Chapter 3

My evasion only pissed him off further. He seized my wrist and slammed me against the wall.

He shoved his hands into my pockets and ran them along the lining, but pulled out nothing more than two crumpled store receipts.

He glared at me with a harsh scoff. "Behave yourself."

I let out a silent breath. Thank god I had moved the phone deeper into the hem before walking out.

I curled into the corner of the sofa, spending the entire night wide awake.

Held prisoner in my own freezing living room, Vincent and Helen took turns sleeping, while I didn't dare close my eyes for a single second.

At dawn, Vincent walked over to me. "Let's go. To the hospital."

I thought we were going to check on the victim, clinging to a faint shred of hope that they had a sliver of humanity left.

Only after getting into the car did I realize they didn't give a damn about the victim's life.

In the front seats, Vincent and Helen spoke in hushed voices, their conversation entirely revolving around payouts and out-of-court settlements.

"We need to feel out the family first. See how much cash it'll take to bury this."

"It's best if we keep this out of the legal system. Once charges are filed, Mia is completely ruined."

Vincent had stashed Mia somewhere else, terrified that the victim's family might recognize her.

The car pulled up outside the hospital.

As soon as we reached the ICU waiting area, the muffled sobs of the family echoed through the hall. Several relatives were pacing the corridor.

Helen suddenly reached out, grabbed my arm, and shoved me hard into the center of the hall.

Just like that, I was thrust directly into the line of fire.

Helen raised her voice. "She's the one who was driving! She's the one responsible!"

In an instant, half a dozen furious glares locked onto me.

The victim's relatives swarmed forward with bloodshot eyes. A middle-aged man stepped up and slapped me hard across the face, his voice shaking with rage.

"How the hell do you drive?! You put a girl in critical condition—do you even have a conscience?!"

A woman beside him broke down, screaming, "You hit her and ran, and now you stand there playing innocent?! You monster!"

Standing behind them was a tall, strikingly imposing man who hadn't said a single word.

His eyes were fixed dead on my face, cold and lethal, like a viper ready to strike.

My cheek stung from the slap. Humiliation and anger swelled inside me, threatening to burst into an outright denial.

But out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vincent standing quietly in the background. He had zero intention of stepping forward to clear my name.

Swallowing the bile in my throat, I bowed my head slightly toward the family, keeping my voice deliberately meek.

"The patient is in critical condition right now. I came here in good faith to resolve this, and I won't run from my responsibility."

Nearby, Helen was still trying to push for an out-of-court settlement, throwing out promises of a massive payout just to sweep the whole thing under the rug.

The family was uncompromising. They flatly rejected any settlement, demanding justice.

Taking advantage of the deadlock, I seized the moment to find an excuse to slip away.

"I'll go down to the billing counter to grab the itemized bills and cover the initial medical expenses. I want to do what I can to make this right."

Helen watched me like a hawk, but surrounded by so many people, she didn't dare physically restrain me.

She could only hiss a warning. "Hurry back. Don't try anything funny!"

Swallowing the humiliation, I turned and walked away.

I bypassed the billing counter and hurried straight toward a quiet nurse's station down the hall.

While Vincent and his mother were busy dealing with the furious family, I lowered my voice and carefully asked the on-duty nurse about the details of last night's accident.

After a few sincere pleas, the nurse finally relented, dropping a crucial detail.

"The eyewitnesses last night said the driver was a young girl. Before the crash, she had been hanging around the clubbing district nearby."

That single sentence loosened the suffocating knot in my chest.

I clenched my fists, etching every word into my memory.

After making sure the coast was clear, I hurried back to the corridor. But the moment I stepped into view, a cold dread washed over me.

Helen was leaning against the wall, her phone screen brightly illuminated.

Displayed on the screen was a crystal-clear photo of the document they had forced me to sign.

Vincent stood right beside her, fully supporting the move.

Helen looked up, her gaze icy and completely devoid of warmth as she declared:

"If they won't settle, there's no point in wasting time. First thing tomorrow morning, we're taking this straight to the traffic division to make it official."

Once that document was submitted, the blame would be permanently pinned on me.

If the authorities bought it, I would be completely ruined.