Smack!Cordy's eyes narrowed as Plum's slap landed squarely on her face, leaving a distinctly red palm print on her fair cheek."You shameless bitch! How could you do this to your own sister?!" Plum snapped at her right after that. "How can she or our family show our faces in public now?! How did we ever raise a swine like you, Cordy?!"Cordy simply pursed her lips seven as she felt the burning sting on her cheek.Many unpleasant memories abruptly appeared in her mind at the same time.She had been alone and helpless since her mother died.On the other hand, Noel won Simon and Plum's favor in every way, and abused Cordy however she could.As a child, Cordy was not good at resisting, and she had to just bear with it most of the time. Even if Simon or Plum knew that Noel was the one at fault, Cordy would be punished anyway. There was even a time when Plum locked her up, denying her food or drink for two days. She had been slapped before by Plum too—just like now, with every ou
Sue and Noel were watching Plum abuse Cordy with irrepressible delight. Noel's gloom was also slightly relieved in turn—so what if Cordy won that press conference? Plum was now tearing her a new one!Nonetheless, Cordy spoke with calm apathy. "Everyone knows how the Sachs gained their success. Naturally, I won't argue with you, because I'd be preaching to deaf ears, discussing such advanced stuff to a housewife who knows nothing about the world. I'd just be wasting my breath."The contempt in her tone left Plum's eyes turning red and she raised her hand again, intending on slapping Cordy again.This time, however, Cordy caught her hand.In the end, no one was obliged to keep being beaten up.One slap was enough for Cordy to give Plum a lesson to remember."Let me go, Cordy Sachs! You bitch!" Plum spat angrily. "You're not setting foot in my house ever again—there's no place for a bitch like you! You are a disgrace to our family's good name!"Cordy firmly flung Plum's hand away
With the evidence of bodily harm, Cordy had proof of deliberate physical assault.That meant she could pursue a legal course of action should she decide to press charges.Cordy finally turned on her phone then and sent the report from her medical examination to the police before getting herself admitted to the hospital.As she reclined in her hospital bed, she stared at the countless missed calls on her phone, but she ignored them anyway. She swiped through news articles and saw that all of the internet was condemning Kyle and Noel, using the foulest of words on them.With the drama having escalated to such an extent, the damage was not just on Kyle and Noel's reputations—both Jessop Corp and Sachs Enterprises would suffer more direct losses as well, including boycotts of their products and their stock prices plummeting.Naturally, Cordy was unmoved. She tapped on Twitter to check out the tweet Kyle had posted yesterday—the number of supportive replies to that tweet before was
Simon's voice was shaking even as he roared furiously, "Cordy Sachs! You're actually suing your own grandmother for assaulting you?! The cops just told me that you're taking a legal course of action instead of settling it privately! Forget the production plant riot—this is your grandmother! What do you think others would say?!" She had really gone too far this time! "Grandmother?" Cordy laughed coldly. "Didn't she tell you? She just said that I'm not a member of her family, that I'm not allowed in her house ever again.""She's just upset…""I'm upset too.""She's your grandmother! Your elder! How could you hold anything against her?!""So she gets to hit me without consequences?""Cordy Sachs!!! You're not listening to reason!" Simon shrieked.Cordy laughed again. Listening to reason? What part of anything he said was reason?Did he ever admit that Plum was at fault?Did he ask what actually happened or listened to her explanation, for that matter? Whatever.Cordy neve
Noel was sobbing at Simon's sigh. "How did it go, Daddy? Does she still want to press charges?""Of course she does!" Simon snapped, seething just then. "Weren't you saying that you're going to woo John Levine? It's already ages, and he's still with Cordy!" Noel appeared even more upset at that, and her eyes were welling with tears. "I wanted to do it to help our family, but Cordy is latching on to him so tightly, I can't even get close…""Oh, Simon, you shouldn't blame her," Sue chimed in, ever quick to her daughter's rescue. "You can't rush a relationship, and did you know that Noel almost passed out from crying? We should think about how we can convince Cordy to drop the charges, or it'll be a scandal for the family if the case was made against Plum and she gets sentenced to jail. Everyone will be laughing at us!"Simon naturally took that into consideration and a vein bulged over his temples in his fury. "It's all my fault. Grandma wouldn't have slapped Cordy if not for me."
Cordy continued then, saying, "I couldn't protect myself when I was a child, but that's not the case now that I'm older." She was assuring John that she could protect herself even though she had no idea why she had to.Still, she probably thought that he was genuinely worried about her, and there were just a handful of people in this world who were."Does it hurt?" John suddenly asked, studying her cheek that was still slightly swollen.How much strength had Plum put behind that slap to cause so much swelling?Cordy appeared taken aback, but she soon shook her head.It really did not hurt… because this amounted to nothing compared to the things she had experienced as a child.And while her heart used to hurt because of that, she now understood that the Sachs did not deserve her tears—not a single drop.John pursed his lips, and the air around him suddenly seemed to turn chilly.He was a frightening sight, but Cordy was not afraid because she knew why he was angry. "I want a
"It's alright, I'll stay here with you," John replied, as if it was only natural. "Sleep."As Cordy stared at him, he said, "You often came by to visit and take care of me when I was staying in the hospital before.""You were hurt because of me," Cordy pointed out."I always repay a favor a hundredfold. You don't have to be so formal with me, Ms. Sachs," John said with a determined tone.Cordy pursed her lips—she had this nagging feeling that she would hurt the little child in John if she turned him down. As such, she simply turned around, keeping her back to him and closed her eyes to sleep.And with that, John sat by her hospital bed, staring at her delicately small figure.She really was small… So, so small.And yet, she was so tough it hurt. John's Adam's apple bobbed just then.If he stopped her all those years ago, when she was fleeing without a care…Would she have been more trusting?-Cordy did not expect that she would really fall asleep.She came up with a re
"Let go of me." Cordy shifted her body again to make John move, only for him to suddenly grunt rather sensually.Cordy promptly stopped moving—even if she was inexperienced, she was more or less educated as an adult. "Just get off me," she said, making herself sound as cold as possible.John swallowed. There was a flash of emotion in his eyes, but he soon regained composure as he got off her and immediately went to the washroom.Cordy did her best to pull herself together, and John soon returned.However, as she turned toward him, she could not help glancing downward, and she was suddenly blushing.She did not want to look. But she seemed unable to help it! She quickly lowered her eyes to the floor—it already took her considerable effort to calm down, but even her ears were now red!John, however, was smiling. "I certainly wouldn't want it to happen, but there are times when it's just… out of my control. I hope I didn't give you too bad an experience, Ms. Sachs."Cord