Chapter 360 Blame and Blood
Laurie and a group of PhDs were deep in analysis, studying the mutation process of a newly discovered infectious agent. They were working on targeted antivirals and vaccine candidates.
Yunice had been attending Laurie’s lectures for the past two weeks and had gained a lot of insight. She was now compiling her own thoughts and proposed solutions, refining them as she wrote.
Wanting a quiet environment, she had told Joe in advance not to let anyone disturb her. If she needed anything, she’d press the call button herself.
She hadn’t expected that lack of supervision would open the door for Owen and Elsie to barge in just like that.
Owen entered with long strides, his face tight with worry. He had pictured Yunice badly injured—wrapped head to toe like a mummy. Wyatt had a reputation for being violent. Anyone who clashed with him rarely walked away unscathed.
So when he saw Yunice sitting upright, clearly alive and without visible wounds, he paused in confusion.
Yunice had an IV drip in her hand and sat up in surprise. Her injuries had been kept confidential, so she was shocked they had found her. But the movement tugged at the deep cut along her side. It wasn’t life-threatening, but the pain still felt like being sliced open again.
Elsie noticed the grimace.
Owen stepped forward, voice uncertain. “Did Wyatt hit you?”
He did care—deep down. He could scold Yunice all day, but if someone else laid a hand on her, especially someone like Wyatt, it would spark both anger and guilt. He wanted to ask if it had been a slap or something worse, but the rift between them made him hold back.
“Yunice, if anything happened, you have to tell your family…” Elsie burst into tears and suddenly lunged at her.
Her hand landed squarely on Yunice’s injured side, pressing directly on the stitches. Yunice’s eyes flared with pain and fury. “Get off me!”
It felt like the wound had ripped open all over again—the stabbing pain was enough to blur her vision.
But Elsie, oblivious or pretending to be, kept pressing down. “Owen was so worried when he heard you were hurt, he ran out without even putting on proper shoes. Please, Yunice, just listen to him. Leave that monster Wyatt and come home—you won’t have to suffer anymore…”
Sweat soaked Yunice’s back as the pain drained every ounce of her strength. Her vision flickered between black and white.
“Yunice, don’t be so hard on Owen. If you’re angry, take it out on me. He really does care about you. Everything you go through weighs on him. I hate seeing you fight with the family like this. I hate seeing Owen suffer because of it…”
Elsie kept rambling, pretending to be the voice of compassion.
And Owen—idiot that he was—stood there doing nothing, even as Yunice’s face turned ghostly pale.
Yunice couldn’t summon the strength to push Elsie off. So instead, she grabbed Elsie’s wrist and, with the last of her energy, sank her teeth into Elsie’s shoulder.
It happened so fast, no one reacted in time.
But the harder he pulled, the more Yunice clamped down.
Finally, in desperation, Owen braced his hand against Yunice’s shoulder and shoved her away.
The metal IV stand clattered to the floor. The needle in Yunice’s hand ripped free, and a thin stream of blood snaked down her fingers in a vivid red line.
Owen pulled Elsie’s collar aside and saw the bite: a raw, angry imprint—already bleeding through her shirt. She’d been bitten hard. If he hadn’t stepped in, Yunice might’ve taken a chunk out of her.
Owen turned and glared at Yunice, furious. “What could she possibly have done to deserve this?!”
Yunice braced herself on the mattress, gasping for breath. She glanced toward the call button and reached for it.
Owen, faster, yanked it away.
“You better give me a reason,” he said sharply. “Why’d you bite her?”
“Because she couldn’t keep her filthy hands to herself,” Yunice snapped.
Owen was about ready to explode. “You’re unbelievable. Wyatt already hit you, and you think he’s still going to protect you?”
“Where did you hear that?” Yunice narrowed her eyes. “Who said he hit me?”