Chapter 246
A scream cut through the crowded market. “Someone’s been stabbed p>
The whole place erupted into chaos.
People were shouting. Footsteps pounded in every direction. People scattered in panic, shoving through the aisles.
Her phone was ringing in her pocket, but it was as if every sound and everything around Winter had suddenly faded out.
All she could see was the dark blood on her hands.
It was pouring from William’s abdomen.
“Why is there so much blood? Why won’t it stop? Please stop,” she whispered under her breath.
Instinctively, she reached for the wound, trying to cover it with her hand, but William beat her to it. One hand pressed hard against his abdomen while the other braced itself on her shoulder.
Winter felt his hand land there, light but shaky. He was clearly trying not to put too much weight on her.
Her throat tightened. Tears spilled from her reddened eyes. She opened her mouth to call his name.
“Shh…” Behind the mask, William’s voice was low and trembling. “Don’t say my name, Winnie. Someone might recognize me. Don’t cry. If you cry, people are going to start looking over here. There could be fans here. What if someone realizes it’s me p>
If he was recognized, he had no idea how he was supposed to contain the fallout.
“Don’t cry. Just help me p>
He was breathing hard now, his voice getting weaker with every word. “Let’s get out of here first p>
The hand on her shoulder wouldn’t stop shaking.
Everything had happened too fast. William had moved so quickly that even the police officers and bodyguards hadn’t reacted in time. The moment the knife went into him, the police rushed in and pinned the woman to the ground.
Winter and one of the bodyguards helped hold William up.
The bodyguard picked up his phone. “Gavin, a woman just tried to stab Mrs. Xander. William took the knife for her. ”
Still supporting William, Winter turned back in a daze.
The woman’s black bucket hat and face mask had come off. Her face looked familiar.
William was barely staying conscious by then. A police car came roaring in through the market entrance with its siren blaring. The crowd moved aside on instinct, but the market was cramped, with stalls everywhere and the aisles jammed tight.
It took several long minutes for the police car to turn around and get through.
The moment they got him into the car, William passed out.
His mask slipped from one ear. His face, slightly tanned from filming, had gone completely white. There wasn’t a
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trace of color left in it.
The front of his shirt was soaked through where he had been pressing on the wound.
“William!” Winter cried, her tears finally breaking free.
William’s head dropped against her shoulder. His face was right next to hers, deathly pale, his breathing so faint she could barely feel it.
The siren wailed overhead.
But to Winter, it was still not fast enough.
Holding him up with trembling hands, she broke down sobbing. “Please, go faster. Please p>
She couldn’t lose anyone else. Not again.
“ William, just hold on a little longer, okay? Open your eyes. Please look at me. I won’t make you mad anymore. I’ll listen to you from now on. Just wake up. Please wake up, William p>
Somewhere through the haze of unconsciousness, he heard her crying.
The sound cut through him like a knife.
And he couldn’t stop himself from thinking back to years ago, to the day he had thrown a tantrum and begged his grandfather to bring Winter home to the Zeller family.
Why had he not gone further?
Why had he not done something more extreme, like go on a hunger strike until his grandfather agreed?
If he had, maybe his family would have gotten to her before Chris’s grandmother did.
Instead, he had jumped out of the car full of excitement, only to hear from her relatives that the Xander family had already taken her away.
It was as if William relived his whole life in those last drifting moments before everything went dark.
In the end, the only thing left was the sound of someone crying from very, very far away, until even that was swallowed by the darkness.
“William! ”
A black Bentley pulled up at the hospital almost at the same time as the police car.
Heavy clouds covered the sky, blocking out the sun. Chris shoved the car door open and got out just in time to see William being rushed onto a gurney. Half of Winter’s body was smeared with blood, and her face was white as
paper.
She looked like she might collapse at any second, but she still ran after the gurney, watching the doctors fit an oxygen mask over William’s face.
Her legs felt weak, almost numb under her.
But she kept running anyway.
As if chasing after him could still bring him back.
Florence
A passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.