Chapter 31 Protection
This back-and-forth between them made the air in the car even more tense.
Arthur coughed awkwardly a few times.
He pressed his lips together and stopped talking.
Aria couldn't be bothered to needle him anymore. She turned to look at the night scenery flying past the window, but her mind couldn't help drifting back to what the doctor had told her privately before they left the hospital room.
She hesitated, but still felt Arthur needed to know about this.
"The doctor just told me that although your mom was resuscitated this time, her heart condition is more unstable than expected. The medical facilities here can maintain her current state, but if we want better control and recovery results, he still recommends returning to that specialized nursing home in Switzerland as soon as possible."
Arthur raised his eyebrows. "Did the doctor say when she should leave?"
"That depends on her recovery. Probably two or three weeks."
Arthur's hands tightened slightly on the steering wheel.
Staring at the road ahead illuminated by the headlights, his Adam's apple bobbed. After a long pause, he made a low sound in his throat.
They both knew what this news meant.
Once Elizabeth left, their excuse of "for mother's health" would be gone. As for their original agreement to divorce after three months, counting the time, it seemed only half a month remained.
The day of divorce was right around the corner.
For a moment, neither of them spoke again.
The car turned onto the tree-lined road leading to the villa district. The streetlights became sparse, and the light dimmed.
On both sides were dense roadside trees, casting dark shadows on the ground.
The surroundings suddenly became much quieter, with only the rustling sound of tires rolling over dead leaves on the road.
In the enclosed space and dim light, some subtle atmosphere seemed to be silently fermenting.
Arthur suddenly felt a bit hot. He loosened his tie and casually unbuttoned the top two buttons of his collar.
This movement pulled at his knuckles, injured from punching the wall earlier. He drew in a sharp breath.
Aria heard that intake of breath, and from the corner of her eye, she glanced at his right hand.
It hadn't been noticeable at the hospital, but now it was red and swollen.
Serves him right, she thought to herself.
But her lips moved, as if with a mind of their own, and suddenly she asked, "What happened to your hand?"
Arthur snorted. "Just bumped it accidentally. No need to worry about me."
She shouldn't have asked!
Aria rolled her eyes at him and ignored him.
Arthur's gaze couldn't help drifting to the side again.
Aria was leaning against the seat back. The lines of her profile appeared unusually soft in the flickering light coming through the window, and the fine hair on her face seemed to glow faintly.
She was dressed very casually today, in a T-shirt meant for lounging at home with a deep V-neck, with a jacket thrown on over it, revealing a stretch of pale neck, and further down...
His gaze lingered there for a moment, then quickly moved away. His throat felt a bit dry.
He cleared his throat.
"Are you sick?"
Aria looked over. Arthur immediately continued, "So, is that why you didn't pick me up the night before last? Because you were sick?"
"Of course not!" Aria denied immediately. "I just couldn't be bothered with you."
Arthur fell silent.
They were almost at the villa. He unconsciously eased off the gas pedal, and the car slowed down slightly.
Just then, a white figure suddenly darted from the bushes ahead toward the car. In the darkness, Arthur couldn't make out what the fast-moving blur was and instinctively jerked the wheel while slamming the brakes!
The car let out a screech and actually lost control. Not only did it fail to stop, but it headed straight for the flower bed by the roadside.
Then came a loud bang.
In that instant, Arthur's mind went blank. Without thinking about anything, he leaned over across the center console and pulled Aria completely into his arms.
Immediately following was violent shaking of the car body. The front windshield instantly cracked into a spider web of fractures under the impact, and the glass on the passenger side shattered with a crash, large shards flying everywhere.
The accident happened too fast.
Aria didn't even have time to scream before Arthur pulled her into his arms, her head hitting hard against his chest.
With him as a human cushion, she wasn't injured, but she was still dazed.
Until the "human cushion" let out a muffled groan.
She heard the wildly accelerating heartbeat, pounding against her eardrums, and smelled the sudden spread of blood in the car.
She came to her senses and struggled out of Arthur's arms, looking at him urgently. "How are you? Where are you hurt?!"
Arthur frowned, his face somewhat pale.
He carefully shifted his body.
When the interior light came on, Aria finally saw clearly that Arthur's left arm and back were cut with many gashes, with broken glass embedded in them.
Blood was gushing out, staining a large area of his shirt red.
He hissed, "I'm fine... hiss... What about you, are you hurt?"
"I'm not hurt. Let me see." Aria's brows were tightly furrowed. Looking at his constantly bleeding wounds, her heart felt like it was being squeezed tight by something.
She fumbled around trying to find tissues or something to stop the bleeding, but the car was a mess, and she didn't know where her bag had been thrown.
"Don't move around." Arthur held her down. "There's a first aid kit in my trunk." As he spoke, he tried to unbuckle his seatbelt to get out.
"You're the one who shouldn't move!" Aria panicked, unbuckled her seatbelt, got out, and found the first aid kit.
She first removed the glass shards, poured disinfectant to rinse the wounds, then carefully wiped them bit by bit with cotton swabs.
...In that instant just now, he had protected her without thinking, as if it were a bodily instinct.
This realization touched her more than the blood and chaos before her eyes.
"You..." Her voice caught. "Why..."
Why did you protect me?
The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't ask them.
"How should I know?"
After saying this, meeting Aria's unblinking gaze, Arthur unconsciously curved his lips.
He added another line, "Couldn't just watch you crash into it, could I?"
"Well, thanks so much!" Aria's tone was sharp, but her movements were very gentle.
She wrapped gauze around the wounds in circles, but there were really too many injuries. Just as she was feeling at a loss, a pair of high beams shone directly at the front windshield.
Aria squinted.
"It should be the driver with my car."
"Leave this to him. I'll take you to the hospital."
"Go to the hospital for these little scratches?" Arthur waved his hand and called the tow truck and insurance company.
Then he got out of the car.
Only after getting out did they learn that the white blur that had caused their crash was a Shiba Inu, now being held by its shaken owner.
"Oh my god, sir, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"
The dog's owner, holding the leash, had been standing at a distance watching. Seeing Arthur get out covered in blood, they hurried over.
"I'm fine."
Police cars and the insurance company's vehicle soon arrived one after another.
Taking photos of the scene, assessing damage, towing the car—a flurry of activity.
By the time everything was handled and they got back to the villa, it was almost the middle of the night.