Chapter 547

Chapter 547:

The command seemed to strip away the last of Cheryl’s restraint. “Get out? Do you have any idea who I am? I am a shareholder of InnoTech p>

Grayson watched the woman screech in the middle of a hospital corridor, and felt a wave of profound disgust move through him. This was the high-society mother Belle spoke of with such pride. This was where she had come from.

Isolde did not bother to respond. She simply pulled out her phone, her thumb hovering over the contact for hospital security.

The sight of the phone seemed to snap something in Cheryl. It was the final sign that her money and her name held no weight here. Her eyes went blank with rage. She raised her hand — the diamonds on her rings catching the fluorescent light — in an unmistakable prelude to violence.

The hand came down.

𝗔𝗱𝘥𝗶c𝘵і𝘃𝘦 𝘀𝘁𝘰𝘳𝗶𝖾ѕ o𝗻.сo𝗆

It wasn’t a graceful arc. It was a frantic, vicious swipe fueled by humiliation and entitlement.

Grayson was caught out of position, his body angled toward Belle, his back partially turned. He was in the blind spot.

Isolde saw it coming. But her body, drained by thirty hours of adrenaline and sleeplessness, betrayed her. Her reflexes were slow — thick, like moving through water. Even so, something deeper than conscious thought took over. Her hand shot up in a blur of motion, intercepting Cheryl’s wrist a fraction of a second before it made contact with her cheek.

Clack.

The sound was shockingly sharp — not the wet impact of flesh on flesh, but the hard snap of Isolde’s grip arresting Cheryl’s momentum. But the force was too great. The large diamond on Cheryl’s ring raked across Isolde’s cheekbone like a blade.

A thin line of fire erupted across her skin. Isolde hissed and shoved the older woman back. She tasted copper.

Silence.

The entire corridor froze. A nurse at the station dropped a clipboard. It clattered to the floor, and no one looked at it.

“Isolde p>

The scream came from the far end of the hall. Ellyn. Her mother was running toward them, her face a mask of pure horror.

Cheryl stood clutching her captured wrist, chest heaving. She looked down at her hand, then at Isolde’s face — and a triumphant sneer began to form.

Isolde turned her head back slowly.

She didn’t touch her face. She could feel the skin parting, the blood rising to the surface. A thin trickle of warmth moved from the gash to the corner of her lip.

Grayson stared, his mind struggling to process what had happened in the span of a second. He saw Isolde’s hand still locked around Cheryl’s wrist. He saw the bright red line blooming across Isolde’s cheek.

“Cheryl.” His voice was unrecognizable. “What did you do p>

“I helped you,” Cheryl said, adjusting her diamond bracelet with the casual ease of someone who had done nothing wrong. “She was being disrespectful, Gray. You’re far too soft on her p>

“Mom!” Belle gasped, looking between Grayson’s thunderous expression and the blood on Isolde’s cheek. “Why did you p>