“I’m warning you,” Ethan said coldly, “Even if you marry me, everything in the Sharp Family will still be decided by Chloe! Whether you’re at home or outside, you are never allowed to talk back to her! Right now—get on your knees and apologize to her!”

I stared at him, utterly incredulous. “Are you out of your mind? What do you mean I hurt her hand? She was the one who cut in line and then she deliberately grabbed my injured arm! And now you want me to kneel and apologize to her? Keep dreaming!”

Immediately, Chloe raised her right hand and waved it pitifully in front of him. “Look, Ethan, it’s all red! She hit me! Who knows how she’ll bully me in the future if you really marry her…”

Just then, a wave of sharp pain shot through my arm—it was getting worse, even starting to go numb.

I shoved her away and snapped, “I’m warning you—let me in now! If anything happens to my hand, not even ten Sharp families could afford the consequences!”

That line instantly caused an uproar around us.

“Who does she think she is? What a tone!”

“Everyone knows how powerful the Sharp Family is in Dominia—she must be insane!”

“The Sharp Family could crush a nobody like her with just a finger!”

Chloe suddenly snapped out of it and jabbed a finger at me.

“Quit pretending! I know your mother practically threw herself at the Sharp Family’s bodyguard just to get a chance to see Dad, all so she could beg for this marriage! Who knows what lies she told him, but somehow he actually agreed to let you marry into our family! Hmph! Like mother, like daughter. Your mom’s shameless and clearly—you’re no better!”

My mother?

A deafening roar went off in my head.

My mother was the daughter of the former richest man in the country. Their family business once ranked among the top nationwide.

Even though she later devoted herself entirely to scientific research and our family’s fortune had dwindled, we still lived more than comfortably. She was dignified, principled—nothing like the slander Chloe was spouting.

And more importantly—she didn’t know that the classified experiment I had been working on at the National Secret Research Institute had finally succeeded.

And the result of that experiment was the core technology the Sharp Group had been desperately trying to acquire.

It was because of that, Ethan’s father had begged my parents—again and again—for this engagement.

And yet, Chloe still dared to throw mud at my mother’s name.

As my mind returned from the storm of fury, I slowly reached up and removed the insignia pinned to the back of my jacket.

Then, without a second of hesitation, I slapped Chloe hard across the face.

“You love your big brother so much, right?” I said coldly. “Fine. I’ll leave him to you. This engagement is off!”

Seeing Chloe get slapped, Ethan lunged forward and grabbed my injured arm—his grip so tight that it felt like he was trying to lift me off the ground.

“She’s the woman I’ve protected my whole life. Do you think you can lay a hand on her?”

Then he turned to the men in black behind him and barked, “Break her hand.”

Chloe, clutching her face, finally snapped back into the scene and wailed through her tears,

“Do you think my brother wants to marry you? How dare you hit me!”

The wound on my arm suddenly tore open again. The pain was so sharp and I screamed. “Let go!”

In the struggle, my pin fell from my jacket and hit the floor.

The moment Chloe spotted it, she stepped on it without hesitation, grinding it beneath her heel.

As she did, she looked down at me mockingly.

“What is this cheap-looking thing? Why would anyone still wear such a tacky pin?”

My chest tightened violently.

That wasn’t just any pin—it was one of the official item of the National Secret Research Institute.

How dare she?

Fury surged through me. I wrenched myself out of Ethan’s grip and threw myself at her, ignoring the pain, grabbing the badge back from beneath her foot.

Chloe laughed wildly, clearly enjoying the sight.

“Look at her, Ethan, she’s crawling around like a dog! Why would you still marry a woman like this?”

With disgust in his eyes, Ethan looked down at me, who was kneeling on the cold floor and clinging tightly to the badge,

He raised his foot and kicked me hard.

“If Dad hadn’t been blinded by that seductress of a mother of hers, I would’ve never agreed to marry her!”

“Look at yourself—do you really think you’re good enough to be the Sharp Family’s daughter-in-law?” Ethan sneered, his tone dripping with contempt as he glanced coldly in my direction. “Don’t worry, Chloe. As long as I’m around, she won’t be able to lay a finger on you.”

I clutched my badge tightly, eyes locked on his. “If you dare hurt my hand, I swear you’ll regret it.”

He scoffed, completely unfazed. “Regret? I have never known the meaning of regret my entire life. Forget just your hand—even making you disappear wouldn’t be a challenge.”

And before I could react, he lifted his foot and stomped down hard on my other arm.

The pain was blinding—I nearly blacked out right there.

Chloe clung sweetly to his arm, her voice syrupy with fake innocence. “Ethan, you’re the best. A woman like her deserves to be put in her place.”

I could feel the sensation in my arm fading fast. The injury was about to go numb.

I gritted my teeth through the pain and pressed the emergency button on my phone.

The call connected almost instantly.

My supervisor’s voice came through, filled with urgency. “Ivy, what’s going on? I saw your location at a hospital—I’ve been calling nonstop.”

My voice shook as I tried to hold back the pain. “Boss... my hand… I’m injured.”

“What?” His voice instantly shot up in pitch. “Your hands are the golden hands of our entire institute! We can’t afford even the slightest injury! Which hospital are you at? We’re coming right now!”

Ethan overheard and couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “Golden hands? Haha! Are you serious? Who do you think you are?”

As he spoke, he stomped down even harder on my arm.

