The quiet villa started to become noisy prompting the servants to come out and check what was going
on.
Jill, who had been asleep, was woken up by Ivy's scream. She sat up with a start.
"Horace! Wake up! Was that Ivy screaming?"
Jill shook Horace awake before she got off the bed and ran outside.
She could not help screaming when she saw Ivy lying lifelessly in Lionel's arms.
"Oh my gosh! What happened to her?"
Jill ran downstairs in a rush, almost knocking Cassandra down when she passed by her. Cassandra's
head went blank at that time. She staggered on the impact; her legs buckled and she landed sharply on
the stair; her hand that still held the railing broke her fall. She wasn't yet to understand what had
happened.
"Wake up, Ivy! Driver! Where is the driver? Take her to the hospital. Hurry!"
Jill grew extremely distressed at the situation. Ivy was pregnant! What if the baby was hurt?
Everyone was shouting loudly and engaged in taking care of Ivy. Cassandra sensed the darkness
closing in on her.
She remembered that she got rid of Ivy's grip and walked a few steps away. But how had she tumbled
down the stairs?
Did she push Ivy with great strength so that she lost her balance?
Ivy's face paled dreadfully. Cassandra felt something terrible might have happened.
Suddenly, Jill screamed and raised her trembling hands.
Everyone turned to find her palms covered in blood.
Lionel lowered his head to see what was wrong. Ivy's lower body was bathed in blood. It was indeed a
terrible sight to behold!
"Ivy! Please! Wake up!"
sobbed Lionel as he anxiously stroked Ivy's face.
However, Ivy still remained motionless, eyes closed.
Fear had taken hold of Lionel's heart. The fear was like a venomous shadow that clung on to him.
This was the woman whom he had loved for many years. He had wanted to marry her. But now she
had slipped into a coma with their baby. How did this terrible situation happen? It was because of her—
Cassandra!
Suddenly, Lionel turned in rage and glared at Cassandra with hateful eyes.
"Cassandra, you are a devil!" he bellowed angrily. "Get the hell out of the house! Now!"
He stared at Cassandra with daggers in his eyes as if the next second, he would cut her into pieces.
Cassandra could not help shuddering at his glare.
She had never seen such hate in his eyes before. They were like the bloodied eyes of a monster from
hell that wanted to incinerate her.
"Cassandra! You are such a hateful person! How heartless of you to push Ivy downstairs! How could I
not have known that you're such a cruel woman before?!"
Jill glared at Cassandra. She had been curious about how Ivy had tumbled down the stairs. It was
Cassandra's master move!
Cassandra opened her mouth to explain but no words came out. She did not know what she would say.
How had she become the culprit? She had never wanted to become Ivy's enemy and would have never
hurt her, but now she was being blamed by everyone.
Cassandra looked at Ivy lying in Lionel's arms. The latter was paralyzed with fear as if Ivy were already
dead.
Cassandra came back and was stopped by Ivy. Their conversation was not known to anyone except for
the fact that Cassandra was present when rolled down the stairs. Lionel had managed to catch her, and
her last words, just in time. Not only him but everyone would believe that Cassandra had pushed Ivy
down the stairs because she was envious of her.
Now, there was nothing she could do or say to clear herself.
But Cassandra knew that it was Ivy. She had always wanted her to leave Lionel and the Tang family.
However, her every effort had been in vain. Ivy could no longer bear her presence near the Tangs. Her
hatred for Cassandra was so consuming that she had risked losing her baby to frame her.
Everybody knew the importance of this baby to the Tang family. Should Cassandra be blamed as the
murderer, there would be no way she could remain in the Tang family any longer.
What was more, everyone in the Tang family would hate her guts!
"Take her to the hospital RIGHT NOW. I've already called Jenks. The director of the obstetrics is
heading for the hospital as we speak!"
Horace was probably the calmest person in the house now. His words steadied Lionel from his grief
and rage. Lionel came to himself and instinctively knew what he had to do. He picked up Ivy in his arms
and ran out to the car waiting outside.
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Just look at how terrible Vernon is, his daughter is no different.
Do you know something, Cassandra? I will accuse you of intentional injury! You will soon be on your
way to join your father in prison. Go keep your father company!"
