Chapter 471
“Dad, Tessa is in shock. Just give her a minute to calm down,” Oscar pleaded, glancing anxiously at the operating room doors and then back at Tessa, who was trembling so violently she could barely stand.
The old man was shaking with pure, unadulterated fury, hammering his cane into the linoleum floor with heavy, rhythmic thuds.
“She needs a minute to calm down? She’s had the entire damn flight back to calm down!
Your son is bleeding out on that operating table! Lance went charging in blind to save her, and do either of you, his own parents, give a single damn about him?!” the old man roared.
If he had said something like that in the past, Tessa would have immediately snapped back and started a screaming match.
But this time, Tessa didn’t react at all. She just kept sobbing, unable to catch her breath.
The old man’s patience completely snapped. “Stop crying and tell us what the hell happened! We are all terrified out here p>
Camilla and Jeniffer were both suffocating with anxiety, but given that Tessa was an elder and clearly in the middle of a breakdown, neither of them felt it was their place to intervene.
Crushed under the old man’s furious glare, Tessa finally choked out, “Dad… I was wrong. I was so wrong. I never should have trusted Sarah.
It’s all my fault. I brought a monster into our home. I destroyed Lance p>
She rambled on and on without giving a single shred of actual information. Jeniffer finally couldn’t take it anymore and scoffed. “You’re just figuring out your precious adopted daughter is a psycho? Do you have any idea how much hell Lance went through over the years because of her p>
Instead of lashing out at Jeniffer’s sharp rebuke, Tessa just hung her head and muttered deliriously, “I don’t know how this happened… Sarah was such a good girl when she was little. How did she turn into this p>
“Because she’s been faking it since day one! You guys always played the sympathy card—she was an orphan, she needed a mother—and you showered her with everything while completely ignoring Lance.
You subconsciously believed everything she said, so anything Lance did was automatically a crime!
People don’t just snap and turn into psychotic masterminds overnight. This is who she’s been the whole damn time!” Jeniffer screamed, finally unloading years of pent-up rage onto Tessa.
Tessa didn’t fight back. After seeing Sarah’s absolute cruelty firsthand, she had nothing left to say in her defense.
The old man slammed his cane down again. “What’s the point of bringing all this up now?! Just tell us exactly what happened out there p>
Tessa finally choked out, “It was Sarah. It was Sarah. She hates me. She was playing me this whole time.
On New Year’s Eve, I felt so bad for her being alone, so I flew out to see her. She told me she wanted custom jewelry and begged me to take her to Silvania to pick out the raw stones.
I didn’t think anything of it. I said yes. But the second we landed, we were both taken hostage. It wasn’t until later that I realized Sarah was working with them.
She wanted Lance. She leaked the information on purpose just to drag him out there.
She’s obsessed with Lance. She blamed me for not forcing an arranged marriage between them when they were kids.
This isn’t my fault! They hated each other growing up! They couldn’t be in the same room without trying to kill each other. I practically wanted to send Lance away just to protect her! How was I supposed to force them to get married p>
Tessa broke down sobbing again, wailing about how unfair it all was, how she was just an innocent victim in all of this.
But her words hit everyone in the hallway like a ton of bricks. The sheer absurdity of her mindset was sickening.
Jeniffer cut her off with brutal efficiency. “Tessa, get a grip. None of us are here to listen to your pity party.
Even if Sarah is a monster, you’re the one who fed her delusion for decades. The only thing that matters right now is Lance! What exactly did they do to him p>
Tessa shot Jeniffer a furious glare at being talked down to, but knowing she was entirely at fault, she couldn’t argue back. She stammered, “Lance… Lance, he p>
Sarah strapped me to a chair. She told Lance the only way she’d let me go was if he surrendered himself to her.
And then she… she p>
That girl is a total psychopath! She demanded Lance be with her. When Lance refused, she ordered her men to forcefully inject him with drugs p>
“What kind of drugs? Narcotics?” Camilla instantly demanded, throwing any respect for elders out the window as terror gripped her chest.
Because of what happened to her father, she was hyper-aware of the horrors of narcotics.
Tessa shook her head frantically. “No, it was some kind of neurological stimulant. It’s designed to create total physical dependency.
Sarah is obsessed with Lance. She’d never permanently damage his body. She just wanted him utterly dependent on her so she could control him p>
“If that’s the case, then why is Lance still in a coma?!” Jeniffer screamed, completely losing it.
She had burned through every last ounce of patience she had for Tessa. Even now, with Lance on death’s door, Tessa didn’t seem to possess a single shred of a mother’s terror for her dying child.
“I… I don’t know!” Tessa stammered defensively. “Lance was just too stubborn! He absolutely refused to give in, so Sarah just kept having them pump him full of drugs, and eventually he just collapsed.