Sophia previously stayed in a single VIP room, but now she had an extra roommate in the accompanying bed. The new patient's face resembled hers somewhat, and he lay in bed, dressed in a hospital gown. His left leg and hand were encased in plaster and suspended in mid-air, making him quite the comical sight.
"Are you an... idiot?" Sophia sat up in bed, looking at her older brother with an extremely complicated expression.
"If Dad hadn't locked me up, if I hadn't been so worried that you would be taken advantage of, would I have jumped down from the second story? If I hadn't jumped out of the window, would I be... Ow!" Sterling accidentally pulled at his wound, and the pain made him flinch in an instant.
Nicole stood next to him and gave him a cold look.
Megan's head was lowered as she tried to suppress her laughter. Her shoulders were shaking, though.
"I'm an adult with an IC now, so you don't have to be so worried about me anymore. Don't do anything so rash from now on." Sophia pursed her lips and glanced at Sterling's suspended leg. She sighed almost imperceptibly.
Sterling had been hospitalized now, but he still could not stay still. His body was immobilized, but that did not stop his mischievous heart.
He kept exchanging quips with his wife while Sophia and Megan occasionally interjected. In all, the atmosphere in the room grew quite comfortable and lively.
At eight o'clock that night, Megan was about to leave. The moment she pushed the door open, though, she saw two unexpected people. She instinctively glanced at Sophia before quickly closing the door again.
Sophia looked toward the door and asked, "What's the matter?"
Megan laughed awkwardly for a bit and was about to say something when James's voice came from outside. "Who's in there? Open up."
Those words were followed by Jenny's gentle but hoarse voice. "Soph, Sterling, Nikki, are you in there? Open the door for us."
Sophia's face went stiff and she bit her lip tightly, her hands clenched into fists in her sheets.
Of all the people she hated to see the most, Charles Harris and Leah Jones topped that list, and her parents were a close second!
"Mrs. White..." Megan had already offended Sophia's parents once before, and she really did not want to do it again, so she turned to Nicole and said subtly, "The doctor said that Sophia has to take it easy for a couple of days. She can't become too emotional."
Nicole frowned but did not say anything.
"Mr. Harris came to see her today, and she ended up in surgery again as a result." Megan figured that Nicole, as their daughter-in-law, could not exactly stand in their way either, so she turned to Sterling instead.
"F*ckers won't f*cking let up!" Sterling cursed. Was he talking about Charles or his parents?
Nicole walked to the table and picked up two teacups, asking him, "Do you want to smash these, or do you want to throw them?"
Sterling did not reply. He just took the two cups with his uninjured hand and smashed them toward the doorâ
Crash!
There was the sound of the cups colliding against the door.
Smash!
They shattered against the floor.
"Scram!" Veins throbbed in his forehead as he swore loudly at the door. "We don't want you here!! Get the f*ck away from us!!!"
With every word he roared at them, Megan's heart trembled.
"You should go home now," Sophia told her.
Nicole and Sterling were here to protect Sophia, so Megan was not worried about her. She did not want to offend anyone she should not either, so she bid Sophia a hurried goodbye and walked around the shattered remains of the cups. In one quick movement, she opened the door and was gone.
It took barely a second. Once the door was open, Nicole could not manage to lock it in time. James pushed it wide open and strode into the room, followed by a red-eyed Jenny.
"Oh, Sophâ" Jenny walked past James and rushed up to Sophia's bed. She looked the latter up and down, her tears flowing freely down her face.
"Does it hurt really bad?"
Her hand trembled as she tried to caress Sophia's face, but Sophia turned her head away and avoided Jenny's touch.
"Either way, it has nothing to do with you, Mrs. White," Sophia said calmly, looking at Jenny as though she was wrong in the head.
Jenny saw the hatred and disgust in Sophia's eyes and stumbled two steps back, clapping her hand to her mouth and sobbing quietly.
"I really don't understand what you're thinking!" James harrumphed coldly. "Why are you threatening to divorce me over this traitorous welp? Don't you regret it now?"
He turned his icy glare onto Sophia. "Not only will she not be grateful to you, she'll even turn around and bite you in the... Have you gone mad?!"
"Don't you dare say that about my daughter!" Jenny swung her bag at him wildly, her voice breaking as she howled, "If you hadn't chased Soph out of the family and left her to die out there, she would never... disown me as her mother!"
James's expression was dark as he tried to evade her, but Jenny had no intention of stopping. "Soph nearly died in an accident back then, and you said that she was... putting on a show. This time, her lung infection came back in full force, and she even ended up in the... ER, but you still won't believe her! White, you jerk, she's your daughter!"
"Have you had enough?!" James's eyes were bloodshot as he grabbed Jenny's arm, his impatience plain for all to see.
From the moment she found out that Sophia was in the ER because of the water in her lungs, his ever-obedient wife suddenly went berserk at him. It was as though she was a completely different person now.
The couple launched into a huge argument in the hospital room. Sophia just watched them coldly, while Sterling grew ever more irritated.
"F*ck!" Sterling had been yelling at them for a while now, but they just ignored him, so he hammered his fist onto the bed and raised his voice a few more decibels, "Could you two f*cking take this outside? This is a hospital room!"
Sophia put her hand over her mouth and coughed softly, her face a few shades whiter than before.
Nicole gave her a worried look and then went to pull James and Jenny apart. "Mom, Dad, the doctor said Soph needs peace and quiet to recover.
She can't be too agitated..."
"All of you have gotten so full of yourselves, haven't you?!" James was so used to being the sole decision-maker at home, but now all of them were telling him off. By now, his temper was already at boiling point, and he roared, red-faced, "If you all care about Sophia so much, then you can f*cking move in with her!"
This was the first time he had cursed in front of his family.
The room instantly fell silent. Jenny looked at him in disbelief, her tears flowing like a river.
"There you go again! All you ever do is cry!" James was crimson all the way down to his neck now, roaring at Jenny, "You're a useless wimp, and you gave birth to two heartless b*stards! Yet you always act like you're the best wife a man could have!
Atrophy of Love: Mr. Harris, Stop Fooling Around!
ï¤Chapter 144 Youâre A Smart Person "If it weren't for my efforts, White Industries would've fallen apart ages ago! And yet you dare to hide 20% of the shared behind my back? All so you can threaten me over that heartless scum?!"
Sophia coughed into her hand again, her lips curving into a sardonic smile.
Heartless scum, murderer... So that was what her own father thought of her!
When he saw her coughing, Sterling instantly went white. He wanted to jump out of bed to check on her, but Nicole stopped him.
Nicole walked to Sophia and looked at her parents-in-law, who were still standing off against each other. Frustrated but worried, she asked Sophia, "How are you feeling? Do you want to call the doctor for you?"
"It's fine, I won't die." Sophia shook her head and held out her hand to show Nicole. "See, there's no phlegm. It was just a bit of a cough, there's no water in my lungs."
Nicole and Sterling finally heaved a sigh of relief at that.