"When they said they called you in, I honestly thought they were joking. I can't believe you're actually here."
Tandy eagerly waved Claire over.
Claire seamlessly closed the distance between them.
"What the hell is going on here? My father is in critical condition, and instead of trying to save him, you're all just standing around whispering?"
It was Claire's first time crossing paths with the rest of the Darwin family.
She hadn't expected to be greeted by someone throwing a massive temper tantrum the second she walked in.
The man screaming was Silas, Reggie's father.
He was clearly oblivious to how things worked anyone who had been summoned to the hospital at this hour was an absolute heavyweight in their field.
Seeing how young Claire was, he immediately assumed she was an easy target.
Unable to bully the seasoned veterans and too cowardly to offend the actual power players, he decided to unleash his fury on Claire.
Claire took one calculated look at Silas, instantly categorizing him as a man whose body had been hollowed out by years of reckless indulgence.
He wasn't even worth a second glance.
Tandy completely ignored Silas's outburst as well.
He focused entirely on briefing Claire about General Darwin's current vitals.
"Honestly, our professional recommendation is for the family to let him go. If we push for surgery, the General's body won't survive the operating table."
"We could attempt conservative treatments to stabilize him, but the family needs to be prepared for the absolute worst at any moment."
Silas refused to listen to the Vice President's logic, opting to roar instead. "Then get on the phone and fly in a different team of specialists! If you useless hacks can't do it, does that mean every doctor on earth is incompetent?!"
He was utterly convinced the hospital management was just sending their bottom- tier staff to brush them off.
They clearly wanted to see the Darwin family fall, which was why they were dragging their feet.
How else could his primary doctor miraculously be unreachable?
And why would they call in some rookie in his place?
A young woman, no less. What could she possibly accomplish?
Silas was practically pointing his finger straight into Claire's face.
But Claire wasn't about to coddle his fragile ego.
"Should I just leave then?"
The Vice President was absolutely stunned by the ice in Claire's voice.
The girl had an unbreakable spine.
Thankfully, Noah broke through the crowd at that exact moment. "Claire, you can't leave!"
Noah looked like he was about to physically drag her back. "Claire, my grandfather has been relying entirely on your treatments för pain. management. If you walk away, what's going to happen to him?"
Silas glared at Noah with furious suspicion, his embarrassment twisting into rage.
"Noah, are you intentionally trying to mess with me?"
"Harrison is lying there dying, and you want to let this amateur finish the job?!"
Noah didn't bother offering Silas a shred of respect. "Silas, Claire is my
grandfather's personally requested physician."
"If you have a problem with her, take it up with him."
Silas choked on his own words.
Oh, he absolutely wanted to-but the old man was currently fighting for his life in the emergency room t wasn't like he could bust through thể doors to complain.
"If anything happens to Harrison, you'll be the one responsible for ruining the Darwin family!"
Noah didn't flinch at the venomous shouting; he wasn't intimidated in the slightest.
"I think that title belongs to Reggie."
"If he hadn't pulled his runaway bride stunt, my grandfather wouldn't have been pushed to the brink of death."
Silas's eyes darted away nervously.
He had only thrown his tantrum to shift the blame off his own family.
He hadn't anticipated Noah firing back with such pinpoint accuracy.
Reggie's scandalous behavior truly had dealt a devastating blow to the General's health.
For the past two days, the rest of the Darwin family had been relentlessly icing them
out.
They were using Reggie's disa
as an excuse to completely
ostracize Pearce entirely, hoping to
cut them out of the inheritance entirely.
But why should they lose out?
He was the General's flesh and blood, too.
And Reggie was still his beloved grandson.
They were entitled to their full cut, down to the last penny!
While General Darwin clung to life inside the emergency room, his descendants waged war in the hallway.
It was blindingly obvious none of them actually cared if the old man survived.
The brutal truth was that everyone knew the General's survival was the only thing keeping the Darwin family relevant.
Yet simultaneously, they were all suffocating under his iron-fisted rule and wanted the patriarch out of the way.
It was a toxic, hypocritical mess of conflicting desires.