Chapter 157 Apologize to Her

Chapter 157 Apologize to Her

"Ow! That hurts!" Chloe cried out in pain, her face going pale. "Adrian, let go! You're hurting me!"

Adrian said nothing. He just grabbed her and dragged her toward the medical room door.

He moved fast — too fast for Chloe to keep up in her heels. She stumbled and tripped, being dragged along, twisting her ankle, losing one of her shoes. She was a complete mess.

"Adrian, what are you doing?! Let go of me!" Chloe fought back hard, scratching several bloody lines across the back of his hand with her nails.

Adrian treated her like a piece of trash. Her struggling meant nothing to him.

He walked up to the medical room door, drew back his foot, and kicked it open hard.

Bang!

The solid wood door flew open and slammed into the wall with a deafening crash.

Inside the medical room, Ellie flinched so hard she nearly dropped the cup in her hand.

Lucas had just finished a call and was walking in through the door, standing by the bed updating Elodie on the situation. He heard the noise and immediately turned to look, his brow furrowing.

Adrian stood in the doorway, his chest heaving.

He flung his arm out and hurled Chloe into the room.

Chloe lost her balance and crashed face-first onto the floor in front of the bed. Her hair was a mess across her face, her dress covered in hot cocoa and dust from the hallway, the bare foot scraped raw against the floor. She couldn't have looked worse.

"Adrian..." Chloe lay on the floor, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.

Adrian strode in and pointed down at her, his voice flat and cold without a trace of feeling:

"Apologize to her."

The room went quiet for a moment.

Elodie was propped up against her pillow, her face pale. She looked at Chloe on the floor, then looked up at Adrian — soaking wet from head to toe — and said nothing. She just watched the whole scene play out.

Chloe clenched her jaw, her face burning with humiliation.

In front of Elodie. In front of everyone. Adrian was making her grovel on the floor like this and beg for forgiveness.

She snapped her head up, tears streaming down her face, glaring at Adrian.

"Why should I apologize?" Chloe's voice was sharp, wild, desperate. "I already told you — it wasn't on purpose! Someone bumped into me! You're going to convict me based on some out-of-context video clip?"

She scrambled up off the floor and threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his legs.

"Adrian, it's me — it's Chloe!"

She looked up at him, her face streaked with tears, and played her last card. "Have you forgotten everything I went through because of the orphanage and the Turner family? Have you forgotten how much I suffered all those years? If it weren't for what happened back then, I wouldn't be the way I am now!"

Chloe pointed at Elodie in the bed, her voice breaking into a scream.

"That pain was real! I fought so hard to get out of that life, and now you want to drag me back into it? I won't apologize! I didn't do anything wrong!"

The room went awkward after that.

Adrian's body went rigid.

The orphanage. The fallout. The suffering.

This was the sharpest thorn lodged deep inside Adrian's heart. He had always taken Chloe's side, always put up with her behavior, because somewhere in the back of his mind he believed the Turner family had made her suffer because of him — that he owed her.

He looked down at Chloe, clinging to his legs and sobbing. The murderous rage that had been driving him just moments ago — it cracked, just slightly.

He was quiet for a moment, then looked up at Elodie in the bed.

"I brought her here," Adrian said, avoiding Elodie's eyes, his voice stiff. "She pushed you. That's on her. Have her apologize, and I'll cover everything else — all of it."

Ellie standing nearby sucked in a sharp breath and barely held back from swearing out loud.

Elodie laughed.

She looked at Adrian, a cold, mocking smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. The whole thing was absurd.

"Handle it?" Elodie's voice was hoarse — she'd just coughed up blood, and talking still took effort. "Is that what Mr. Stewart calls handling it?"

She pushed herself up a little straighter, her eyes moving over Chloe still playing the victim on the floor, then settling on Adrian's face.

"Someone deliberately hurt me and nearly killed me — and a throwaway 'sorry' is supposed to make that go away?"

Elodie's voice wasn't loud, but every word landed hard.

"If Chloe had been the one who fell, would you have told whoever pushed her to say sorry and pay up, and called it even?" She looked at him, her eyes as cold as if she were looking at a stranger. "So that's what my life is worth to Mr. Stewart. One apology."

Adrian felt something slam into his chest.

Like a fist closing around his heart. He missed a breath.

He had told himself that dragging Chloe here to admit what she'd done was already giving Elodie what she deserved.

But he'd forgotten — that was a deck dozens of feet in the air.

When Elodie went over the side, she didn't even have the strength to fight. That could have killed her. It really could have.

"Elodie, that's not what I meant..." Adrian took a step toward her, trying to explain.

Elodie was done listening.

She looked away from him, not giving either of them another glance, and turned to Lucas, who was standing off to the side.

"Lucas."

Lucas stepped forward immediately. "Right here."

"Can you contact the police and the maritime authority for me?" Elodie's voice was calm, completely flat. "I want to press charges — deliberate assault and endangering my life. No settlement. Not negotiable."

The moment those words were out, Chloe completely fell apart.

"The police?!"

Chloe let go of Adrian's legs and scrambled forward, jabbing her finger at Elodie and screaming, "Are you out of your mind?! What gives you the right to report me?! You're not even dead!"

Lucas stepped in front of the bed, looking down at her, and pulled out a business card.

"Ms. Johnson, I'm Elodie's attorney." Lucas adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his tone all business. "We've already secured copies of the surveillance footage. There are dozens of witnesses on that deck, and my assistant is taking their statements right now."

He dropped the card on the floor in front of her.

"Anything you want to say, save it for the police. From this point on, all communication goes through me."

Chloe stared at the card on the floor, suddenly lost.

Deliberate assault.

If that charge stuck, her life was over.

"No — no, you can't call the police!"

She spun around and threw herself at Adrian's legs again, sobbing like her world was ending, all pretense gone. "Adrian, help me! I can't go to prison — I really can't! Please, just talk to her, put in a good word for me, please!"

Adrian stood there without moving. He didn't push her away. He didn't say a word.

He was looking at Elodie.

Elodie had closed her eyes and was resting against her pillow, as if everything happening in that room had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Out in the hallway, a rush of footsteps suddenly broke the silence.

Christopher appeared in the doorway, looking grim, his eyes going straight to Adrian.

"Adrian, the ship has docked."

Christopher swallowed. He gestured behind him. "The coast guard... they're already on board. They're asking for Chloe by name."