Chapter 2

My blood ran cold. My heart was pierced by a thousand invisible daggers.

My eyes widened. I lunged at him, heedless of the consequences. Punch after punch, his face was quickly covered in blood.

Elara and Daisy finally reacted, rushing to pull me away.

Elara roared, "Ryder! Who gave you the audacity to hit my man?!"

For the first time, I shrugged off both of them and bolted towards room 303, as if my life depended on it.

Through the wide-open door of the hospital room, my mother lay, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, her eyes filled with unspeakable sorrow. "My son, if Mom isn't here anymore, you must take good care of yourself…"

My eyes welled up with tears. I was about to rush in and take her to another hospital, but I was stopped just a few steps from the room. A group of bodyguards, without a word, dragged me away like a piece of trash.

"Let me go! Let me go!"

Despite my desperate shouts, the bodyguards sped up. I watched helplessly as my mother's face grew paler and paler. Just as my vision blurred and disappeared, I saw her hand fall lifelessly onto the hospital bed.

In the operating room.

The moment Elara saw me, she didn't say a word, just raised her hand and slapped me.

*SLAP!*