Chapter 1745

Wilfred pondered briefly after hearing Karina’s words. “I’m coming with you. Don’t rush to refuse. After what happened last time, I don’t think I need to remind you of the situation. If I hadn’t been there, leaving the Stone family might not have been so easy.” Karina couldn’t argue, especially when she remembered Kieran’s aggressive demeanor during her last visit. She took a deep breath and smiled faintly. “I’ll have to trouble you again, Dr. Wilfred.”
Wilfred’s lips curved into a faint smile. True to his word, he personally drove Karina to the Stone residence that very day.
As they arrived, Karina stopped at the door. “You can wait here. If things get bad, you can come in.”
Wilfred glanced at her phone. “Keep the phone on you.”
Karina held it up for him to see. She had already set him as her emergency contact. “If anything happens, I’ll call right away.”
Prepared, Karina used the key she still had to open the door and walked in.
The moment she stepped inside, Mr. Stone’s face darkened. “You’ve got the nerve to come back? I thought you were dead out there. Your brother said you won’t answer calls or give him money. Now that you’ve made something of yourself at a fancy hospital, you think you can just abandon us, huh?”
“That’s not why I’m here,” Karina replied coldly. “Where’s Kieran?”
Mrs. Stone emerged hesitantly from the kitchen, looking conflicted. She seemed to want to speak kindly to Karina but faltered under Mr. Stone’s glare.
“He’s in his room,” Mrs. Stone said awkwardly, wiping her hands on her apron. “He’s been upset these days because he couldn’t reach you. But don’t blame him-you know how he is. He’ll grow out of it eventually.”
Karina couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. “He’s twenty-three, and you still think he’ll grow out of it? At what age does that happen?”
Mrs. Stone stammered, unsure of what to say.
Karina had prepared herself for this, but the wave of disappointment and bitterness still hit her hard.
She had always been the adopted daughter of the Stone family, never truly valued. In the past, it was bearable Mr. Stone openly favored Kieran, and Mrs. Stone was too timid to stand up to her husband or son. Even so, they hadn’t treated her this poorly before.
Everything changed after that car accident.
Taking a steadying breath, Karina said, “I’m here to talk to him. Please call him out.”
Mr. Stone muttered curses under his breath, while Mrs. Stone nodded and moved toward Kieran’s room. She barely knocked when an irritated voice bellowed from inside. “What’s all the noise? I already said I’m not eating! Leave me alone and stop bothering me!”
Mrs. Stone stepped back awkwardly, looking helpless. “You see? That’s how he’s been. Maybe you could try talking to him. He’d probably be willing to see you.” Karina didn’t even bother correcting her. It wasn’t her he wanted to see it was her money.
She stepped forward. “Fine, I’ll handle it. Kieran, come out. It’s me.”
The door swung open with a loud bang. Kieran sat in his wheelchair, his face dark and menacing. “Karina, you ungrateful wretch. I wasn’t even going to look for you, and yet you’ve
own?”
come crawling back on your ve
QUMS
When she didn’t respond, he sneered. “Oh, I get it. You’re here because of that right? You had no choice, didn’t you?”
Karina’s hands clenched tightly, her fingers trembling, lips pressed so hard they turned white. “What do you get out of this? Exposing me how does that benefit you?”
In her eyes, as long as she remained the adopted daughter of the Stone family, their fates were intertwined. Their reputations rose and fell together.
This was one of the reasons she had
struggled to break free. No matter how terribly they treated her, they had raised her. And she felt partly responsible for the accident.
Therefore, she had done everything she could to repay them.
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