Chapter 12
839words
Atlas hurled the water glass at the opposite wall with all his strength. The crash echoed through the room as it shattered into countless pieces.
Fury blazed in his eyes, and his fists clenched tightly.
"Kaylee Langford, you will pay for this."
He stormed back to Ember's hospital room. Behind the door, Kaylee and Spencer were still oblivious, and they continued their vile conversation.
"Tch, just look at Ember's legs. It's disgusting. Those wounds are hideous," Kaylee said with a sneer.
Spencer snorted. "Well, I didn't know she wanted to die so badly. I mean, I wasn't even planning to fix those rotten legs of hers in the first place.
"She sure has some endurance, though. Remember when I used tweezers to stab her wounds just to see her reaction?
"I thought she'd scream from the pain, but she didn't make a sound. She nearly died from it, but she still stayed silent. It was so boring."
Atlas couldn't listen to another word. He slammed the door open with a deafening bang, startling both of them.
"A-Atlas?" Kaylee stammered as her face flashed with panic before quickly settling into a practiced, sweet smile.
"Why are you here? Couldn't sleep? You're too soft-hearted. Ember will be fine, really—"
Her words were cut short by the sharp sound of a slap echoing through the room.
Kaylee fell to the ground, looking up in utter disbelief at the man who had just struck her.
"Atlas?" she whimpered. Tears filled her eyes as she knelt on the floor. "Did I do something wrong? Did I upset you somehow?"
Spencer frowned and stepped forward to help her up. "Atlas, what's gotten into you? Kaylee didn't—"
Before he could finish, a bodyguard by Atlas' side kicked him hard, sending him flying several feet away and crashing to the ground.
Atlas looked down coldly at Kaylee, who knelt at his feet. His expression was icy, and his gaze was filled with murderous intent.
"Shouldn't you know exactly what you've done behind my back?"
Kaylee's heart sank. Could Atlas have found out?
No. It was impossible.
There had been no witnesses. Atlas couldn't possibly have any evidence to use against her. Tears streamed down her face as she clutched at his pants.
"Atlas, there must be some mistake. Tell me what I did wrong! I'll change, I promise!
"Please, Atlas, don't hate me!"
Seeing her stubborn refusal to admit the truth, Atlas turned his gaze away in disgust and yanked his arm free from her grip. His voice thundered with fury.
"You insulted Ember and her parents and even went so far as to harm yourself to frame her at the ski resort. Didn't you?"
Kaylee's face visibly twisted with panic and guilt.
"Speak up!" Atlas roared, his anger boiling over. "You were so confident just a moment ago!
"Ember could have been fine when the avalanche happened. Why did you push her? Why, Kaylee Langford!
"How could you do this to your own cousin? You're nothing but trash!"
Kaylee panicked. How did he know all this?
Kaylee scrambled in a panic, clutching at his clothes as she knelt. She started stammering incoherent excuses. "No, no! It's not like that, Atlas, let me explain—"
"What is there to explain?" Atlas snapped, pulling out his phone. The screen displayed the footage, capturing everything clearly.
"The evidence is all here. How long do you plan to keep lying?"
"And you." His icy gaze shifted to Spencer, who flinched under its weight. "You two connived together, and both of you will pay the price."
Seeing the situation unravel, Spencer scrambled to his feet and blurted out, "It—It was all her idea!
"She's the one who begged me to keep it from you! It has nothing to do with me!"
Atlas strode to Ember's bedside, rolling up her sleeve to reveal pale skin covered in a harrowing patchwork of scars, both old and new.
His eyes burned with fury as he glared at Spencer. He grabbed a nearby chair and hurled it at him with all his strength.
"Nothing to do with you? You filthy animals! How dare you treat my Ember like this right under my nose!"
Ignoring their desperate pleas for mercy, Atlas called for his bodyguards.
"Throw these two out of here! And make sure they never show their faces in front of me again!"
After dealing with the siblings, Atlas still wasn't satisfied. He summoned the hospital's director and senior management in the middle of the night, unleashing his wrath on them.
He demanded harsh penalties for everyone who had been bribed by the siblings, rooting out every corrupt staff member.
The entire hospital staff worked with fear and utmost diligence from that moment. They were terrified of displeasing Atlas and facing dismissal.
But even this wasn't enough to ease his worries.
"Move Ember to my room," he ordered the nurses. "And assign more people to watch over her carefully every single day.
"If anything happens to her, I'll hold all of you accountable!"
