Chapter 104
Caroline's initial panic gradually gave way to a focused calm. She couldn't afford to lose control—her grandmother's life depended on it.
With steady resolve, she carefully laid Marsha flat on the ground.
After finding a clean dinner knife, she turned to Naomi, pulling her to her feet.
"Call 911! Hurry!" A moment later, she added, "And arrange for a car to take her to the hospital immediately."
Naomi's mind had gone blank with shock. She followed Caroline's orders without noticing the knife in Caroline's hand as she approached Marsha.
Looking at her grandmother's increasingly faint breathing, Caroline's hands trembled.
But as she prepared to open Marsha's airway, a mocking voice cut through the tension.
"Oh my goodness! Caroline, what are you doing? Are you trying to kill your grandmother?"
In an instant, all eyes turned to Caroline standing over Marsha with a dinner knife. Expressions of shock rippled through the crowd, with several guests discreetly recording the scene on their phones.
Naomi screamed in horror. "Caroline! What are you trying to do?"
Caroline remained composed. "I'm saving her life. She's having an asthma attack and can barely breathe. If I don't open her airway, she'll die from asphyxiation within minutes."
"You studied medicine too. Surely you know about this procedure?" she added, glancing at Heidi.
"Of course I do." Heidi's lips curled into a malicious smile. "But performing a tracheotomy requires a medical license. Do you have one?"
She continued with calculated precision, "Or do you—the chief consultant for Vanguard Enterprises Group's neuroscience laboratory and head of the government's Alzheimer's project—about to knowingly break the law by practicing medicine illegally?"
"You—!" Caroline gripped the knife in one hand and a sanitized pen barrel in the other. Watching her grandmother's life slip away before her eyes, she made her decision.
"I'm acting as myself, not as a representative of any organization. I've already resigned from Vanguard Enterprises Group, and the Alzheimer's project is under new leadership."
"Are you satisfied now?" she asked Heidi coldly.
Heidi blinked in feigned confusion. "Caroline, I don't understand. I appreciate your desire to save Grandmother, but a human life is at stake. This isn't something you can just decide to do. What if something goes wrong? Who will take responsibility? Who would dare take such a risk?"
Caroline's lips tightened. "I'll bear all consequences myself."
She knew how serious those consequences could be, but she couldn't stand by and watch her grandmother die before her eyes.
With that declaration, she pushed all distractions from her mind and focused entirely on the emergency procedure.
The moment the tracheotomy was complete, Marsha's breathing stabilized. The purple tinge in her face gradually gave way to a healthier color.
Caroline collapsed to the floor, her back soaked with sweat. She had succeeded.
When she finally heard ambulance sirens outside the hotel, she allowed herself to fully relax. But the ordeal was far from over.
Heidi knelt beside Marsha with tear-filled eyes, her voice breaking with carefully crafted emotion.
"Caroline, Grandma's asthma was almost completely cured after months of treatment. She hasn't had an attack in ages. Why would it suddenly flare up today?"
She paused dramatically. "Today is her birthday. She was so happy knowing you would come. How did it end up like this?"
Her theatrical crying seemed to trigger something in Naomi.
Naomi lunged forward and slapped Caroline hard across the face. "This is all because of you, you viper! You knew your grandmother's health was fragile, yet you deliberately brought up old grievances to gain sympathy. Were you trying to kill her?"
"You worthless girl! No wonder your husband doesn't love you and your children don't care for you. You deserve it all! You deserve it!"
Heidi feigned surprise. "Naomi, what are you saying? Doesn't Grandma adore Caroline the most? Why would Caroline do this?"
"It's precisely because her grandmother loves her most that she dares act so recklessly," Naomi spat, consumed by rage.
She had completely forgotten that it was her own negligence—forgetting to bring the medication—that had caused Marsha's asthma attack to become life-threatening.
If not for Caroline's swift action, they would now be looking at Marsha's corpse.
But Naomi felt only blind fury, all directed at Caroline.
"If she hadn't deliberately played the victim, why would your grandmother get so upset?" she demanded. "Caroline, if anything happens to her today, it's all your fault. All YOUR fault!"
From the back of the crowd, Simon furrowed his brow thoughtfully. "The relationship between Caroline and the White family is certainly fascinating. So she and Heidi are sisters? What a stark contrast between them. Caroline doesn't even compare to a single strand of Heidi's hair—she even attacked her own grandmother!"
Oliver didn't respond. His gaze, filled with unreadable emotion, remained fixed on Caroline.
She stood beside Marsha, her thin back ramrod straight like a pine tree on a snow-covered mountain, fearlessly facing the malice directed at her from all sides.
For reasons he couldn't explain, he suddenly wanted to step forward and shield her from those hateful stares.
Just as Oliver moved to act, the medical team finally arrived. They looked momentarily surprised at the emergency tracheotomy but quickly took over, preparing to transport Marsha to the hospital.
Naomi and Heidi stood together, united in their glaring hostility toward Caroline.
Despite this, Caroline remained composed, methodically explaining to the paramedics how she had performed the emergency procedure to save her grandmother's life, urging them to provide proper care.
The medical team nodded in agreement and, seeing Caroline's intention to accompany them, made room for her in the ambulance.
But just as Caroline boarded the ambulance, several police officers arrived and took control of the scene.
"We received a report of someone practicing medicine illegally. We're here to investigate."
Oliver instinctively looked toward Caroline, wanting to shield her from this new trouble.
He stepped forward, presenting his business card. "Officers, I believe there's been a misunderstanding."
"There's no misunderstanding!" Naomi interjected sharply.
She pointed at Caroline accusingly. "Officers, I'm reporting her for practicing medicine without a license. She's merely a medical student who's never even worked in a hospital—she's only written a few papers."
"Yet just now, she dared perform a tracheotomy! If my mother weren't so resilient, she would have killed her!"
Even Simon couldn't help but comment. "This Mrs. White is truly ruthless, treating her own daughter like an enemy, personally testifying to send Caroline to jail. She can't possibly be her birth mother, can she?"
Oliver clenched his fists, not listening to Simon's commentary as he considered how to help.
Caroline indeed lacked a medical license, but she had acted in an emergency where a life was at stake. From a humanitarian perspective, she might not face criminal charges.