Chapter 276 You Ruined More Than Just Caroline
The moment those words left his mouth, Mark instinctively felt something was wrong.
In Mark's view, indeed no one would say such things, but hadn't Alexander treated Caroline exactly like this in the past?
Alexander fell silent. Mark fell silent too.
Lina let out a short, soft laugh from the side, her gaze sweeping over Mark. "Looks like you really care about your boss." She paused, her voice growing colder. "But I am saving Alexander. If you still want him to live, you'd better shut up."
Mark opened his mouth, the words stuck in his throat. At a loss for any additional words, he could merely glance over at Alexander, his expression silently pleading with him to reconsider his decision.
Alexander still shook his head at him.
"Mark, forget it. Go back. Don't forget what I asked you to do earlier."
Lina turned and walked into the clinic. After Alexander finished speaking, he followed her in, his steps staying close behind her.
Mark stood at the doorway, staring at the figure inside moving after Lina, a heavy weight pressing on his heart. He felt something was off about Lina, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly what the problem was.
Worse still, this was Alexander's own choice. Mark couldn't stop him. He could only let out a suppressed sigh, turn to the bodyguards behind him and instruct, "Throughout the daytime, you must keep close at hand and safeguard Mr. Hamilton. Regardless of the circumstances, his security is to be your top concern."
The bodyguards nodded. Mark confirmed several more times before finally controlling his wheelchair to leave, still looking back from time to time as he went.
Inside the clinic, Lina pushed a thick folder in front of Alexander.
"This morning's first client."
She tapped the folder with her fingertip. "Read through the file first, carefully. Her situation is very complicated. During the session, you'll be responsible for taking notes."
Alexander lowered his head and opened it.
On the title page was an ID photo. A teenage girl with blonde hair and light blue eyes, corners of her mouth slightly upturned, as if trying hard to squeeze out a timid smile.
Below the photo was a name: Hannah White, seventeen years old.
He turned to the first page and read line by line.
[Chief complaint: Patient experiencing low mood, loss of interest, sleep disturbance, reduced appetite, ongoing for eight months. Patient exhibits self-harm behavior, with multiple cutting scars visible on left forearm.]
[Medical history: Patient has no history of major physical illness. Family history: Patient's mother has history of depression, with multiple hospitalizations.]
[Psychological assessment: Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score 24, Beck Depression Inventory score 31, indicating severe depressive episode.]
Alexander's finger paused for a moment.
He continued flipping through—page two, page three, page four. Every page was densely packed. From the initial appearance of symptoms, to gradual worsening, to the first self-harm incident, to the first hospitalization.
These words carried no emotion, like a cold, hard record, laying out each stage of a depressed teenage girl's journey before him.
The more Alexander read, the more uneasy he became.
[Symptom record: Patient experiencing auditory hallucinations, reports hearing a non-existent voice commenting on her actions. Initially the voice was neutral, gradually becoming negative, then developing command content, ordering her to self-harm.]
[Diary entry: "I feel like a hollowed-out container, unable to hold anything in or keep anything."]
[Social and cognitive record: Patient refuses to interact with peers, believes herself to be a burden to others. Patient once said to mother, "If I weren't here, would you all have an easier time?"]
Alexander's fingers began to tremble.
He couldn't help thinking of Caroline's medical records—low mood, loss of interest, sleep disturbance, self-harm, hallucinations, delusions... Every keyword appearing in Hannah's file, he had seen in Caroline's records.
However, at that time, he had merely scanned through them without ever truly grasping the actual significance that those terms carried.
And he hadn't seen her in time.
He had failed to be present during the time when her state of mind was deteriorating, and he had also missed the phase when she was most in need of someone to lean on
, missed the period when she was still holding on, still hadn't given up. By the time he finally realized something was wrong, she had already been pushed to the point of psychosis.
He had never seen what Caroline looked like when depressed. She had hidden everything too well, so well that he thought she was really fine.
But she wasn't fine. She had been in pain all along, enduring all along, waiting all along for him to turn back and look at her just once.
And he had spent his time hurting her, spent it trying to turn her into Edith, spent it using those non-existent accusations to crush her repeatedly, pushing her to the edge of breakdown again and again.
"Pretty shocking, isn't it?"
Lina's voice came from across the desk.
Alexander jerked his head up, meeting her gaze.
"Are you thinking of Caroline?"
Alexander gripped the folder tightly.
Lina lowered her voice. "Hannah used to be Caroline's patient."
"During the time when Caroline was still present, Hannah's therapy was progressing quite smoothly. She felt confidence in Caroline and was open to having conversations
Willing to speak about those deepest things she didn't even dare face herself. Caroline spent nearly a year bringing her score down from severe to moderate, then from moderate to mild."
Lina paused. "Then Caroline suddenly lost her memory. She didn't remember who she was, didn't remember what she'd done, and of course didn't remember Hannah. She couldn't continue as a psychologist, so Hannah had to switch to me."
Alexander's fingers tightened another notch.
Lina turned to look at him, her eyes cold and emotionless. "Do you know what it means when someone suddenly rebounds from mild depression to severe, even worse than the beginning?"
"Her condition suddenly deteriorated because she felt abandoned by the person she trusted most. She didn't know what happened to Caroline. She only knew that the one person who could understand her had suddenly disappeared."
Alexander's lips trembled badly.
Lina's voice dropped lower. "And what about Caroline?"
"She suffered for an entire five-year period under a wholly untrue allegation, and she perished as a result of that suffering."
Lina stood up, walked around the desk to stand in front of Alexander, looking down at him. "You think you only destroyed Caroline? You have no idea how many people were affected by her death. Your so-called deep love and devotion—how many people got hurt because of it? Some even died directly because of it."
Alexander's tears finally fell.
He squeezed his eyes shut repeatedly, attempting to force his tears to retreat, yet they continued to fall, streaming down his face one by one.