Chapter 4
4.
Perhaps feeling her mother's words were too harsh, Claire advised softly, "Mom, it really was an accident."
"If money can solve this, I don't want it going to litigation."
Listening to her reasonable tone, I couldn't help but sneer.
Margaret didn't stop.
"You're too naive. I heard the guy is even faking a mental illness, seeing a shrink here."
"He just wants sympathy so he can squeeze more money out of you."
"Anyone can fake depression these days."
Claire fell silent.
After a moment, she muttered, "Then we'll bring in an outside psychiatric expert. If he's faking it, we're not going to be taken advantage of."
The two of them stopped outside my door.
When Claire pushed the door open, I was sitting in my wheelchair, staring at her coldly.
"You're finally here."
My voice was still raspy.
"Claire, you smashed my legs to pieces. How much do you think they're worth?"
Claire froze in her tracks, completely speechless for a long time.
"Ethan... it was you?"
"A Whitmore son-in-law cannot be a cripple!"
Margaret reacted faster than Claire.
She cared about face more than anything and would never allow a scandal like this to leak out.
Claire's knees gave out, and she dropped to the floor in front of my wheelchair.
Her eyes were red, her voice trembling.
"Ethan, how could it be you?"
My tears had dried up days ago.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner? If I had known it was you—"
She suddenly looked up, her tone shifting to blame.
"You were punishing me on purpose, weren't you? How could you be so selfish?"
She actually had the nerve to flip the script and blame me.
I stared down at her.
"You were the one who hit me. You were the one arguing with the cab driver, delaying my rescue. You were the one who went on vacation with Julian after the crash and left me to rot."
"And now you're asking who's selfish?"
Claire was choked into silence.
Margaret, however, shot up and pointed a finger at my face.
"I always knew you were trash! If Claire hadn't begged me, you never would have married into this family!"
"You can't even keep your own legs working. What right do you have to be a Whitmore son-in-law?"
She wasn't wrong.
When Claire and I first got together, the entire Whitmore family opposed it.
My parents died in a car crash when I was young. They believed my background wasn't fit for New York high society, let alone the Whitmore family.
So when Julian reappeared, Margaret privately told Claire that if she had married Julian instead, the family would have fully supported it.
Julian came from wealth. He and Claire belonged to the same world.
"The Whitmore family doesn't need someone like you dragging us down. Get out!"
Margaret was still screaming when Claire finally snapped and stopped her.
"Mom, Ethan is already in enough pain. Can you stop making it worse?"
It was a rare moment of her taking my side.
But unfortunately, Julian, who had just arrived, heard exactly that.
"Claire, didn't you say you were heading back to the office? Turns out you were just worried about your husband."
He looked at me, feigning consideration.
"My fault for meddling. I heard the victim was being difficult, so I wanted to come put in a good word for you. But why did you lie to me? It's not like I would stop you from seeing him."
With a deeply disappointed look, he turned and walked away.
Claire's eyes tracked him frantically.
She turned back to me.
"Ethan, no matter how much it costs, I'll fix your legs. But I lied to Julian, and I need to go explain it to him first."
With that, she got up and chased after him.