Then he leaned down and shouted directly at my phone, “You her boss? Great! Come on then—I’m right here at General Hospital in Dominia! You show up and I’ll make sure you leave on your knees!”

Before my supervisor could reply, Ethan grabbed my phone and smashed it against the ground.

“Since you love playing tough so much, I’m not going anywhere tonight. I want to see if anyone in Dominia dares go against the Sharp Family!”

Chloe clapped gleefully on the side. “Go, Ethan! Let’s see her keep pretending now!”

Suddenly, a wave of dizziness hit me.

That’s when I realized—my arm was bleeding worse than before.

I struggled to lift my head and looked desperately toward the nurses nearby. “Please... I’m begging you... help me stop the bleeding…”

The nurses exchanged nervous glances, clearly hesitant. Just as one of them took a step forward, Ethan’s chilling voice rang out.

“Anyone who dares help her is going against the Sharp Family. And I don’t need to spell out what that’ll mean for you.”

With one arm wrapped around Chloe, Ethan barked out an order across the emergency room lobby.

“Right now—immediately! I want every doctor and nurse in this hospital to get over here and check on Chloe. I don’t want her feeling even the slightest discomfort!”

Chloe cast a smug glance in my direction. “You could bleed out and die here and not a single person would care.”

Just as she was about to walk into the emergency room, she suddenly stopped and turned around with a wicked grin.

“Oh, anyway! Ethan, you always said you wanted to see me in uniform, didn’t you? Well, I forgot to tell you—my dream’s always been to become a doctor.”

Then she pointed straight at me, still collapsed on the floor. “So what do you think? Should I use her to practice a little?”

I felt every drop of blood in my body freeze.

She was just an ordinary girl, with no medical training whatsoever. Did she want to practice on my injured hand?

Ethan’s eyes lit up like he’d just heard the most adorable thing. He patted her head affectionately. “Chloe, you can do whatever you want.”

Before I could even react, Ethan waved a hand and a group of black-suited bodyguards stepped forward and pinned me down—brutally.

I struggled with all my might, but I had already lost too much blood—my body barely had any strength left.

Ethan looked down at me from above, a half-smirk playing on his lips.

“Chloe wants to use you for practice. You should feel honored. Don’t be ungrateful when someone gives you face.”

As he spoke, Chloe emerged wearing a tight-fitting nurse’s uniform. The sight of her actually made Ethan pause, his eyes fixed on her.

She casually grabbed a few needles from the medical cart—used ones, still smeared with other patients’ blood, completely unsterilized.

Holding the needles up, she waved them left and right in front of my face.

“It’s just like sewing, right?” she said playfully.

Then, with a faux-innocent pout, she looked up at Ethan. “But I’m really clumsy… What if I mess up and ruin her hand?”

Ethan didn’t even flinch. He waved his hand dismissively. “Then ruin it. We’ll give her a hundred thousand dollars as compensation and send her on her way.”

“A hundred thousand?” I couldn’t help but shout, my voice trembling with fury. “Do you have any idea what this hand is worth? It’s worth far more than that!”

Before I could finish, Ethan’s palm whipped across my face in a sharp, echoing slap.

“So this is the real you, Ivy? All that fake humility was just a show for the money! You got close to me just for money, didn’t you? A hundred thousand isn’t enough? Fine—three hundred thousand! Here in Dominia, there’s nothing I can’t afford!”

Ethan’s voice dripped with arrogance.

Chloe smugly waved her hand, giving orders like a queen, “Tie her to the bed. And gag her—shove some cloth in her mouth. If she screams and scares me, I might be emotionally traumatized.”

Within minutes, I was tightly strapped to the emergency bed, completely immobilized.

Chloe stepped up to me, her face twisting into something almost demonic.

She pressed down hard on my injured arm, clutching one of those filthy, bloodied silver needles—and without hesitation, stabbed it deep into the edge of my wound.

The pain was so intense that I slammed my head against the bed frame, desperate to escape it.

Chloe giggled cruelly. “This country bumpkin’s skin is so damn thick. It took me a lot of force to get that in.”

I struggled and managed to spit out the cloth shoved in my mouth. “My wound is already infected! What you’re doing is assault—intentional injury!”

But the moment the words left my mouth, she drove the needle in even deeper.

“I’m a dignified heiress of the Sharp Family, personally stitching you up. You should be grateful—but instead you’re insulting me? Ungrateful little thing!”

The searing agony turned everything around me black and I was barely clinging to consciousness.

Ethan looked visibly annoyed, like he was bored with the scene. “Oh, give it a rest. It’s just a couple of stitches. Don’t act like you’re dying. That three hundred thousand I’m giving you is more than enough for the rest of your pathetic life.”

Just as Chloe was about to strike again, I gathered every last ounce of strength in my body and shouted, "Ethan! If any of you lay another finger on me, the entire Sharp Family is finished!"

No sooner had the words left my mouth than he sneered, grabbing the cloth and stuffing it back into my mouth with a mocking laugh.

"In Dominia, there’s nothing the Sharp Family doesn’t dare to do. I don’t care if the King of Heaven himself shows up today—you’re paying the price for what you did to Chloe!"

But the next moment...

A thunderous roar echoed through the night sky. Outside the hospital, a convoy of armored vehicles screeched to a halt, engines rumbling like thunder.

A troop of people in military-green uniforms stormed the building, swiftly surrounding Ethan and Chloe.

"What an arrogant family the Sharp Family must be!" a commanding voice boomed.