Chapter 5
A deafening explosion tore through the air as flames shot into the sky.
The fire roared around us, heat pulsing like a heartbeat.
Louis’s car was gone, crushed beneath the truck, reduced to a mangled heap of metal and shattered glass.
Standing nearby, the servants and bodyguards froze.N
Their eyes went wide, unsure of what to do next.§
“Is that Sir Louis’s car?” the servant whispered, her voice trembling.
“Quick, call an ambulance and the fire brigade!” the man beside her cried.”
“I’ll get the extinguisher!” shouted a nearby bodyguard.§
“Someone, alert the head of security–now!”
More voices echoed in a chaotic frenzy.N
It took only seconds, but soon, everyone snapped into action.
The bodyguards were the first to charge toward the wreckage, diving into the flames to pull Louis from the mangled car. They managed to get Nicole out too, just before the fire roared higher.
The wail of sirens filled the air as ambulances and fire trucks swarmed the scene.
Seeing the tear–streaked look in my eyes, the servants mistook my silence for worry about Louis.}
“Madam, don’t worry. Sir Louis has already been sent to the hospital. He’ll be fine,” one of them said, trying to offer some comfort.
I just lowered my head and said nothing.
I remembered our wedding day. Back then, I told Louis that if he ever stopped loving me, he should say so. I would have let him go. No pleading, no drama.
But he never said a thing.
Instead, he kept picking fights with me over Nicole. Again and again. Each time, I asked him directly if he had fallen for her. And he always came up with some excuse to avoid the truth.
It wasn’t until Nicole’s pregnancy could no longer be hidden that he finally admitted it. His feelings had changed.”
Even then, when I was ready to leave, he wouldn’t let me. He refused to divorce me. And instead of softening, he grew harsher. Crueler. Like hurting me was his way of proving something.}
At this point, I didn’t care what happened to him.”
He eamed every bit of it.”
…B
Soon, word of Louis’s car accident reached his grandfather, Richard Anderson.§
Louis had suffered severe burns. His lower body was wrapped in bandages, his life hanging by a thread, kept alive only by a respirator. Nicole’s condition was worse. She had been pulled from the wreckage too late. Her body was mangled, and the baby she was carrying had already been lost.
Richard stormed into the hospital room, his anger etched into every line of his face.
Without a word, he struck me across the face.}
“How could you be so vicious?” he roared. “First, you made my grandson fall down the stairs, and now you’ve caused his car accident! I told him from the beginning not to marry you. I don’t know what kind of spell you cast to make him risk his life to force me into approving this marriage.”
Seething, he spat, “With all the talk of that curse in your family, it’s obvious–no Jefferson woman turns out decent.”
Richard raised his hand to slap me again.”
But this time, I was ready. I stepped aside fast.
His hand cut through empty air, the force of it throwing him off balance. He nearly fell.”
One of the servants caught him just in time.
“You dare dodge me?” Richard growled, his eyes blazing.
I wiped the blood from my mouth and sneered. “Try hitting me again, and I swear Louis will never wake up.”
Richard froze, his hand still raised in the air. “What do you mean by that?”
I smiled smugly.
“The rumors about Jefferson women are true. Louis got injured because he betrayed me. All of this?” I taunted, my voice full of anger. I gestured around the room and said, “It’s his fault.“M
