Chapter 2

Looking at their brazen, twisted excuses, I felt utterly sick.

Just as I was about to leave, the phone in my bag suddenly started buzzing frantically.

It was the hospital.

I pressed answer.

A nurse's anxious voice came through at once.

"Are you family of Magnolia's?"

"Magnolia just suffered a sudden stroke and is in emergency treatment right now!"

"Her condition is extremely critical. Please come to Downtown General Hospital immediately to pay the fees and sign the paperwork!"

My mind went blank with a buzzing sound, and all the blood in my body seemed to run backward.

Grandma had always been strong and healthy. How could she suddenly have a stroke?

In a trembling voice, I asked the nurse what had happened.

The nurse sighed and said helplessly:

"The old lady collapsed suddenly while she was looking at her phone."

"The screen was still lit up. She must have been looking at a social media post."

"We didn't look closely at what the post was—probably just some ordinary vacation photo..."

A post?

Just as I stood there shaking, Owen Harding, hiding behind Sophia Delgado, suddenly let out a cry of alarm.

"Grandma's in trouble? How could this happen..."

"Sophia, it's all my fault... While I was waiting for you two, I posted a nine-photo collage of us in the Maldives, with a caption..."

"I clearly remember blocking everyone in Evan's family. Maybe... maybe I accidentally missed Grandma."

Hearing Owen's words, I understood the whole thing in an instant.

He'd deliberately blocked me from his post—yet the one person he left off was my grandmother, the only family I had to lean on!

Grandma loved Sophia most of all, and she'd been looking forward to us signing the marriage license today. How could she bear a shock like that post!

I stared hard at Sophia and Owen, and spoke each word slowly and deliberately.

"If anything happens to my grandmother, I'll make the two of you pay with your lives!"

Then, without looking back, I ran out of the county clerk's office.

The moment I got into the taxi, the hardness I'd forced myself to keep up shattered.

I buried my face in my hands, and the choked sobs I was trying to hold back filled the cab no matter what I did.

Grandma was the only family I had left in this world.

My parents died young, and Grandma raised me by collecting scrap.

Later, when Sophia's startup ran out of money in its early days, it was Grandma who took out her entire life savings to help her through it.

And now, the woman she'd loved like her own grandson had driven her to a stroke!

The car soon pulled up in front of Downtown General Hospital.

I hurried toward the emergency building.

The red light over the emergency room was still on. I leaned against the wall and could only silently pray that Grandma would be all right.

After a dozen minutes or so, a rush of hurried footsteps came from the end of the corridor.

I slowly raised my head.

I saw Sophia and Owen hurrying toward me.