Chapter 15
On the way to the hospital, Kristin gripped Rhett’s shirt for dear life, desperately clinging to a thread of security.
When she bolted from the private room, Kristin latched onto him like a drowning person grabbing a lifeline.
Rhett frowned at the sight of Kristin, whose petite face was as white as a sheet.
Years ago, when he saw her at the FitzGerald Mansion, she was like a rosebud about to bloom.
“Mr. FitzGerald… How about, um, how about I take over here, and you dash home to get changed?” At the hospital, the assistant nervously offered to take Kristin.
Rhett gave the assistant a frosty glance, brushed past him, and carried Kristin toward the
emergency room.
The assistant sucked in a breath of cold air, thinking Mr. FitzGerald was really off his rocker.
“Don’t, don’t touch me…” Kristin struggled in her semi–conscious state, her complexion getting
worse.
Anyone could tell she’d been through a nightmare.
“No, don’t touch me! Leave me alone, all of you…”
The nurses tried to examine Kristin, but her struggles in her dazed condition were too fierce.
“Dr. Lawrence, the patient is uncooperative.”
Connor was on duty with a stethoscope around his neck in the ER. He walked into the exam room and was shocked to see the brooding man standing there. “Rhett?”
Rhett frowned, sparing Connor a glance.
He remembered Connor, the youngest son of the Lawrence family.
The Fitzgerald family was the top dog in Silvergrove City, followed by the Turner, Lawrence. Haywood, and Gladstone families. The Turner family once got their darling.daughter Kristin engaged to Vincent, the youngest son of the Fitzgerald family, boosting their status in Silvergrove City.
But alas, Kristin was a fraud, and after the engagement party, rumors of her scandalous private life surfaced. Then she had a bastard child, which dragged the Fitzgerald family and the Turner family through the mud in Silvergrove City.
As for Connor, Rhett remembered him because he was different from others..
As the Lawrence heir, he showed no interest in the family business but chose to become a doctor against the wishes of the Lawrence family.
That turned the Lawrence family into a joke in business circles.
“She has a minor concussion. The cut on her forehead needs stitches, a tetanus shot, severe malnutrition, and she’s on the brink of starvation. How bizarre,” Connor scoffed after looking at Kristin’s checkup results.
Kristin had ticked off the Fitzgerald family but seemed out of lifelines.
He’d thought Vincent would be the type to torment Kristin, but Rhett, too?
“Starving?” Rhett’s gaze darkened with confusion.
Had Vincent brought her home just to starve her?
“Give her a nutritional IV,” Connor told another doctor, then turned to Rhett. “Maybe I’m overstepping, but as a doctor, Mr. Fitzgerald, I’d like to remind you that five years in prison should be enough penance for Kristin. She doesn’t need to be pushed to the brink.” This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.
Nothing was more laughable than the so–called reputation of high society. They tormented a woman just for the sake of that humiliation.
Connor had no respect for these people.
Rhett was seething and said nothing.
“Oh, and just a heads–up. This girl was once your brother’s fiancée,” Connor added, seeing the marks on Kristin’s neck and jumping to conclusions.
Everyone in Silvergrove City feared Rhett and wanted to cling to him, but Connor couldn’t care less.
They said Rhett was indifferent to women, so how did Kristin get all these injuries?
Rhett was usually the strong, silent type, and even knowing Connor had the wrong end of the stick, he couldn’t be bothered to correct him.
“Mr. Fitzgerald, did you call the cops?” Outside in the ward, a police officer walked in. “Sorry to disturb you, but we must clear up a few things. The folks at the hotel are denying they hurt the lady, saying she did it to herself…”
Rhett’s gaze was icy. “She beat herself into critical condition?”
The officer panicked under Rhett’s powerful aura. “Sorry, Mr. Fitzgerald. We need evidence and the victim’s statement.”
“I’ll have my assistant bring the hotel corridor’s CCTV footage over,” Rhett said, checking the time. Since the cops were there, he saw no need to stick around.
Connor was stunned. Had he misunderstood?
“Don’t touch me. No!” Kristin woke from her nightmare in a panic, her eyes flying open, her whole body trembling.
Where was she? What was this place?
Seeing Kristin reaching for the IV, Connor quickly stepped in and stopped her. “Ease there.”
1227
Kristin looked at Connor in terror and instinctively scooted back.
She was terrified of men getting close.
“Miss Kristin, please cooperate and answer a few questions. What happened in the Diamond Crest Hotel suite? Was there an altercation?” The police officer stepped forward to ask.
Still reeling from shock, Kristin looked toward Rhett, who had paused in the doorway.
Taking a deep breath, Kristin was scared.
Rhett was Vincent’s brother. It would damage the Fitzgerald family’s reputation if she said Vincent had tricked her over.
Her fingers clenched slowly, and Kristin lowered her head. “No… nothing. I did it to myself. I hit myself…”
At the doorway, Rhett’s brow furrowed, displeased, and he left.
He couldn’t stand those spineless women who always groveled, never knowing how to assert themselves.