"Faye!" His voice cracked with panic as he rushed to her side, cradling her blood-soaked body.
With trembling hands, Faye grabbed his sleeve, her eyes filled with unshed tears. Her voice was weak, fragile—like she was barely holding on.
"Brother… don’t blame Sister-in-law…" she gasped, each breath labored. "She just… couldn’t stand me winning the award… She acted on impulse… Don’t be mad at her…" Her lips quivered as she clutched her chest. "Brother… my heart… it hurts so much… Am I… going to die?"
Her performance was flawless.
The blood pooling beneath her looked terrifying, but I knew the truth—her wound was shallow. It wasn’t fatal. But Tristan didn’t see that.
His gaze snapped to me, burning with fury.
"Eliza, what did Faye ever do to deserve this?" His voice was ice, his body trembling with rage. "If anything happens to her, I will never forgive you."
I opened my mouth to explain, but he wasn’t listening. He scooped Faye into his arms and rushed her into the car, leaving me standing there in the cold.
Moments later, his men arrived. They seized me roughly, dragging me toward another car. I struggled, screamed, but it was useless. I was taken to the hospital against my will.
The moment Tristan saw me again, his hands clamped down on my shoulders. His eyes were bloodshot, his face twisted with grief and anger.
"Faye’s heart disease relapsed," he growled. "She needs umbilical cord blood immediately."
My breath caught.
Tristan’s grip tightened. "Since you hurt her, you’ll use yours to save her. That’s only fair."
He shoved me toward the doctor. I fought, twisting in his grasp, my voice shaking with desperation.
"She’s lying!" I cried. "She admitted it to me herself! She doesn’t have a heart disease! She planned all of this—don’t believe her!"
But he only looked at me with deep disappointment, as if I had done something unforgivable.
"Eliza," he said, his tone soft but firm, "when you do something wrong, you make amends. Isn’t that a simple truth?"
I shook my head violently. "Tristan, listen to me—"
He cut me off with a sigh, his expression weary.
"Faye isn’t a fool. She wouldn’t use her body just to deceive me." He cupped my face, wiping away my tears with his thumb, his touch unnervingly gentle. "Be good, Eliza. Listen to me."
Then came the words that shattered me completely.