Olivia's smile dropped when she saw I wasn’t backing down.

Her eyes narrowed and in one sudden motion, she lunged at me—heel landing squarely on my foot, driving sharp pain through my bones.

“You heard that? Now, get out while I’m still nice!”

I was already woozy from the pain in my eye. The sudden blow to my foot sent me reeling and before I could steady myself, the back of my head cracked hard against a fire extinguisher box mounted to the wall.

A loud thud echoed in my ears, followed by an unbearable ringing. My vision went completely black. Whatever faint light I could still sense in my left eye vanished in an instant—replaced by an explosion of blinding pain.

Gritting my teeth, I struggled to my feet, one hand pressed tightly over my wounded eye. My voice shook—not with weakness, but fury. “If something happens to my eye, you and your precious Hargrave Global won’t be able to pay your way out of it. This is on you, Olivia. And Lochlan is going to deal with the mess you’ve made.”

She stared at me like I’d just told her the sun rises in the west. Like I was the crazy one here.

What she didn’t know—what none of them knew—was that this eye wasn’t just mine. It was part of a national research effort involving high-risk neurosurgery, a classified government project. Losing it wouldn’t just change my life. It would cost the country millions. It could derail years of medical progress.

But Olivia just laughed, tipping her head back like she’d heard the funniest joke of the year.

“Consequences?” she repeated, then waved her hand dismissively. “Honey, in Ardelis, Mr. Hargrave is the law. No one dares make us pay for anything.”

As if on cue, several hospital security guards came marching toward us.

“Clear the way!” one of them barked, shoving aside bystanders. “Move along, folks. Nothing to see here!”

Another guard shouted, “Dr. Boatman is only seeing one VIP today—Miss Charles. If you’re not her, go wait somewhere else.”

One of them reached toward me, clearly intending to drag me away like I was the one causing a scene.

I snapped, my voice cutting through the chaos like glass. “Where’s Dr. Boatman? Bring him out here. Is this how he runs his hospital—letting people abuse patients under his nose?”

Almost instantly, a short, sweaty man burst through the office doors, his face lined with panic—and a false, too-wide smile.

“Miss Charles!” he called out, completely ignoring me. “Who upset you? My apologies, truly. You shouldn’t have had to raise your voice—something this minor, I would’ve handled it personally!”

He rushed straight past me, bowing and scraping in front of Olivia like she was royalty.

It was infuriating.

So this was it? The director of a prestigious hospital, groveling at the feet of a corporate assistant while a bleeding emergency patient lay ignored?

She wasn’t just throwing her weight around—he was the one handing it to her.

The longer I watched, the hotter the fury in my chest burned.

I pulled myself up using the wall, barely managing to stay on my feet. My fingers reached for the encrypted phone in my coat pocket—the one with direct access to the Institute.

Fine, I thought coldly. If Dr. Boatman won’t deal with this, maybe the national board will.

But before I could hit “call,” a voice boomed down the hallway.

“Enough. Ingrid.”

I froze, heart leaping despite myself.

I looked up and saw him.

Lochlan.

He strode toward us like a thundercloud in a tailored navy suit, expression carved from ice, his jaw tight with something between frustration and contempt.

For one brief second—despite everything—I felt a sliver of hope. No matter how cold he’d sounded on the phone, I was still his fiancée—on paper, at least. Maybe seeing me injured would be enough to shake something loose inside him. Maybe he’d remember the engagement both our families arranged.

I started forward, leaning on the wall to steady myself. “Lochlan,” I said, voice strained, “my eye—it’s an emergency. Your secretary—”

But Olivia darted ahead of me and launched herself into his arms like some damsel from a bad soap opera.

“She attacked me!” Olivia sobbed, her voice trembling with fake emotion. “She barged into your operating room and started yelling at me! Then she pushed me!”

Lochlan immediately pulled her into his arms like she was some fragile little girl, shielding her protectively. Then he turned to me.

His eyes sliced through me like a blade of ice.

“Are you done making a scene?” he snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you, Ingrid?”

The disdain in his voice hit harder than anything he’d ever said over the phone—colder, sharper, crueler. It wasn’t just anger now. It was personal.

I staggered a little, the world tilting slightly and pointed at my face. Blood was still seeping from the cut near my temple.

“I’m the one who needs emergency surgery,” I said, my voice barely holding steady. “She jumped the line for eyelid surgery. Eyelid surgery, Lochlan. And you’re really just going to ignore that?”

“She owes me an apology,” I added, forcing the words out. “After that, she can leave. And maybe—just maybe—I’ll pretend none of this ever happened.”