Jill's words cursed Cassandra venomously. The more she cursed, the more agitated she became. She
even lunged at Cassandra and roughly picked her up.
"Don't pretend to be sad anymore! Ivy is hurt, not you! Why are you sitting on the ground and
pretending to be the victim!? How are you so shameless?"
Jill dragged her with great strength. Cassandra almost fell down again.
"Stop it!"
Horace's booming voice reproached Jill in a firm manner. She stopped cursing and fighting against
Cassandra. He, too, was deeply agitated but he would not attack Cassandra as Jill had.
"Go back to your rooms and wait for Lionel!"
Horace shot out his orders. Nobody dared to make a sound after that. A few servants immediately
attended to the bloody debris of Ivy's fall. Jill let go of Cassandra, stared hatefully at her and then
walked to Horace.
Cassandra sat on the stair and tried to hoist herself with the help of the railing.
Her head throbbed her body ached. She could not remember how she walked back to her room and
went to bed.
Cassandra called Rufus but his phone was turned off.
The first person she remembered was Rufus when she was desperate, but she was unable to reach
him.
She stayed awake and kept an ear open for his return, hoping that she would know instantly when he
came back.
But even she had to wait all night, Rufus still did not come back.
Lionel waited anxiously outside the operation room in the hospital. Time seemed to slow down for him.
It felt like the light inside the surgery room had been on for years.
Jenks approached the surgery room and Lionel met with him immediately.
"Uncle Jenks, can you go inside to check on the progress of the surgery, please? Ivy was bleeding
terribly!"
Lionel's face paled. He was no longer the high-handed person he usually was.
"Don't worry. I'll go and check inside. Stay here,"
Jenks tried to reassure him; but in his heart, he had a bad feeling. When he heard from Lionel that Ivy
fell down from the stairs, he already had some reservations about the situation.
Jenks had met with Ivy several times. His intuition told him that she was an intelligent woman. How
could she allow herself to fall down from the stairs when she was so heavily pregnant? That did not
make sense.
When Horace called him, he could vaguely hear Jill cursing in the background, mentioning Cassandra's
name. Thus he predicted that Cassandra might have something to do with it.
Jenks was consumed with mixed feelings when he thought of the things Cassandra had once shared
with him. He thought that she would have a chance to break free of her cage this time. But now it
appeared that she would be thrown out instead.
However, would she be able to fly into the free blue sky again? Or would she be heavily beaten to the
ground? No one could tell.
Lionel watched Jenks enter the surgery room, his entire body slumped on the chair upon the doctor's
departure.
He lowered his head and covered his head with his arms, thinking about the words Ivy had said to him
before she lost consciousness.
"I didn't want to argue with Cassandra...I've never wanted to compete with her...I mean it."
Lionel closed his eyes painfully. Ivy, the woman he had loved for seven years, the woman with who he
had spent the most beautiful period in his life, was now lying on the surgery table, precarious, between
life and death.
She didn't want to compete with Cassandra, nor did she dare to compete with her. All she wanted was
his love and the promises he had made to her. But he had not delivered on any of his promises.
He wanted to be Ivy's partner, as well. But his marriage with Cassandra was always the unavoidable
hurdle between them.
He already decided to stay away from all the women he once had dated. All he wanted now was Ivy's
and his baby's safety on the other side of the wall.
The door of the surgery room finally opened a few hours later. A doctor came out and walked to Lionel
with a heavy face.
Lionel stood up immediately.
"How's she doing, doctor? And the baby?"
Lionel asked, his voice shaking. He looked at the doctor anxiously, expecting a positive reply.
"I'm sorry about the baby...It is a boy. She's in a stable condition. But she lost a lot of blood and will
need some time to recover."
The doctor extended his hand and patted Lionel's shoulder lightly before turning back towards the
operation theatre.
Lionel felt his world started to collapse. 'Sorry about the baby? Why did the doctor say that?
My baby is already thirty weeks old now! He is about to come to this world!"
Lionel was unable to see anything in the darkness that enveloped him. For a while, he was in a
catatonic state until a sharp fact stung his mind.
"Cassandra!"
He hissed her name through grinding teeth. The hatred in his eyes burnt in an inferno from hell.
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