Chapter 409 409

The moment Vernon heard the voice of his beloved woman, he pressed the brake so fast that he sure would cause an accident if he didn't drive in an empty gated community right now.

He stopped right across the school's parking lot and parked his car to the side while on a call with Chloe.

-

"C—Chloe, you—"

"I…" Chloe wanted to say that she was fine. But that was an obvious lie. Thus she tried to think of another method to calm the young man down.

Chloe was scared that Vernon might already be in Mackie's school right, and she did not want the Gray brothers to encounter each other.

So she muttered, "I'm in your office with Diamond and Mackie, can you return now?"

Vernon was about to say yes when he suddenly saw a figure of a man walking out of the school gate to the parking lot. The man was mid-thirty and covered with bruises and dried blood on his temple.

He didn't look like he was in pain, though— In fact, he had a thin smirk pasted on his lips.

Vernon didn't know what had happened to his Big brother, but he instantly linked him with whatever had happened with Chloe just now.

He clenched his steering wheel and muttered with repressive rage, "That bastard…."

Chloe instantly panicked. She knew that Vernon must've seen Vincent and triggered his wrath instantly. She had to stop them from meeting now, or everything would be over.

"V—Vernon, come back to the office now!" Chloe raised her voice desperately.

"I will, just a moment-"

"NO! I need you now!" Chloe insisted. Vernon started noticing her coarse voice once she raised her voice, which gave him a shiver of fear.

"Chloe, your voice-"

As she realized that Vernon must've been stunned by her coarse voice, she tried to utilize it, "I… I'm in bad shape. I really need you here. Please, Vernon," Chloe said weakly. "I'm begging."

…

Vernon took a deep breath. He was contemplating whether he should open the door and reach his Big brother to give him a punch or two… three… or four.

But hearing Chloe's coarse and trembling voice begging him to come and find her because she needed him… Vernon thought it wasn't fair for him.

Because there was no way, he could say no to Chloe's plea.

So he curbed his wrath on his Big brother and made a U-turn. He was still on the call with Chloe as he drove through the city back to his office, "Stay in my office. I'll be there shortly."

"Y—Yes, be careful on the road, I'm not going anywhere," Chloe said before she hung up the call.

Vernon held his breath when Chloe said her last sentence.

-

I'm not going anywhere.

-

"Yeah, for sure I'm not letting you anywhere after this," Vernon muttered.

The thought of Chloe missing from his life was already a nightmare on its own.

He was also in a nightmare for ten years straight without her, and he certainly did not want to repeat that.

**

Chloe gave the phone back to Diamond and muttered a thank you.

She was about to return to Mackie outside when Diamond grabbed her wrist.

Chloe winced in pain but tried to hide it by biting her lower lip until it bled a little.

"Chloe, your hand…." Diamond looked worriedly. She gently held Chloe's bruised-swollen blue hand and commented, "This is not just some fall damage, isn't it? What causes this?"

…

"Him?"

…

Chloe nodded reluctantly. She wanted to hide it because she thought it wasn't something someone else needed to know.

But it was way too obvious to hide, and Chloe blamed Vincent for punching her hard.

"Vincent wanted to punch my face, and I tried to dampen the damage by using my hands to block it…." Chloe lowered her head ashamedly but was more ashamed when she could clearly see the difference between Diamond's hand and hers.

Hers was swollen so bad she couldn't see the line of her finger bones anymore. It was a miracle that she could still grab Mackie and drive here.

Diamond sucked a lot of air to calm herself down. She tried to stay calm because she knew her best friend needed her care, not her scream.

"Let me grab a first aid kit. Maybe we can do something about it-"

"No," Chloe quickly refused. "I think… I broke a few joints the first time Vincent punched my hand…" she confessed because she felt numb in a few spots and extreme pain in the other area around her hands.

Chloe lifted her head and stared at Diamond. She tried to force a smile and said, "Thank you for your concern, Diamond. But can we just act like nothing happens first in front of my daughter? I don't want her to worry."

Diamond's eyes started glazing with tears as she stared at Chloe. She was in so much pain just seeing her best friend hurt like this.

"W—Why are you crying, Diamond?" Chloe asked worriedly. She tried to wipe her best friend's tears but realized that her hands were swollen and ugly, and she had touched a lot of stuff before, so Diamond might not want her hand around her beautiful face.

"I wonder too, Chloe," Diamond sobbed. "Why am I crying? You should be the one who cried. You're in so much pain right now."

"You can cry, you can scream even, I don't even mind if you beg for me to go to the hospital. You should do that in the first place."

Honestly, Diamond wanted to scream and shake Chloe's arms, telling her to start acting like a normal human who experienced pain.

But Chloe looked so calm. It just made her feel so out of place.

"W—Well, I got used to this," Chloe replied, telling all the truth she had been hiding for so long. "Vincent beat me horrendously over the past ten years. But I usually fixed it myself because Vincent didn't allow me to go to the hospital. He said it's too expensive for me…."