warned you before—shut down this clinic and sell the building to my family. But you refused to listen.”
“Now my patience has run out.”
“I only planned to stir up trouble and give you a lesson tonight. Who knew Adrian Hughes’s dog would die here? Truly heaven is helping me.”
“Rachel Evans, you’re finished tonight!”
Looking at the sinister grin on her face, I sighed inwardly.
If this chaos continued, someone was bound to die tonight. The only question was—who?
The violent hostility radiating from Adrian and Chloe was deeply agitating the spirits within the clinic. Even Ryan Hughes, the mischievous ghost boy, now had eyes glowing an eerie green. The aura of death grew heavier, the temperature in the clinic dropping noticeably.
Clutching Gabriel’s memorial plaque tightly, I warned them urgently:
“If you don’t want to die, leave now—before it’s too late!”
I wasn’t bluffing.
The spirits’ patience had nearly reached its limit. If Adrian and Chloe continued smashing and provoking them, even I might not be able to hold the spirits back.
But my words only made Adrian and Chloe laugh scornfully.
Chloe sneered, “You can’t even protect yourself, yet you dare to threaten us? Rachel, you really don’t know what’s good for you!”
Adrian said impatiently, “No one in Bayshore City dares threaten me. You think I was joking earlier?”
Then he ordered his bodyguards, “Break her hands. Teach her a lesson she won’t forget.”
The men hesitated.
Smashing up my clinic was one thing—the Hughes family would cover damages afterward. But harming a person? That was another matter entirely.
One bodyguard finally spoke up cautiously:
“Sir, tomorrow is Mr. Charles Hughes’s eightieth birthday. If word spreads that we went too far tonight, the old man may be displeased. Perhaps just rough her up a little, and leave it at that.”
The others nodded in agreement.
Adrian frowned, wavering for a moment.
Chloe clutched his arm anxiously, her voice pitiful as she pleaded,
“Darling, you can’t let her off so easily. She killed Coco—you can’t just ignore that.”
“Coco was your favorite dog. You said before, if anyone ever harmed a single hair on him, you’d never forgive them.”
“This bitch has always been against my family. She’s cruel and conniving. I’ve wanted to punish her for a long time.”
“Do it for me—tonight, you must teach her a brutal lesson…”
