Derek repeated the thought in his mind, as if trying to brainwash himself.
His body was stiff as he slowly crouched down to pick up his fallen glasses, his fingers trembling.
He walked out of the room in a daze, leaning against the cold wall as if it were the only thing holding him up.
For the first time in his proud, arrogant life, he felt a crushing sense of defeat.
He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Suddenly, an idea struck him. He pulled out his phone and dialed his home number.
It rang for a while before someone finally answered.
"Mom..."
Derek's voice was unusually hoarse and dry, laced with a confusion he didn't even recognize in himself. "Hmm... I mean Serena. Did she... did she really cut ties with the Wynn family?"
The sound of soft music and cheerful chatter could be heard in the background. Marianne's voice was tinged with annoyance. "Why bring up that jinx?"
She paused, then her voice rose, filled with disgust and contempt. "What? Did that wretched girl run to the hospital to bother you? I knew she wouldn't leave the Wynn family so easily! After being a pampered princess for so many years, how could she bear to go crawling back to her low-life biological parents? Derek, I'm telling you, stay away from her. Once you get tangled up with that kind of filth, you'll never be free!"
"No, Mom... she wasn't bothering me. Just listen to me..." Derek found himself instinctively recoiling from his mother's vicious insults toward Serena.
The thought that Serena had endured this kind of venomous, curse-like language from her family for the past four years left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Does she... know traditional
medicine? She just saved the sister of the Blackwood heir at the
hospital It was a surgery... a caset
that conventional surgeons had declared hopeless. Even Professor Whitman, the Golden Hand
himself, said he wasn't confident he could do it. But Serena... she saved Miss Blackwood using surgical techniques from traditional
medicine. Even the director of the Imperial Medical Center was treating her with..."
"Traditional medicine? Saving someone?" Marianne cut him off, laughing as if she'd just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world. "Derek, have you been working too much lately? Is the stress making you delusional?"
"What could that brat possibly know
about medicine? The Wynn family
raised her for twenty years, I know I exactly what she's made of. She cant tell the difference between an herb and a weed, or whether a cold is caused by a bacteria or a virus! And you're telling me she's a doctor? That she saved a Blackwood?"
The increasingly harsh and vicious words made Derek's brow furrow even deeper. "No, Mom, I was there. I saw it with my own eyes. She really did save Miss Blackwood. The director was completely respectful to her, someone else called her 'Miss,' and even Professor Whitman..."
"Enough!" Marianne had no desire to hear another word about that jinx and interrupted him impatiently. "I think you're losing your mind! That impostor is trash to the core! If she had any real talent, don't you think She would have shown it off years ago to get our attention? Why wait until now? Instead of wasting your time on this, you should be paying more attention to your real sister!"
With that, she hung up.
Derek stared at his phone, listening to the dial tone.
After a long moment, he slowly, weakly slid down the wall and sat on the floor.
He had witnessed a miracle.
He had seen the hospital director's reverence for Serena with his own eyes.
He had heard 'Golden Hands' praise her and admit his own inferiority with his own
ears.
The sheer shock of it all completely overwhelmed the man who had always been known as a proud and conceited genius.