Chapter 6

Vivian POV

The storage room door didn't open until the next morning.

I was curled in the corner.

The bodyguard looked at my condition with some sympathy.

"Mrs. Sinclair, Mr. Sinclair says you can go now."

I said nothing. I stood up shakily and walked out of the hotel step by step.

When I reached the hospital, I only saw a body on a gurney covered with a white sheet.

I didn't cry. I just stood there quietly, looking at Grandma's peaceful face.

The attending physician approached, his expression complicated, hesitant to speak.

"Vivian, actually... your grandmother's condition was very stable. But yesterday afternoon, a woman came to her room. We don't know what she said to her, but her emotions became agitated, which triggered the heart failure..."

I raised my head. In my deadened heart, a towering hatred instantly ignited.

Stella!

It was her! She killed Grandma!

I turned and rushed out of the hospital. At a hardware store on the roadside, I bought a fruit knife and went straight to the Sinclair mansion.

At the villa, Ethan was having breakfast with Stella.

"Stella, go to hell!"

I lunged at Stella with the knife.

Stella screamed and dodged.

Ethan reacted lightning-fast, pulling Stella behind him and catching the blade with his bare hand.

Blood instantly flowed between his fingers.

"Vivian, have you completely lost your mind?!"

Ethan wrenched away the knife and backhanded me with a vicious slap.

He used his full strength. I was knocked to the floor, blood trickling from my mouth, half my face instantly swelling.

"She killed Grandma!"

I pointed at Stella, screaming hoarsely.

"She went to the hospital yesterday and provoked Grandma! Ethan, she's a murderer!"

Stella hid behind Ethan, crying and trembling.

"I didn't... Ethan, I was trying on my dress all day yesterday. I never went to the hospital. Is Vivian hallucinating from too much stress?"

"You're still lying!"

I struggled to get up.

"Enough!"

Ethan cut me off sharply, looking at me with disgust and disappointment.

"Vivian, I'm grieved about your grandmother's death too, but you can't attack people like a rabid dog! Stella was with me all yesterday. How could she go to the hospital?"

I froze.

Looking at Ethan's certain expression, I suddenly understood.

He was covering for her.

To protect Stella, he could even erase Grandma's death.

"Ethan, you disgust me."

I looked at him and said nothing more.

"Since you're clearly unhinged, go cool off in the basement for a few days!"

Ethan ordered the bodyguards coldly.

"Lock her in the basement. Without my orders, no one feeds her!"

The basement.

No windows. No light.

It was the place I feared most.

Ethan knew perfectly well that I was kidnapped and locked in a dark room as a child, leaving me with severe psychological trauma.

The bodyguards dragged me into the basement. The iron door slammed shut with a bang.

Darkness instantly consumed me.

I huddled in the corner, clutching myself tightly.

Ethan, I've repaid everything I owed you.

The darkness of the basement was like an invisible giant hand, strangling my throat.

On the first day, I trembled with fear, sweat soaking my clothes. My mind kept flashing back to being kidnapped as a child, and Grandma's face under the white sheet.

On the second day, I developed a high fever. My wounds became infected. I fell into a semi-conscious state.