Chapter 4

I gathered my mother in my arms and rushed for the car.

Gasps rippled through the crowd. Bryan panicked too, standing frozen where he was, at a loss.

"I really didn't think it would come to this. I didn't mean it…"

But Delilah gave a cold laugh and stepped in front of me, blocking my way.

"Enough, Olivia. Stop the act."

"I looked into it a long time ago. Your mother doesn't have any heart condition."

"First you used your mother's heart condition to guilt Bryan into marrying you. Now, just to get out of barking, you're using your own mother in a performance."

"Faking an old woman's illness to milk sympathy. Do you even count as human?"

Christian jumped in at once.

"Gold diggers really are full of tricks. For that pathetic scrap of pride, she'll even use her own mother. Truly eye-opening!"

I was shaking with rage.

Eyes bloodshot, I stared Bryan down.

"Bryan, get your lackeys out of my way, now!"

"My mother wore herself out with late nights to support this family when she was young. That's how she got her heart condition. It's all right there in her hospital records."

"If you don't believe me, call the hospital and ask, right now!"

But there was nothing but contempt in Bryan's eyes.

"Check what? Delilah wouldn't lie to me."

"Olivia, I'll give you one more chance. Bark once, and this ends right here. I'll marry you."

Using my mother's life to force me to throw away my dignity?

It was driving me out of my mind.

"Marry my ass, Bryan. If anything happens to my mother, I will never let you off!"

It was the first time I had ever been that fierce.

Bryan flinched back half a step, then flushed red with anger.

"Fine, Olivia. Very good. So now you actually dare to snap at me."

He flicked his hand, and the Simmons parents surged forward with the bodyguards, their faces terrifyingly dark.

"You've lost your mind! A cheap gold digger, and you dare raise your voice at Bryan?"

"Hold her down for me. I want to see whether she still refuses to bow her head today!"

Several bodyguards in black moved in at once, trying to pin me down by force.

My chest felt ready to burst.

Back when I helped the Simmons family rise again, the Simmons parents called me their good daughter-in-law with every breath, grateful beyond words.

Now that they had made it, they turned their backs as if they'd never known me.

And to humiliate me, they'd even block me from saving my own mother!

I fought against them with everything I had, drowning in despair, when a steady voice cut through.

"Move aside. I'm a cardiologist. Let me see the patient."

The crowd turned sideways to let him through. A calm, capable-looking doctor came quickly forward and crouched to check my mother's condition.

I knew this was the specialist my ex had arranged.

The doctor finished his examination fast, his face changing in an instant. He pulled out an acupuncture needle, worked it into my mother swiftly, then rose and said in a low, grave voice.

"The patient is critical. I've stabilized her heart rhythm for now, but she has to be taken to the hospital for surgery immediately."

The heart lodged in my throat finally dropped halfway. I turned to the Simmons family still blocking the car and said coldly.

"Get out of my way."

Delilah scoffed.

"Olivia, if you're going to put on a show, at least try harder."

"A heart condition that serious, and a few needles are supposed to bring it under control?"

"Your mother's illness is fake."

I wanted nothing more than to tear this idiot apart.

"This doctor is the top cardiac specialist in the country. His skill is something you get to question?"

The whole place went still, then broke into deafening laughter.

"A gold digger making three thousand a month, and she knows some famous doctor? Probably just some bit-part actor she found online!"

Delilah was laughing so hard she could barely stand.

Bryan looked at me coldly.

"Olivia, you never learn, do you? Lie after lie, act after act."

"I'll give you one last chance. Bark all ninety-nine times, nice and obedient, then crawl through between Delilah's legs."

"Do that, and today gets wiped clean. Otherwise, I'll make sure there's no place for you in Bayport!"

The whole place went still, everyone watching me with mocking eyes.

All of them waiting to see me kneel and take the disgrace, reduced once and for all to everyone's laughingstock.

Then a cool, clear man's voice rang out.

"I'd like to see who dares make my wife bark like a dog."