Chapter 165 Hit
Juliana paused. "Mom, maybe we should tell Matty the truth. I don't feel right about this."
She was a highly educated woman with principles. Normally, she'd never do something like this.
Amelia immediately shut her down. "Absolutely not. Wentworth is so badly hurt. If you weren't here, I couldn't have gotten through this. Wentworth is my own flesh and blood. Seeing him injured like that, my heart feels like it's being stabbed with knives.
"I remember when he was little—he was always so stubborn, opinionated, mischievous. Always getting hurt. Every time he'd grit his teeth through the pain. You see how he never makes a sound during treatment? But I know he's hurting."
With that, she started crying again.
Seeing Amelia's tears, Juliana told herself—okay, she was doing this for Amelia. Once Wentworth improved, she'd tell him the truth and step aside voluntarily. She absolutely wouldn't compete with Matilda for anything.
After Amelia left, Juliana remained standing there. She picked a few gardenias and tucked them in her pocket. As she turned, she suddenly spotted a familiar figure in the hallway one floor down.
The figure was carrying a stack of files, walking hurriedly. It looked like Matilda.
Was it her?
Juliana couldn't help but follow. She rushed down the stairwell. The floor below had regular patient rooms in the same department. Family members and patients rested in the hallway, with the occasional doctor or nurse bustling past. But there was no sign of Matilda anymore.
Was she seeing things?
Juliana laughed at herself bitterly. She'd been excellent her whole life, always the one others admired. She never imagined she'd be jealous of someone else.
At the same time, she realized part of her subconscious didn't want Matilda to actually show up.
...
Nine o'clock at night. Matilda was coming back from the research institute. She got off the bus and was heading toward the hospital when she saw a familiar figure.
Juliana?
At first glance it looked just like her, but then Matilda thought—why would she be in Majestic City? And even if she were here, why would she be taking a cab?
Matilda was about to hurry over for a closer look when she didn't notice a scooter speeding up behind her. The moment she stepped off the bus platform, it slammed into her.
In an instant, she was knocked to the ground. The man on the scooter also went flying.
She'd been hit in the calf. It burned with pain so intense that tears sprang to her eyes. The scooter rider scrambled up, cursing. "You blind or something? Watch where you're walking!"
Matilda couldn't get up. She sat on the ground. "Sorry, I was in a hurry too."
She turned toward the hospital entrance—the figure was already gone.
The man kept cursing at Matilda. "My bike's trashed, my leg's hurt—how much are you gonna pay me?!"
People gathered to watch. Matilda really couldn't stand. She sat there helplessly. Wanting to settle this quickly, she asked, "How much do you want?"
Before the man could answer, someone rushed over and quickly helped her up.
"Are you crazy? He hit you—why would you pay him?" Nason appeared and pulled her to her feet.
Matilda's leg still hurt terribly. She couldn't stand on her own and had to lean against him.
"She wasn't watching where she was going!" the scooter rider shouted.
"This is a bus stop. You're speeding through here on a scooter—don't you know people get off buses here all the time?" Nason shot back.
"Well, she suddenly ran out!"
"You want to argue? Fine, let's call the traffic police and see whose fault they say it is." Nason's tone was casual, unconcerned.
"What about my scooter? It's damaged!" The man was clearly intimidated by Nason, so his voice got louder to compensate.
"Here's two hundred bucks. Take it or leave it." Nason pulled out his wallet and extracted two bills.
Now the man panicked. He really had hit her, and he'd been speeding in this section. If they actually called the police, he might get fined.
He grabbed the money, picked up his scooter, and rode off muttering curses. The crowd dispersed.
Nason looked at Matilda. "Good thing I showed up. Otherwise you definitely would've gotten scammed today."
"What are you doing here all of a sudden?"
"I was visiting someone at the hospital. When I came out, I saw you. Can you walk?"
Matilda had been leaning on him. She tried to push away and walk on her own. But with her injured leg, the moment she moved, she nearly fell forward.
Nason immediately steadied her again.
Matilda didn't want to have too much physical contact with him, but she had no choice but to let him support her. She tried to just rest one arm on his, minimizing body contact.
"Just help me to the hospital entrance, then I'll borrow a wheelchair. Sorry for the trouble."
"You're hurt this badly and you're still being polite?" Nason said.
"Don't you have other things to do?"
"Even if I did, you come first. You're my friend!" Nason said earnestly.
Though his motives for approaching her weren't entirely pure, at this stage, they really were more like friends. And if he'd wanted to be more forward, he could have just picked her up and carried her. But he didn't—he just supported her arm and walked slowly with her.
"You need to be more careful from now on. You're a grown woman acting like you need a babysitter," Nason teased.
That kind of affectionate scolding usually worked on younger women. It was a bit flirtatious.
Matilda just smiled. "I thought I saw someone I knew. I wanted to catch up and ask them something."
"Someone you know from where?"
"Turns out I was wrong. Mistook them for someone else."
He teased her. "Your eyesight's not so great either, huh?"
Another girl might have playfully shot back, "Yours isn't any better!" Or found him charming and funny.
Matilda just smiled faintly and didn't respond.
They finally reached the hospital entrance. Matilda requested a wheelchair, but it wasn't electric. She was about to ask a nurse to push her to the emergency room when Nason said, "I'm not busy anyway. Let me push you."
Before she could respond, he was already wheeling her toward the ER.
At this hour, the ER was full of people with fevers, injuries, or burns. They had to wait quite a while before it was her turn.
Maybe when she'd been with Nason earlier, her guard had been up so she'd managed to suppress the pain. Now when the doctor lifted her leg and pressed on it, she gasped sharply, tears streaming down her face again.
Her calf was badly swollen. The doctor said they'd need a CT scan to check if the bone was damaged.
So it was off to CT, then waiting for results. By the time everything was done, it was already midnight. The whole time, Nason had been running around helping her.
Matilda hadn't wanted to trouble him, but she really was injured, and she didn't know many people in Majestic City. She could hardly bother Prof. Morales or Dr. Clark.
"What's the result?" Matilda asked.