“An apology?” Lochlan echoed, his brows lifting like I’d just told the world’s funniest joke. His eyes raked over me from head to toe like I was some filthy stray that had wandered into his perfect little world. “What makes you think Olivia owes you an apology?”

The disgust in his voice was almost tangible, worse than anything he'd ever said. “Look at yourself. Dressed like some backwoods nobody. And you still have the nerve to call yourself my fiancée? Just arguing with you makes me look bad!”

Backwoods nobody?

The plain white shirt I wore wasn’t some bargain bin disaster. It was custom-designed for lab work—stained with blood and chemicals from three sleepless nights of experimental research. From trying to save lives.

And he dared to call me that?

I pointed at my injured eye, biting each word like glass

“If I lose this eye, you will be responsible. Can you live with that?”

He didn’t even blink.

Instead, he turned to Olivia with a gentleness so foreign, it made my stomach twist. He reached up and carefully tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“You okay, Liv?” he murmured, voice warm and full of quiet affection. “Don’t let her get to you. She’s not worth it.”

I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

He was comforting her—gently, carefully—like she was a delicate treasure. Like she was the one he had to protect. Olivia.

Meanwhile, I was on the floor, half-blind, bleeding, dizzy from the impact—and I was supposed to be his fiancée.

Whatever warmth I had left for him evaporated in that moment.

This engagement is over.

Finally, Mr. Boatman scrambled over, mopping sweat from his brow, a nervous grin plastered across his face. “Mr. Hargrave, I… I didn’t expect you to come. This young lady, she… her condition is quite serious. Perhaps we should—”

Lochlan didn’t even look at him. He shoved the man aside and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out his checkbook. With a few swift strokes of his pen, he signed something, ripped the page out and tossed the check in my face like it was trash.

“Two hundred thousand. Take the money and get lost. Don’t ruin Olivia’s day by being an eyesore.”

I stared at him in disbelief, then burst out laughing—sharp and bitter. “Are you insane?”

“Your secretary just assaulted me. I could lose my eyesight and you think this pathetic check makes it right?”

“You want me to step aside so she can cut in line for double eyelid surgery? Are you seriously out of your mind?”

Before he could answer, Olivia raised her delicate wrist and waved it in front of him like a wounded dove, tears streaming on cue.

“Look, Mr. Hargrave… it’s already turning red. She pushed me, she really did… it hurts so much…”

“And if this is how she acts now, just imagine how she’ll treat me once she officially becomes your wife.”

Lochlan’s face darkened. He took her hand with the utmost tenderness, blowing on her wrist like it was made of glass. Then he turned to me, eyes burning with fury.

“If Olivia’s wrist shows even a hint of damage, you’ll pay for it with your eyes.”

Gasps echoed all around.

Even Dr. Boatman and the nurses stared at me like I was deranged.

“This woman has no shame,” one of them muttered under her breath. “Two hundred thousand and she’s still not satisfied?”

“Exactly. Hurting Miss Charles? I bet she won’t last another week in Ardelis.”

“Everyone knows one strand of Miss Charles’s hair is worth more than her entire being.”

Then Olivia’s voice cut through the noise, syrupy and sharp all at once.

“And don’t think we don’t know how you got this engagement. We know that your father, that pathetic old man–practically halfway in the grave—begged shamelessly for you to be tied to the Hargrvae’s name. He groveled at Mr. Hargrave’s grandfather’s feet. Said all the right things, buttered him up. That’s the only reason this arrangement even happened.”

Dropped her venomous sneers. “Like father, like daughter. The old man was trash—and his child isn’t any better.”

My mind went silent.

How dare she brought my father into this?

My father was the pinnacle of neurosurgery in our country. A national treasure. A man who lived a life of humility and quiet brilliance. His only weakness was the love he had for us—his children—and the medical calling he’d devoted everything to.

Three years ago, Lochlan’s grandfather had collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage. My father was the one who saved him from the brink of death. That was the real debt. That was why the Hargrave Family owed us more than they could ever repay.

And it was Lochlan’s grandfather who personally came to our home, bowed his head and asked for this engagement to be arranged. What they truly wanted was not me—but my father’s unmatched standing in the medical world and my own irreplaceable worth in neurological research.

But now? They dared to call my father a sycophant. A disgrace. A man without honor.

They had crossed my one, untouchable line.

Slowly, I reached up and removed the black-rimmed glasses I wore—the ones that softened me, made me seem mild, compliant, harmless.

In the stunned silence, under Lochlan and Olivia’s wide-eyed gaze, I raised my hand.

And I struck him.

The slap cracked through the corridor like lightning, ringing out in perfect clarity.

“That’s for my father,” I said, my voice cold as ice. “Lochlan, your biggest mistake wasn’t hitting me. It was insulting the one man in this world I revere.”

