"Grandma! It was my idea, and I did it for the family! Don't hurt innocent people!"

Evelyn froze, her gaze instinctively drifting toward me.

When she saw the white bandages on my arm soaking through with fresh blood, her expression twisted with frustrated anger.

"You wretched girl! He just had over a hundred acupuncture needles yesterday—can't you see the wounds all over his body?"

Panic and regret flickered in Greta's eyes. She started to rush toward me—

But Noel collapsed behind her.

She whipped around in alarm, and despite her own injuries, wrapped her arms around him to help him leave.

Grandma Evelyn planted herself in her path.

"You're not going anywhere! You just gave birth—do you have a death wish?"

"Your husband is still in there! Do you even want this family anymore?"

Hesitation clouded Greta's eyes.

"I do! But you hurt Noel—I can't just abandon him! Bob... he has you. He'll be fine!"

Once upon a time, she would have moved mountains for me like that.

Once upon a time, I was never the one she chose to leave behind.

I looked at her, my gaze hollow.

"Grandma, let her go."

She seemed startled by my magnanimity.

After all, there was a time I'd thrown tantrums, groveled, even hurt myself to keep her from leaving—shredding every last scrap of my dignity as a man.

Something complicated passed through her eyes. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but in the end, she left.

The nurse re-dressed my wounds.

The baby was soothed to sleep.

Then my phone buzzed with her message.

[Sorry. I just didn't want to cause a scene at the hospital and damage the Jenner family's reputation.]

[Noel is still unconscious and needs someone with him, so I won't be coming over. We're recovering together. Don't worry.]

I stared at the screen for a long time.

Once, when I learned she'd been injured on a business trip, I flew eleven hours to be by her side. I went with her to every examination, never leaving for a moment.

She'd been so moved she could barely speak. She told me she would never let me down—not in this lifetime.

Seeing me sigh, Grandma Evelyn snatched the phone from my hand.

She read the cold words on the screen and let out a scornful huff.

"That wretched girl! Just wait until she gets back—I'll deal with her then. Bob, don't worry. Grandma will—"

I cut her off with a quiet laugh, meeting her eyes with a calm I no longer had to fake.

"You allowed all of this, didn't you?"