Chapter 873:
“Brandon, what happened to you?” she asked, rushing to his bedside. Her eyes were wide with concern as she took in his bandaged state.
The hospital had a business partnership with the Watson Group, so the moment Brandon had been rushed to the ER, the family had been notified immediately.
“Grandpa and Grandma are driving over as fast as they can,” Babette explained, her voice shaky with emotion. “I was already in the area for a meeting, so I got here first.”
She looked him over carefully, trying to assess just how badly he was hurt. Her eyes were already red-rimmed from crying during the drive over.
“Is this about Millie again?” Babette’s voice cracked as she practically yelled the question.
She was so tired of this. Why did both Brandon and Egbert only have eyes for that woman? What was so special about Millie that it drove these grown men to complete madness?
But Brandon didn’t even acknowledge her question. He just kept staring at some invisible spot on the wall, his expression eerily calm yet heartbreakingly empty.
“Brandon!” Babette couldn’t take his silence anymore. “Answer me!”
Still nothing. He might as well have been a statue for all the response she got.
Unable to stand another second of being ignored, Babette spun around and stormed out of the room. She slammed the door with such force that it bounced back open, creaking loudly as it swung back and forth on its hinges.
About twenty minutes later, the soft sound of wheelchair wheels rolling down the hallway announced new arrivals.
Derek and Norma appeared in the doorway, with Norma carefully pushing Derek’s wheelchair up to Brandon’s bedside.
The elderly couple exchanged a meaningful look. They had just been filled in on everything that had happened, and the weight of it all showed on their weathered faces.
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He stared up at the hospital’s stark white ceiling, his eyes completely unfocused and empty.
Every part of his body ached. Every breath hurt. Even existing hurt.
Almost without thinking, he reached for his phone with trembling fingers. His thumb automatically found Millie’s chat window, muscle memory guiding him to the one person he couldn’t stop thinking about.
He started typing, the words pouring out of his broken heart.
He wanted to tell her that he had fallen down the stairs too, that he was lying here in pain and missing her so desperately he could barely breathe.
But then reality crashed back down on him like a bucket of ice water. She had blocked him.
During her stay in the hospital back then, he hadn’t visited her—not even once. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. There had been that one time when he’d finally worked up the courage to go see her. He’d made it all the way to her hospital room door and stood there like a coward, looking through the glass balcony door. All he’d seen was Millie’s blurred silhouette leaning close to Giffard, their heads bent together in what looked like an intimate moment.
In that instant, his jealousy had consumed all rational thought. He’d assumed there was something romantic between them, that they were deliberately putting on a show just to mess with his head.
Now, knowing the horrible truth about her injury, the miscarriage she’d suffered alone, and the dangerous bleeding that could have killed her, Brandon finally understood what he’d really witnessed that day. She had been incredibly weak and fragile, and Giffard had simply been supporting her, helping her stay upright when her own body was failing her.
The memory of that charity auction evening came flooding back, along with her words on the rooftop.
“Mr. Watson, you shouldn’t let your concern reach past your partner, or else you’ll only end up betraying her. That kind of thing would only break her heart.” And then, even more painful to remember: “Some people hardly matter, Mr. Watson, but some really do. And if someone important chooses to walk away, you might never get a second chance.”
The emotional pain crashed over Brandon in waves, far worse than any physical injury he’d ever endured.
He had once been so proud of himself, so confident in his abilities and his place in the world.
From the time he was young, he’d been quick to make decisions and act on them. Especially after successfully leading the Watson Group through a complete business transformation, beating out their two biggest competitors to become Crobert’s most powerful company, he’d truly believed he could control everything and everyone around him.
He had never imagined there could be anything or anyone in this world capable of bringing him to his knees like this.
Now he knew better. Now he knew exactly what could destroy him completely.
Without Millie in his life, how was he supposed to go on breathing?
Hot tears slipped silently down his cheeks, falling onto the sterile hospital pillow beneath his head.
He couldn’t live without her, but he’d already lost any right to have her.
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.
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