Chapter 319

“You’ve got that look on your face-am I dying or something?” Una tried to make a joke, her gaze fixed on the sheet of paper in Nora’s hands.
But as she stared, her smile faded.
Suddenly, her left hand went limp and the paper slipped from her fingers, landing softly on the blanket.
She stared at her right hand in a daze. She knew it was injured, but she hadn’t expected it to be so serious.
“So… does this mean I won’t even be able to hold a pen anymore?”
Her voice was barely above a whisper, thick with despair.
Nora pulled her into a tight hug. “It’ll be okay, Una. You still have your left hand, and you can always use a tablet to help-”
She couldn’t finish. The words caught in her throat.
Una loved nothing more than sketching with a pen. She adored the old-fashioned way-pencil to paper, painstakingly adjusting every detail until the design was just right.
There was something about that process, like sculpting—each drawing marked by the careful strokes and subtle changes, each piece bearing the evidence of her meticulous hand. That was what gave her the greatest sense of accomplishment.
A shattering fracture of her right hand was like a death sentence for Una’s career as a designer.
No amount of digital tools or gadgets could ever replace the feeling of a pen between her fingers.
Tears streamed down Nora’s face as well. “How could this happen? Who did this to you?”
“Was it Hans?” she pressed.
Una would never do this to herself.
“Aurora, I just… I just want to be alone for a while, okay?” Una gently freed herself from Nora’s embrace, her eyes dull and gray.
Nora hesitated, then nodded. Googlᴇ search.net
She stepped out into the hallway, leaving behind the muffled sounds of Una’s sobbing.
Leaning against the wall, Nora was struck by a sudden thought: earlier, at Eleanor’s wedding, was it because Una’s right hand was too weak that the wound on her wrist wasn’t deep? If Una’s hand had been uninjured, would she really have gone through with it… would she have cut deep enough to—
Nora shuddered and forced herself to stop thinking.
She waited until the crying inside the room subsided before going back in.
Una had folded the paper and tucked it away. She wiped her tears, putting on a brave face.
“I’m fine,” she said quietly. But it only made Nora’s heart ache more.
“I’m going to find Hans,” Nora said, her voice icy as she squeezed Una’s shoulder.
“I want to see how he can live with himself after what he did to you.”
“Aurora, don’t.” Una caught her arm. “It wasn’t him.”
Nora frowned. If not Hans, then who?
Una said nothing.
Then it hit Nora. “Was it Eleanor?”
The only people who could hate Una that much were Hans or Eleanor.
“It was her, wasn’t it? That’s why you grabbed the tweezers and hurt her.”
As the pieces fell into place, Nora clenched her fists. Of course. Eleanor-Hans’s wife, and with Daniel’s help, it wouldn’t have been hard for her to track Una down.
She was the one who ruined Una’s hand.
Rage boiled in Nora’s chest as she turned to storm out-she had to confront Eleanor.
But Una grabbed her wrist. “Aurora, don’t go. There’s no proof.”
When they broke her hand, they only said she’d crossed the wrong people— Eleanor’s name never came up.
She had no evidence.
If Nora went in there accusing Eleanor without proof, it would just turn into a fight. Daniel would side with his wife, and then what?
Una swallowed her pain and shook her head. She couldn’t let Nora get involved.
Nora bit her tongue and forced herself to nod.
But as soon as Una drifted off to sleep, Nora’s face hardened. She turned and marched straight to Eleanor’s hospital room.
She was done holding back.
Slamming open the door, she strode in.
Eleanor scowled. “What are you doing here?”
Nora didn’t answer. She grabbed a pillow from the bed and, with all her strength,
hurled it straight at Eleanor’s face.