Chapter 6
Vivian shook her head in a daze.
“I can’t… see clearly. I’m not dead? What happened to me?”
“Miss Bennett, you were poisoned by snake venom,” the doctor said while jotting down her chart. “Thankfully, it wasn’t highly toxic. The venom affected your optic nerve, but with regular treatment, your vision will recover. Don’t worry-your husband’s been worried sick. He hasn’t slept a wink for days, staying by your side around the clock.”
Charles gently stroked her face.
“This is the least I could do. I’ve already taken care of the snakes. I had sulfur powder spread in every corner of the house
-there won’t be another snake in that villa again.”
Vivian whispered,
“We’re in the north-in a city. How could there be snakes? The isolation room was sealed tight; not even a fly could get in.”
Her voice was laced with despair.
“Those snakes… Diana threw them in there.”
“No,” Charles said firmly, his tone resolute, eyes unwavering.
“Diana would never do something like that. I know her.”
Two silent tears slid down Vivian’s cheeks. Her voice trembled.
“Charles, if you had bothered to check what kind of snakes they were, you’d know-they were caught from the mountain.
wilderness.”
“Enough!”
A flash of irritation flickered across his brow.
“Even if she did it, she only did it out of love for her son! Evan still hasn’t woken up. His fever won’t break, and the doctors can’t find the cause, Diana’s cried so many times… I remember you once stitched a lucky charm for me after my car accident-it worked. Make one for Evan too. Pray that he’ll be okay.”
Vivian stared at him, stunned.
So… everything he did to save and care for her was just for Diana and her son?
She slowly closed her eyes, a tight pain pressing down on her chest.
It took her a long time to gather her voice again.
“Charles Foster, look at me. The cuts from the rose thorns haven’t even healed, my vision’s still blurry-I can’t even make out your face. How could I possibly stitch something so delicate?”
Charles paused. Then, without a word, he placed the sewing kit in her hand.
“You’ll figure it out. I believe in you, Vivian.”
“But…”
She lifted her unfocused gaze.
Chapter 6
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“You didn’t recover back then because of me alone.”
“My father pulled every string he had to get the best doctor in Ridgewood. He went to St. Gabriel Church, praying for your life on his knees behind the God. My mother stayed by your bedside day and night, barely sleeping for a month. She fell ill
the same day you woke up…”
A tremor ran through Charles’s heart.
He had never known her parents had done so much for him-because they’d never once mentioned it.
Just as he reached out, about to take the sewing kit from her hands, Diana Schuyler burst into the hospital room.
She’d twisted her ankle from rushing and stumbled straight into his arms.
“Charles, something’s wrong-Evan had another seizure, they’re rushing him into emergency!”
His own child was in danger-he couldn’t think about anything else.
Leaving only a quick sentence:
“Vivian, I want that charm finished by morning,”
Then he ran with Diana toward the ER.
In the blur of Vivian’s vision, a few burly bodyguards appeared, twirling baseball bats in their hands with cold expressions.
“Ma’am, this way, please.”
That entire night, Vivian never closed her eyes.
Her vision was dry, her eyes aching and constantly tearing up-she couldn’t see a single stitch clearly.
Her fingertips were pricked so many times they bled, each drop soaking into the red fabric of the lucky charm.
Finally, just as the sky began to lighten, she finished stitching the protective charm.
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