Chapter 4
The guards had only made it halfway through the mountain of wine glasses on the table, but Ruby was already starting to cough up traces of blood in the alcohol she threw up.
Her skin was full of rashes, covering her in clusters of angry red dots as if an army of fire ants were biting her all over.
Ruby did her best to open her eyes through her swollen eyelids and caught sight of Christopher Dalton and Anna York, Ian’s parents, who had arrived late for the banquet. She was feeling extremely uncomfortable and sick. Knowing that she was about to pass out soon, she clung onto her birth parents’ feet, begging them to save her.
“Mom… Dad…”
However, Christopher and Anna completely ignored her cries for help. When they realized what Ruby was calling them, they immediately kicked her away and withdrew their feet. Then, they walked over to Cecelia with all smiles.
“We’re sorry we’re late, Cecelia, but there was a terrible jam just now. Why are you crying? Who made you cry?”
Ruby had been kicked so hard that she just felt a burst of pain in her chest before finding herself stumbling straight into the pile of wine glasses behind her.
A split second later, all of the wine glasses broke and rained down shards of glass on Ruby’s body on the ground. There were pieces of glass everywhere. The glass shards cut deep into Ruby’s skin, drawing blood and eliciting painful howls from her.
Ian just cast her a disgusted look. Then, he grinned as he looked down on her and said, “You did this on purpose just so you wouldn’t have to finish the rest of the wine, didn’t you?”
Ruby kept shaking her head in denial, but Ian pretended not to have noticed her. Instead, he picked up a large broken shard of glass and pressed the sharp tip straight through Ruby’s palm.
She curled all ten fingers into a fist in excruciating pain that clearly showed in her eyes. She also bit down on her lips so hard that they were starting to bleed as well.
Ruby’s cries continued echoing throughout the hall for a long while. She was in so much pain that she felt like throwing up. She started slipping out of consciousness as the world gradually turned to black.
Just before passing out, the last thing Ruby saw was Christopher, Anna, and Ian, surrounding Cecelia, still trying to cheer her up.
Henry thought that Ruby’s cries were too noisy, so he had even gently covered Cecelia’s ears with his hands.
…
She had no idea how long she remained unconscious. When she woke up again, she realized that she had been admitted into the hospital.
She remained there for the next three days. Her ward was cold and lonely, with nobody there to visit her at all.
Patty was the only one who called her during her stay at the hospital to comfort her.
“Ruby, have you been mistreated lately? Don’t keep it to yourself. Tell me, okay? Your grandmother saved my life, so the whole Spencer family needs to repay you no matter what.
“I will make sure that Henry sees the good in you so that he’ll accept you as his wife. You’re the only person who can be my granddaughter-in-law!”
Ruby felt her heart squeeze when she heard Patty’s gentle words. She could feel the tears pooling in her eyes. Even if Patty meant well for her, Ruby had already made up her mind that she was going to leave.
She was just about to tell Patty about it when she suddenly heard her coughing. Ruby hesitated after that. In the end, she just told Patty to watch out for her health because she didn’t want Patty to worry about her while she was recovering herself.
After hanging up, Ruby went to get herself discharged from the hospital, handling all the documentation by herself.
She’d just walked to the door when she spotted Henry waiting outside for her.
His face was stoic and emotionless, but his voice was cold as he said, “Come with me!”
Ruby hadn’t even managed to collect her wits when she was forcefully dragged into Henry’s car.
Henry brought her to the mall for the rest of the afternoon, had lunch with her, and even watched a movie with her.
While waiting in line to get into the cinema, Henry got a call on his phone, and his face instantly turned dark and thunderous.
“What the hell did you do to Grandma to make her like you so much?”
Ruby had overheard Patty’s voice on the phone. It was only then that she realized Henry had been forced to go out on a date with her.
She wanted to leave, but as soon as she heard Patty coughing again, she decided to put up with it a little longer.
The movie lasted 90 minutes, yet Henry checked the time on his phone every five minutes. Because his phone lit up so often throughout the movie, the neighbors started complaining about it to him.
Ruby smiled very slightly and asked softly, “Is it so torturous to spend time with me?”
Henry did not answer her.
There was a huge crowd after the end of the movie. There was a cart being pushed around the venue as part of its marketing stunt, and Ruby nearly ran into it because she wasn’t looking.
Henry saw the cart and managed to pull Ruby out of its path.
But before Ruby could even make sense of her surroundings, she suddenly heard Cecelia’s shaky voice from behind her.
“Henry… You told me you were busy today, but you went out on a date with her?”
Both Ruby and Henry turned around and saw Cecelia running away with tears in her eyes. Ian was also there, his face dark and murderous.
Henry’s face drained of all color at once. He quickly shoved Ruby aside and chased after Cecelia.
Ian then cast Ruby a disgusted look and ran out after them both as well.
Ruby had fallen to the ground with Henry’s powerful shove. She looked at the scrape on her hands and hissed softly in pain. Taking a while to recompose herself, she then got up from the ground and headed out.
She’d just reached the side of the road when she caught sight of Cecelia, full-out sobbing in the middle of the street as both Henry and Ian tried their best to console her. However, no matter how they apologized, Cecelia wouldn’t listen. She even pushed Ian aside and ran off once more.
At that same moment, a car was speeding right toward her.
Without even thinking, Ian quickly grabbed Cecelia and pushed her to safety. However, in doing so, it put him right in the path of the oncoming car, where he was harshly knocked down before flying nearly 30 feet away.
As soon as his body hit the asphalt, blood began to pour out, staining the ground under him.
Ruby had no idea that such a thing would ever happen before her very eyes. She was so shocked that she just stood there, rooted to the ground.
…
Half an hour later, the doctor rushed out of the emergency room with blood all over his hands.
“The patient lost a lot of blood, and he’s Rh-negative! We don’t have enough blood supply in our bank. What should we do?”
Henry vaguely remembered that Ruby also had the same type of blood and silently gave himself a pat on the back for yanking her along to the hospital earlier. He grabbed Ruby’s wrist and asked anxiously, “You’ve got the same blood type too, don’t you?”
When Ruby nodded, Cecelia’s face paled even more. She demanded in her broken voice, “Why do you have the same blood type as him?”
Ruby remained quiet, especially after recalling that Cecelia found out that she and Ian were siblings because of their rare blood type.
However, Henry didn’t seem to think much about it. He interrupted the conversation and said, “Since you have Rh-negative blood as well, go and donate to Ian now.”
“I can’t,” Ruby said, rejecting him at once.
Henry immediately got mad. His voice became frosty as he questioned her. “Why not?”
Ruby looked at him, biting her lips softly, as she quietly explained in her heart.
It was because Ian and she were siblings. And siblings couldn’t donate blood to each other.