“This engagement is over. I’m done.”

“You hit him?” Olivia screamed first. “Oh my God, you’re a psycho! How dare you slap Mr. Hargrave?”

Lochlan’s head had snapped sideways from the blow. A red handprint bloomed across his cheek. He slowly turned back toward me, rage radiating off him like wildfire.

He seized my wrist in a crushing grip. “You think you can lay hands on me?”

Then he turned to the security guards and barked, voice like poisoned steel, “What are you waiting for? Blind her.”

The pain in my wrist was excruciating and with the injuries to my head and eye, the whole world spun around me. In the scuffle, my encrypted phone—my lifeline—slipped from my grasp and clattered to the floor.

Olivia spotted it.

She raised her stiletto heel and smashed it down.

As she ground her foot into the device, she looked at me with a mocking smile. “Oops. Wasn’t this your emergency phone? Weren’t you trying to call in your backup?”

“What now? Still want to act tough?”

My heart dropped.

That phone held sensitive data—contacts, encrypted networks, access to critical medical systems. National secrets. Strategic resources.

She had no idea what she was stepping on.

Fueled by sheer panic, I yanked myself from Lochlan’s grip and threw myself forward, shielding the broken phone with my body.

Olivia just laughed, then kicked me hard in the back. “Look at her. Clawing for scraps like a mutt. Disgusting.”

“She’s definitely not fit to marry into the Hargrave Family.”

Lochlan looked down at me in revulsion and kicked me again, this time square in the shoulder.

“If it weren’t for my grandfather’s lapse in judgment, I’d never even consider someone like you.”

“Look at yourself. You think you deserve the Hargrave name?”

He turned to Olivia, tone suddenly sweet. “Don’t worry. I won’t let someone like her get close to you again.”

Blood ran down my arm as I hugged the remains of my phone. I raised my head, eyes blazing through the pain. “Lochlan, if you so much as lay a finger on my eyes, I swear—you’ll regret it.”

He laughed like it was the funniest thing he’d heard all day. He bent down and whispered just for me, “Regret? That word doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. You think you matter? If I want you gone from Ardelis, you’ll disappear.”

Then he stomped on my wrist again, preventing me from reaching for my broken glasses. “Let’s start with your eyes.”

I screamed as pain exploded through me. Blood from my head and eye blurred my world. Olivia giggled beside him, resting her arm in his.

“She really thought she had power. Look at her now—what a joke.”

As the guards closed in, I summoned the last of my strength. My fingers, trembling, found the emergency switch on the side of my ruined phone.

I pressed it.

The call connected instantly.

My father’s voice came through, urgent and steady. “Ingrid, is everything okay? I saw your location’s been stuck at a hospital. I’ve called three times. None went through. What’s happening?”

I choked on my tears, my voice a broken whisper. “Dad… my eyes…it hurts so bad…”

“What?!” His calm shattered, replaced with unfiltered rage. “That eye is a national asset. It’s meant to save lives, to pioneer breakthroughs! Who hurt you?! Which hospital?! I’m on my way with a team!”

Lochlan heard his voice. He froze.

Then he laughed. “National treasure? You think this is a TV drama?”

He grabbed the phone from me and screamed into the receiver, “You’re her father? Good. If you really think you’ve got any authority, come and prove it. I’m at St. Armand’s. Ardelis branch.”

His voice dropped to a cold, razor-sharp growl.

“Let’s see whose security team walks out standing—yours or mine. But just a heads-up… if you do show up, I’ll make sure you don’t leave in one piece.”

And with that, he smashed the phone to the ground and crushed it beneath his heel until it was nothing but fragments.

“You like calling for backup, huh?” Lochlan sneered, his tone mocking. “Then I guess I’m not going anywhere today.”

He turned, speaking loud and clear for the terrified hospital staff huddled nearby.

“Now, the whole city will see—no one challenges Lochlan Hargrave and walks away.”

Olivia clapped beside him like he was a hero. “Bravo, Mr. Hargrave!” she chirped. Then she turned her scorn on me, smug and venomous.

“Look at her now. Some mutt thinking she mattered. Pathetic.”

My vision blurred, the darkness swallowing up the edges of the room. My body gave out completely. Blood trickled from the gash on the back of my head and poured from my injured eye, pooling beneath me in deep red streams.

I forced myself to lift my head one last time, my hand trembling as I reached out toward the cluster of nurses frozen by the wall. My voice was faint. Barely a breath.

“Please… help me… stop the bleeding…”

But the so-called angels in white stood rooted in place, eyes wide and terrified. None of them dared to move. Not under Lochlan’s cold, murderous gaze.