Chapter 76: Love Means Nothing Here
To Elsie's surprise, Paul avoided her gaze and didn't speak up for her. Jensen had never liked her family background, and here she was deliberately calling him "Dad"? Was she asking for trouble?
Seeing that even Paul wouldn't defend her, Elsie wiped away her tears and fled the hospital room, looking utterly wronged. Jensen watched her leave with a look of utter contempt in his eyes. Then he turned back to his disappointing son, his voice cold as ice. “If you’re just playing around with her, fine. But if you’re serious, don’t blame me for cutting all father-son ties.”
Paul looked at him in shock. Cut ties? How?
Jensen sneered, “I’m still young. I can have another son.” Paul’s face went pale.
Jensen continued, “If you still want to stay in your grandfather’s good graces, then go bring the Powell family a real ally.” Paul knew full well that his father looked down on Elsie's humble background, but still he said, “I can’t betray Elsie.”
Hearing this, Jensen’s gaze turned sharp. He grabbed Paul by the collar and growled, “Your grandfather has already arranged for Wyatt to marry Yunice. That’s our only chance to catch up to them! And what will marrying Elsie get you, apart from a flock of freeloading relatives?” Then, he pressed down hard on Paul’s injured leg.
Paul cried out in agony. But Jensen didn’t show the slightest bit of mercy. “If you don’t get your act together, the pain will only get worse.” The veins on Paul’s forehead bulged from the pain. He couldn’t even find the strength to argue.
After leaving the room, Jensen ordered the bodyguards outside. “No more painkillers for him.” “Yes, sir!” The bodyguards replied in unison.
Inside, Paul lay drenched in cold sweat, slumped on the bed. Maybe the pain had numbed him, or maybe he was just delirious, but his mind began to wander. Who did Father say Hyatt was going to marry? The pain was unbearable; he hadn’t caught the name clearly. Clutching his injured leg, Paul gritted his teeth. Jensen was truly ruthless. The wound was already bleeding again.
Frustrated and furious, he called for a doctor for Elsie, but no one came. Jensen clearly intended to grind him down.
After half an hour of shouting, Paul finally gave in, slumping against the headboard. Unable to sleep from the pain, his mind wandered again. To Elsie and to Yunice. Elsie had said injuries just needed to be endured, but that was not true.
Back in middle school, he had fractured a bone playing basketball. Yunice had made him a crude-looking herbal plaster. It was ugly and old-fashioned, but it worked better than any medicine from the hospital. It hadn’t hurt at all.
Paul glanced at the door. Yunice was in this hospital too. Why had she not come to see him? Meanwhile, Wyatt was changing his bandages in another room, while Yunice was wandering the hallway outside. From a distance, the voices of Owen and Elsie approached.
Owen was saying, “The Saunders family does have a formula for pain relief, but only Yunice knows how to make it.” Elsie added anxiously, “Maybe we should call the police, find Yunice, and get her to treat Paul. That is the priority right now.”
Owen waved her off. “Forget it. She probably heard about your engagement and deliberately hid herself, thinking it would make us anxious. If we ignore her, she’ll come crawling back in a few days.”
Elsie sighed. “If only I could make that pain-relieving medicine. I’d definitely give the formula to you. It’d be such a boost for your hospital!” Her words sparked a thought in Owen. A technical monopoly was the ultimate advantage for any company. So far, no hospital had managed to develop a painkiller without side effects. Yunice clearly had such an effective formula; why wasn’t he helping his hospital get through its current crisis!
As he was thinking this, they rounded a corner, and there she was. Owen stopped in surprise. “Yunice?”
Leaning against the wall, Yunice looked utterly unsurprised to see them. Funny, wasn’t it? She had been missing for three days, yet her dear brother hadn’t even bothered to call the police. He had even found time to visit Paul. But she was not disappointed. Not anymore. From the moment Owen had left her in that burning building, she had realized that her life meant absolutely nothing to him.
“Yunice! I finally found you!” Elsie exclaimed, genuinely overjoyed. “We’ve all been worried sick these past few days.”
“Worried sick?” Yunice sneered, her voice laced with sarcasm. “Worried how, exactly? Blanketing the streets with missing person posters? Going door to door asking for me?”
Owen’s face darkened at her mocking tone. “The whole family’s busy preparing for Elsie’s wedding. If you don’t care, fine. But you expect us to drop everything just to look for you?” Then he added angrily, “Look at you, perfectly fine. Clearly you went missing deliberately, just to get attention. And I actually wasted my time worrying about you.”
Yunice let out a cold laugh. “You better worry about the Powell family’s precious son. If he ends up crippled and impotent, wouldn’t Elsie basically be a living widow?”