Chapter 10

I was in so much pain that I couldn’t think straight. Hearing those words, my heart gave a harsh tremor. I struggled to get up and leave, but Serena Sullivan suddenly pinned my hand down. The next second, a rush of footsteps came from the doorway. Serena squeezed out a few tears and slapped herself with her hand. The crisp sound of the slap echoed as Julian Lancaster kicked open the door. Seeing him, Serena immediately threw herself into his arms, crying like a drowned flower. "Julian, Clara Everard hit me, my face hurts so much." Seeing the slap mark on her face, Julian’s expression filled with distress, his gaze toward me dark as night. "Clara! I told you Serena is my bottom line, and you still dared to raise your hand against her?" "I didn’t..." Pale-faced, I struggled to speak to explain, but Julian interrupted me with a scolding. "Dare to bully her while I’m not around, then suffer the consequences!" Julian, with a cold expression, immediately called for the bodyguards, ordering them to administer thirty slaps to Serena. A group of big men came rushing up, pinning me down, and started slapping me with full force. Smack! Smack! Smack! After three slaps in a row, half of my face instantly swelled up high. A searing pain shot through me, and I let out a muffled groan as stars danced before my eyes. Slap after slap, my lips were split open, blood frothing out. Julian coldly watched me suffering, left a remark, and then left with Serena in his arms. "Remember this lesson, and stay away from Serena from now on! If anything happens to her because of you again, you and the entire Everard Family, I'll pay the price!" I collapsed on the ground, watching his silhouette gradually grow distant, streams of humiliating tears silently falling. Covered in bruises, I returned home, locked myself in my room, and went nowhere. The swelling on my face took several days to go down. Looking at my disheveled appearance in the mirror, my heart was dead silent. To leave this place of trouble as soon as possible, I contacted an agent to list all my properties and stores for sale. To dispose of these assets as quickly as possible, I offered them at a fire sale price far below market value. After completing all the procedures, it was already dark when I returned home. The streetlights in the villa area were broken, leaving everything pitch black. I couldn’t see the road, so I was just about to turn on my phone’s flashlight when the glaring headlight of a motorcycle suddenly lit up a dozen meters away. Blinded by the light, I instinctively raised my hand to shield my eyes, only to see the motorcycle charging straight at me like a madman. "Bang—" The distance was too close, and I couldn’t dodge in time, getting violently hit and thrown, landing heavily on the ground. Blood gushed out, and I felt as if my internal organs had all shifted; the pain was so intense I couldn’t breathe. My body felt like it was being torn apart, convulsing and trembling in the pool of blood. My mind was a blur, repeatedly replaying the scene of the accident. I saw that the motorcyclist was Caleb Crawford, that poor painter, ex-boyfriend of Serena! But even knowing who the culprit was, there was nothing I could do, as my consciousness slowly drifted away. In a daze, I saw a familiar Bentley stop beside me. The car door opened, and Julian Lancaster’s face appeared in my view. His figure rushing urgently towards me was the last image I saw before losing consciousness.