Shirley could tell that those hands were that of a woman.
Dazed, she lifted her eyes and was met with a pair of clear, wide eyes.
“The doctor said that your injuries will need proper care to recover, so it’s better if you rest,” Cathy said gently as she slowly helped Shirley back to the bed.
Shirley sat back down, then gave a cold chuckle.
“Which quack said that? Could I ever recover from my current condition? If they can’t even make the most basic of judgments, they shouldn’t even be doctors!”
She mocked cynically while enduring her pain.
“Do those pompous quacks think that they’re being kind by telling such lies? I don’t need such hollow kindnesses! Just say that I am crippled and disfigured! There’s no hope for recovery!”
Upon seeing Shirley giving in to despair, Cathy sternly emphasized.
“Of course there’s hope! Yes, there might be a lot of unqualified doctors out there, but there are also a lot of good doctors, like Adam, who’s also your brother. Believe in him. He’ll definitely help you recover and return to your old self.”
“Shut up!” Shirley huffed, interrupting Cathy. “Who do you think you are? You dare shamelessly spew such nonsense at me? Do you think I know nothing about medicine?”
She turned her face and peered at Adam who was still asleep. “I know everything he knows! However, he might not know what I know. I understand my current situation perfectly. Heh. If I’m helpless at this, what hope can I have for him?”
Arrogance flashed in Shirley’s eyes.
Cathy finally saw the dissatisfaction within Shirley.
It was the extraordinarily intense determination to surpass her brother whom she thought her parents had loved more.
In other words, she was jealous.
However, her jealousy was entirely misplaced.
“You’re Cathy, right?” Shirley stared at Cathy while suppressing the debilitating pain in her body. “Get the nurse for me, immediately. I don’t intend to stay here. I don’t want to see this person, or anyone related to him. I want to leave this hospital immediately!”
Shirley was very emotional, but Cathy still looked at her calmly.
“If you still want to get better, you should continue resting. If you want to be crippled and disfigured for the rest of your life, then you can continue making a fuss.”
“…” Shirley bit her dried lips. “Are you threatening me? Heh.”
She gave a cold chuckle, laced with contempt, then suddenly reached out to press the call button.
However, before she could reach it, her hand was met with a palm that felt familiar to her.
Shirley turned and saw Adam, who had awakened unbeknownst to them, standing on the other side of the bed, his upright body emitting a resilient aura.
He retracted his hand that was blocking the call button and pushed Shirley’s hand back.
“You ought to be a little more compliant if you don’t want to die,” Adam warned, his gaze penetrating.
Shirley was briefly stumped for words, then chuckled mockingly and said, “Adam, I don’t need you to pity or feel sorry for me. I certainly don’t need you to cure me.”
“Do you think I want to save you?” Adam asked her coldly. “I’m a doctor in this hospital, and they have passed you to me. I’m just following the standard operating procedures. If it weren’t for my performance appraisal, I’d have handed you to the other doctors.”
“…”
Shirley had not expected this answer. She had wanted to refute Adam when he turned to walk away with a cold expression, but the poison intensified at this moment.
Her pain was so excruciating that she could not straighten herself, and her face abruptly blanched.
Cathy could tell something was wrong with Shirley, so she hurriedly called out to Adam, “Adam! She doesn’t look too good.”
Adam abruptly stopped in his tracks. He hastily looked back and saw Shirley, her head lowered, clutching her shirt around her chest, breathing too erratically and rapidly.
Adam quickly strode back to the front of the room and grabbed Shirley’s wrist, checking her pulse.
He noticed that Shirley’s pulse was unsteady and irregular. This situation was critical yet familiar.
“Do you have the same poison in you as Eveline?” Adam asked in disbelief.
Shirley effortfully retracted her hand. “I don’t need your concern.”
“I certainly don’t want to be concerned about you. Even if you were to suffer and die by this poison, a pernicious person like you would deserve it.”
“…”
“Adam.”
“However, I have not forgotten. I’m a doctor, and it is a doctor’s duty to save others. Just like with mom and dad, I won’t let anyone die by my watch, not even if they’re my enemies.”
“…”
Shirley’s movement immediately became sluggish when she heard these words.
It was as if the pain had stopped at this moment as well.
“Heh. Hehe…”
After a long while, she chuckled, coldly and bitterly.
When she returned to her senses, Adam was no longer in the room; only Cathy remained, standing at one side.
“Adam will be back soon.”
Shirley said nothing in response, no longer having the energy to speak.
Although she had developed the poison, she had never known that one of the components could cause such intense pain once inside the human body.
It was so cruel.
“Ah…”
Shirley could not help but wail out in pain.
She could not imagine how Niamh had gone through this. She felt that she could not endure this any further.
However, she knew she would not die. The first three stages of this poison only consisted of physical torment. Once it had reached the final stage, the torment would be mental.
She would once again experience the memories she did not want to relive. Those lonely, cold, and dark days when she had been depressed…
“Hiss…”
The fourth stage has yet to arrive, but Shirley’s heart had already begun to have a splitting pain.
She tried to suppress her emotions, but she still could not control her tears.
Cathy, seeing Shirley’s pained look, went up to comfort her. “Hold on a little longer. Adam will definitely have a solution for this.”
“A solution…”
Shirley let out a light chuckle through her red, teary eyes.
“I developed this poison and I don’t even have the antidote. Who would have it? Get lost! I don’t need your sympathy.”
Shirley forcefully pushed Cathy’s hand away.
Cathy, caught off guard, nearly fell, but someone supported her from behind.
“Evie.”
Upon hearing Cathy calling out to Niamh, Shirley spent all her might to lift her red, teary eyes and looked over.
Shirley remembered the moment when that mysterious woman had sat on Shirley and disfigured her. She also remembered what that woman had said to her.
“Shirley, don’t blame me for this. I’m merely doing this on someone else’s behalf. Think about who you have offended lately.”
As the phrase kept on repeating in Shirley’s ears, she tightened her grip on her clothes.
Upon seeing Shirley’s current state, Niamh calmly walked over to the bedside. Before Niamh could speak, Shirley suddenly pulled out the IV, which had been attached to the back of Shirley’s hand, and grabbed Niamh’s wrist, intending to stab the IV needle into Niamh’s neck.
When Cathy saw this, she swiftly ran up to intervene. “Evie, watch out!”
Niamh was caught off guard by this sudden attack, but with her agile reflexes, she easily caught Shirley’s wrist, putting a stop to her deranged action.
“Evie, are you okay?”
Worried, Cathy walked over to Niamh’s side, then turned toward Shirley and reprimanded her.
“Why do you still want to hurt people? Even now, do you still not think that you’ve gone too far? What on earth did Evie do to offend you, causing you to hurt her time and time again?”
Shirley, enduring the waves of pain, stared at Niamh through gritted teeth.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.