Chapter 1 Draw My Blood to Save Her Life?
"You can't draw any more blood! Mrs. Bexley will die!"
In the hospital emergency room, a woman lay pale and on the brink of death from severe blood loss.
The nurse hesitated, her hands frozen mid-action as she glanced uneasily at the man standing nearby.
His expression remained cold as he issued a resolute command, "Continue. Just this much blood won't kill her."
Hearing this, the woman on the hospital bed turned even paler, tears of despair silently trailing down her cheeks.
An hour ago, Oriana had received a call from her husband Merrick's assistant. Without thinking twice, she rushed to Urban Heart Hospital.
At the time, she had been at home preparing dinner for Merrick. She hadn't even had time to change out of her silk nightgown, throwing on a coat and grabbing her tote bag before hurrying out.
Everyone knew how much Oriana loved Merrick—so much that she had lost all sense of boundaries, even her dignity.
But what Oriana never expected was that the person awaiting treatment in the ICU wasn't Merrick, but another woman!
Merrick had forcibly dragged Oriana to the hospital bed. His bloodshot eyes and unhinged expression made him look like a beast on the verge of losing control.
"Krystal was in a car accident. She needs your blood. I don't trust anyone else's!"
Oriana's heart ached as if being torn apart. She struggled to stay composed, her voice calm yet trembling. "Merrick, you know I just had a miscarriage. The doctor told me I need to rest. I can't donate blood again."
She paused briefly, her voice quivering, "Unless... you want me to die."
Krystal Dunstable—Merrick's first love, the woman he had been secretly longing for all these years.
Throughout her marriage to Merrick, Oriana had naively believed that no matter how heartless he was, her deep love would eventually soften him.
But at this moment, she finally understood that her love had been entirely misplaced.
This man would never see her pain. To him, her sacrifices were nothing but something to be taken for granted.
In Merrick's eyes, she was nothing more than a cheap tool!
"Is that so, Oriana? Have you forgotten that you once said you'd do anything I asked as long as I didn't divorce you?"
Merrick's gaze was icy, his tone ruthless. "And now you refuse to save a life? How can you be so cruel and heartless?"
Cruel? Heartless?
Is that how he saw her?
For two years, all her tenderness and devotion had become nothing more than a ridiculous joke.
Oriana stopped resisting.
She took a deep breath and smiled bitterly. "Merrick, this will be the last time."
As soon as she finished speaking, she willingly extended her arm, signaling the nurse to continue drawing blood.
As the blood was continuously extracted, Oriana's complexion turned deathly pale, her lips drained of color. She was on the verge of collapsing, appearing as if she could turn into a cold, lifeless body at any moment.
Merrick merely cast an indifferent glance at the gradually filling blood bag, his tone ice-cold. "Not enough. Keep going!"
"You can't draw any more, Mr. Bexley. If this continues, Mrs. Bexley's life will be in danger!" the nurse tried to intervene.
However, Merrick remained unmoved by the nurse's professional warning.
"I'll take full responsibility for any consequences!"
Those words were the last thing Oriana heard before she slipped into unconsciousness.
*****
Oriana didn't know how long it had been before she slowly woke up, as if she had just emerged from a nightmare, plunged into an icy river, her entire body freezing and trembling uncontrollably.
Weakly propping herself up with her arms, she barely managed to sit upright.
"Mrs. Bexley, you're finally awake. You really scared me," Merrick's assistant, Theron, exhaled in relief.
Oriana looked around, her voice hoarse and low. "Where is Merrick? I need to speak with him."
Theron's expression grew tense, and he hesitated. "Mr. Bexley... he..."
She shouldn't have asked.
Merrick was surely with Krystal.
Perhaps it was the excessive blood loss that temporarily impaired her ability to think clearly.
"Take me home," Oriana said as she slowly got out of bed. But the moment her feet touched the ground, her knees buckled, and she nearly collapsed.
She quickly grabbed the edge of the bed, as if clutching the last shred of her dignity, struggling to stay upright.
"Of course, Mrs. Bexley." Theron was about to help her when he suddenly received a call from Merrick.
After a brief conversation, Theron's expression turned complicated, and he spoke with a hint of apology. "Mrs. Bexley, Mr. Bexley asked me to pick up a medical professor who has just arrived from overseas. The professor is here to perform an emergency surgery on Miss Dunstable, and I must leave immediately. There's no time to delay."
No time to delay?
Oriana paused, then smiled bitterly at herself.
"I understand. Go ahead. I'll take a taxi home."
Outside, the torrential rain had ceased, and the air carried the fresh scent of rainfall, as if the entire city had been cleansed.
Seated in the taxi, gazing at the scenery outside the window, Oriana felt a deep bitterness well up inside her.
Despite Seaview's vastness, it seemed there was no place in the city where she could truly belong or find solace.
Just then, her phone vibrated slightly.
Oriana took it out and saw a text message: Darling, I'm back.
