“The police are still investigating exactly what happened. Apparently, he received an anonymous text and left his office in the afternoon. In the end, he was beaten up.”
Hans has a good temper and had just returned to the country. Who could he have offended?
Shaking her head, Janice said, “He’s a lawyer, and it’s very often that they offend someone. It’s not something surprising. We’ll have to wait for the police investigations to know the details.” When she saw the injury on Rachel’s legs, she added, “Let’s attend to your wounds first. I’ll take you there.”
At the debridement department of the hospital, the doctor bandaged Rachel’s wounds and left her with advice such as avoiding contact with water and such, to which she nodded obediently.
After Hans had his surgery done, he was wheeled into a ward, and Rachel stayed with him in the room. Later, Janice received a call and said that she had to leave at the last minute.
Go ahead. I’ll stay here. It’s fine.
“Please keep him company for a while then.”
On the hospital bed, Hans lay there with seven or eight stitches on his forehead, and he was still unconscious because the anesthetic had yet to wear off.
As Rachel tucked him under the blanket properly, her heart was in a mess. Hans had just returned to the country and barely received any cases. Why would he suddenly offend someone who would beat him up so badly?
“Is Hans staying in this hospital?” A familiar voice came from the door.
Jolted away from her thoughts, Rachel turned and saw that the door was pushed open as Justin stormed in in his black suit.
With a bang, the door closed behind him, and Rachel sprang up suddenly. The piercing pain in her knee made her face contorted with agony.
Justin’s gaze went past her and fell on the bed behind her. “This is the emergency you told me? It is an emergency… if it’s a funeral.”
In an instant, Rachel felt as though she had fallen into a pit, and she stepped backward subconsciously until her thigh was pressed against the side of the bed. She held onto the rail at the end of the bed for support.
Looking at her coldly, Justin asked, “Don’t you have an explanation for me?”
Hans lost a lot of blood in the surgery and he has a rare blood type. The blood bank in the hospital doesn’t have enough, so I have to be here.
“Really? So you jumped off the car like a madman without any regard for your life, just because of a call?”
It was an emergency. I’m sorry. All of a sudden, she felt a tightness in her throat, and her hands stopped mid air as she tried to say something.
With his hand around her throat, Justin gripped her as easily as he was holding a chick. He was looking down at her from above, enveloping her in a dark shadow. She stopped breathing as he hissed, “I’ve warned you before, Rachel. As long as you’re still Mrs. Burton, you have to stay away from other men. Looks like you didn’t listen to a word I said, huh?”
No. Rachel shook her head lifelessly and struggled to gesture. Hans and I are only friends.
However, Justin was unmoved. As a man himself, he didn’t believe at all that pure friendship could exist between a man and a woman. It seemed impossible to him that a man who was willing to travel thousands of miles back from abroad for Rachel’s sake had no designs toward her.
“So, does this mean that you will drop everything in your hands and come running toward him without a care whenever this friend of yours is in trouble? Is he the most important thing in your life?”
Choked by his grip, Rachel was unable to make a sound, and her face was turning blue. In those innocent eyes of hers, hot tears rolled around before falling down and dripping on the back of the man’s hand.
At that moment, a surprised look appeared in Justin’s eyes because a hand was suddenly grabbing the hem of his suit, and was tugging it downward strongly.
Without anyone noticing, Hans had woken up and had gotten a hold of Justin’s clothes. “Let her go!” he cried in a hoarse, trembling voice.
Rachel’s face was completely drained of color now. She yelled wildly in her mind, Let go quickly, Hans! Let go now!
“You’re asking for it!” Justin growled, his dark eyes narrowed.
Rachel coughed and abruptly lifted her neck, which was held in a death grip, and the last tiny gap in her throat for air was also blocked. In her dizziness, she felt herself being thrown to the side violently.
Then, she heard Justin’s loud voice in her ears as he barked, “Someone, come here and break one of his legs!”
Those words were like a bomb exploding in her head, and she saw two bodyguards barging into the room, but nobody from outside had the guts to stop them.
Like a madman, Rachel lunged forward and flung herself on Hans. Don’t come here! Stay away!
In spite of that, Justin merely spat coldly, “Pull her away.”
“Rae!”
Hans’ eyes were bloodshot as he struggled to grab her, but the bodyguards peeled her away from him forcefully and dragged her aside roughly.
Pulling out a chair, Justin then sat down on it and said emotionlessly, “Do it.”
One of the bodyguards raised a piece of wood and smashed it into Hans’ calf with full force.
“Argh!”
The scream of the man echoed in the ward for a while.
Hans’ eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, and his face was covered in cold sweat. Even though he was in so much pain that his veins were popping, he gritted his teeth and spat, “You… will die a horrible death!”
Justin merely lifted his hand and moved two fingers slightly. “Continue.”
Blows rained upon Hans’ leg like raindrops in a storm once more.
“Ah!”
The blood stain on the bed grew bigger, and Rachel started screaming madly, but all she could make were hoarse, terrible noises.
In the end, Hans passed out completely in a pool of blood on the bed which sent shivers down her spine, and she was released. Slumping to the floor lifelessly, she stared in disbelief at everything she just witnessed, and she felt as though her heart had been ripped apart into a million pieces and was trampled on the floor.
A moment later, she heard the sound of shoes on the floor. She then saw a pair of shiny leather shoes in front
of her.
Clutching her by her cheeks, Justin forced her to lift her head. The face that had a scar left by a cut looked especially horrifying at this moment. “Did you see it? You caused all of this.”
Rachel’s eyes were bloodshot, and her face was covered in tears by now. Doctor! Where’s the doctor?
Somehow, she managed to break free from his grip with a surge of strength, and she staggered to run outside. She wanted to get the doctor here because he could definitely save Hans.
However, Justin grabbed her hair and caught her back effortlessly. Then, her knees buckled, and she dropped to the ground heavily, sending a piercing jolt of pain through her that almost knocked her out.
“Where are you going?” A vicious voice could be heard above her head. He had his big hands pressed down firmly on her shoulders, pinning her to the floor.
As she knelt there on the floor, all sorts of emotions washed over her simultaneously-humiliation, rage, and despair. Without warning, she grabbed his arm and sank her teeth into it.
“Argh!” Justin grunted, and a look of pain flashed across his face as he released his hold on Rachel. He was already bleeding from her bite; even his white shirt was now stained red from the blood.
“President Burton!” the bodyguards exclaimed and rushed to support him.
Holding his arm, Justin glared furiously at the woman in a corner of the room. The edges of her lips were tinged red with fresh blood, and the look in her eyes was close to insanity as she stared at him with a deep hatred.
He had never seen her like this before.
