Chapter 120

Chapter 120

Sophia stood up, staring at the grandson she'd once been so proud of. All she felt now was crushing disappointment.

Without a word, she walked straight up to Brandon.

Crack!

Sophia put her full strength into it. The slap snapped Brandon's head to the side, a vivid handprint blooming instantly across his cheek.

"Grandma, tell me—where's Scarlett?"

"You have the nerve to ask where she is?" Sophia's voice rang out like a whip crack, echoing through the empty hospital room. "You forced your own wife to donate blood for some conniving woman! You pushed her until she swallowed those pills! Brandon, did a dog eat your heart?"

Brandon's face went deathly pale. His chest tightened as if a giant fist had seized his heart.

"I didn't know she'd go that far..." His voice came out rough, thick with guilt and anguish. "I just wanted to save someone. I never meant to push her to suicide. Grandma, I was wrong. Please, let me see her. I'll apologize—"

"Too late."

Sophia cut him off, her tone merciless.

She pulled a document from her handbag and slammed it against Brandon's chest.

Papers scattered across the floor. The top page bore the unmistakable heading: Divorce Agreement. In the bottom right corner, Scarlett had already signed her name. The handwriting was elegant, yet it radiated absolute finality.

"Sign it." Sophia pointed at the papers on the ground, her voice brooking no argument. "Let Lettie go. You owe Elizabeth that debt—you pay it yourself. Don't fill it with your wife's life."

Brandon stared at the divorce papers on the floor. His legs felt like they'd been filled with lead.

He'd thought as long as he backed down, as long as he explained, Scarlett would always forgive him.

He'd thought they had the rest of their lives to start over.

But now, that piece of paper was an impassable chasm, casting him straight into hell.

"I won't sign." Brandon's eyes reddened, his voice shaking. "I won't divorce her. Grandma, give her back to me. I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to her—"

Crack!

Sophia's backhand slap split his lip. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

"Make it up to her?" Sophia let out a cold laugh, her eyes utterly devoid of warmth. "Your idea of making amends is keeping her on standby to donate blood for Elizabeth? Brandon, you disgust me."

Sophia turned and walked toward the hospital room door, not sparing him another glance.

"Sign the papers. Then get out of her world. I don't want to see that hypocritical face of yours again."

The divorce agreement lay on the floor like a glaring scar, right before Brandon's eyes.

Brandon stared at the document, his eyes churning with terrifying crimson fury.

He spun around, strode out of the room, and dialed his assistant. His voice was cold and hard as ice. "Pull the hospital surveillance. Find out where they transferred Scarlett."

Ten minutes later, his assistant called back, voice trembling. "Mr. Robinson, it was Dr. Ethan. He used his private medical team to secretly transfer Mrs. Robinson to his independent medical center on the Upper East Side."

Brandon ended the call and immediately dialed Ethan.

The phone rang twice before someone picked up. Brandon forced down the violence roiling in his chest. "Hand over Scarlett."

"Brandon, who the hell do you think you are?" Ethan's voice came through the line, dripping with cold mockery. "She's my patient now. My student. You nearly drove her to her death, and you still have the gall to demand I hand her over?"

"She's my wife." Brandon ground out through clenched teeth.

"Not for long." Ethan cut him off without mercy. "I'm warning you—stay away from her. That sick possessiveness of yours will only kill her faster. And if you dare force your way into my medical center, I won't hesitate to call the police. Let all of Imperial City see how the Robinson Group CEO drove his own wife to suicide."

The call ended abruptly. Brandon gripped his phone so hard his knuckles went white, veins bulging across the back of his hand.

Massive panic and frustration rampaged through his chest with nowhere to go. He turned and headed for the general VIP ward in another building.

Elizabeth's hospital room door stood slightly ajar.

Brandon had just reached the entrance when he heard a shrill, demanding voice inside.

"Are you sure this is blood bank blood? Not Scarlett's?" Elizabeth had the nurse's wrist in a death grip. Though her face was pale, her eyes burned with intense resentment.

The nurse winced from the painful grip, frowning as she explained, "Ms. Perez, this really is RH-negative blood flown in from out of state. Mrs. Robinson was in acute shock at the time—there's no way she could have donated blood for you."

"Impossible! How could she be in shock? She was obviously—" Elizabeth's emotions spiraled out of control, her voice shooting up.

She'd schemed so carefully, even gambled with her own life by slitting her wrist—all to force Scarlett to donate blood.

She'd wanted to prove to everyone that no matter how favored Scarlett was, she'd still have to serve as Elizabeth's personal blood bank.

But now the blood came from the blood bank! She'd cut herself for nothing!

"Elizabeth." Brandon pushed open the door, his voice cold as iron.

Elizabeth's whole body stiffened. The calculation in her eyes vanished instantly. She immediately released the nurse and put on a fragile, pitiful expression, her eyes reddening. "Brandon..."

The nurse escaped with visible relief, keeping her head down as she hurried out.

Brandon walked to the bedside and looked down at her.

He thought back to Elizabeth's interrogation of the nurse just now, then to Sophia's warning and Scarlett's desperate act of swallowing those pills.

"You knew all along the hospital blood bank was out, didn't you?" Brandon's gaze was razor-sharp, cutting into her like a blade. "You slit your wrist on purpose just to force Scarlett to donate blood to you, didn't you?"

Elizabeth's heart seized. Her blood ran cold.

She saw the ice in Brandon's eyes and knew her words earlier had given her away.

Tears spilled instantly down her cheeks. She shook her head frantically, reaching out to grab Brandon's sleeve.

"No, Brandon! My mom got fifteen years—I don't have a single family member left in this world. I really didn't want to live anymore..." Elizabeth's sobs tore from her throat. Her face was deathly pale, her wrist wrapped in thick bandages with alarming red seeping through. "Brandon, back in Luminous City I ruined my leg saving you. How could I use my own life to scheme against someone else? I was just too desperate..."

Seeing her like this—so wretched—Brandon's mind flashed to that blizzard in Luminous City, to that car careening out of control. He closed his eyes. He knew deep down that some things had already changed.

"Rest up." Brandon pulled his hand free, his voice utterly devoid of warmth. "I'll arrange the best private nurse for you. Don't do anything this stupid again."

With that, he turned and strode out of the room, not wanting to stay another second.

---

Upper East Side, Ethan's private medical center.

Brandon ignored the front desk nurse's attempts to stop him and, flanked by bodyguards, forced open the door to the top-floor patient room.

Inside, Scarlett was propped up against the headboard.

Her face was still pale. An IV port was taped to the back of her hand, fluids dripping steadily into her vein.