Chapter 3

Valerie Shaw POV

But just as his fingertips were about to touch me, I sharply turned my head, dodging his hand.

"Don't trouble yourself, Mr. King!"

The words were harsh, but tears of heartache streamed down, uncontrollably.

Even when gravely injured before, I would just bite my lip stubbornly, never letting tears fall easily.

Ethan almost instinctively reached out to wipe away my tears, but a sudden phone call interrupted his gesture.

In the end, he did nothing, turning and hurrying out of the room.

The moment the door closed, I suddenly burst into laughter, my laughter echoing jarringly in the empty room.

As I laughed, hot tears streamed down, falling in large drops onto my cheeks and hitting the sheets.

After a long while, I wiped away my tears, then took out my phone and dialed a long-unused number.

When the call connected, I took a deep breath, as if summoning all the strength left in my life, and slowly said:

"Code 0701, Valerie Shaw, requesting activation of the Phoenix Protocol."

After Ethan left, he didn't reappear for three whole days.

But every morning, his assistant would bring carefully prepared gifts.

On the fourth morning, the hospital room door opened again.

When I saw Ethan's tall, familiar figure, my heart, dormant for days, almost imperceptibly skipped a beat.

However, that faint flutter instantly froze into ice when I saw the woman who followed closely behind him.

It was her, Brittany Reed!

The girl who, in high school, had ganged up on me in the bathroom stall, pouring dirty water on me, laughing and calling me the murderer's daughter, leaving me speechless for half a year—that bully.

Ethan's ex-wife, Brittany, was that woman!

Under the immense shock and fury, my body began to tremble violently, uncontrollably.

Brittany released Ethan's arm and quickly came to my bedside, her face filled with worry and apology.

"Miss Shaw, how are you? I'm so sorry, it's all my fault, I was too careless driving..."

Her voice was soft and frail, and she reached out, intending to take my hand.

The next second, she leaned closer and whispered, in a voice only we could hear, "Long time no see, murderer's daughter. Did you miss me?"

Murderer's daughter.

The words sharply pierced my eardrums.

"Scream, why aren't you screaming? Didn't your murderer father teach you how to beg for mercy?!"

Brittany's piercing laugh from years ago instantly replayed in my mind.

"Don't touch me!" Almost instinctively, I used all my strength to violently swat away Brittany's outstretched hand.

Brittany gasped, stumbling backward. Her hand accidentally knocked over the IV stand next to the bed.

"Brittany!" Ethan's face changed instantly. He rushed forward, pulling Brittany protectively into his arms.

And the heavy IV stand crashed, squarely and forcefully, onto my chest, which was wrapped in thick bandages.

A metallic taste instantly surged into my throat. I felt my vision blacken from the pain and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Ethan, I didn't mean to, Miss Shaw..." Brittany buried her face in Ethan's chest, her voice choked with sobs, trembling.

Ethan held her tightly, looking at me with undisguised blame and anger.

"Valerie Shaw, what the hell are you doing?!"

I wanted to speak, to tell him who this woman was, to tell him what she had done to me.

But the searing pain in my chest and the blood clogging my throat allowed me only to emit broken, gurgling sounds, unable to utter a single word.

I could only stare desperately at Ethan, hoping he would give me a chance to explain, or at least a flicker of trust in his eyes.

But the next second, Ethan picked up the unharmed Brittany, didn't spare me another glance, and turned to leave the room.

Watching their retreating backs, I finally couldn't hold on, and fainted from the pain.

When I woke again, I found myself not in the hospital room, but in a moving car.

Two bodyguards in black suits sat beside me, Ethan's men.

"Miss Shaw, Mr. King instructed us to take you back to the villa to recover."

The car soon pulled into the villa I had lived in for five years, a place so familiar it felt like home.

As I was helped inside, I stopped abruptly.

The living room was filled with another woman's belongings, and the air was thick with an unfamiliar, sickly sweet perfume.

In the kitchen, Ethan was carefully simmering something.

I remembered he never used to enter the kitchen.

Ethan looked up at the sound, his gaze sweeping past me without a pause.

"You're back just in time. Brittany is delicate and needs someone to look after her. From today on, your duty is to protect her personally."

I followed his gaze. Brittany was gracefully descending the stairs.

She walked to Ethan's side and gave me an innocent, harmless smile: "Won't this be too much trouble for Miss Shaw? Her injuries aren't fully healed."

Ethan wrapped an arm around her shoulder, his voice gentle in a way I'd never heard before: "This is what she's supposed to do."

Then his gaze shifted to me, his eyes holding an undeniable command: "Did you hear me?!"

I looked up at the face I had loved and followed for five years, my nails digging deep into my palms.

For the first time, I refused him.

"I won't."