Chapter 3

"After what you did to Lucy, you expect me to let you go? Impossible! Never in this lifetime, Nicole!"

Travis dragged Nicole from the hospital room like she weighed nothing.

At six feet tall, he easily overpowered her smaller frame.

In his custom-tailored suit, with his handsome face set in a dark scowl, he radiated such an intimidating presence that people kept their distance.

When nurses tried to intervene, asking what was happening,

Travis snapped, "She's my wife. Just taking her for some fresh air."

Seeing his menacing expression and hearing he was the patient's husband, they backed away.

Until a figure in a white coat blocked their path.

"The patient is deathly pale. Where exactly do you plan to take her?"

Travis was stunned that someone dared to stand in his way.

He looked up to see a strikingly handsome man, hands in his lab coat pockets, fixing him with a stern glare.

"Get out of my way, Alexander Hayes!"

"You think I take orders from you?"

Alexander pushed his glasses up his straight nose, a cold smile playing on his lips.

"What's wrong? Worried about your girlfriend?" Travis tightened his grip on Nicole's wrist viciously.

Nicole let out a pained whimper.

Seeing Nicole's pained expression, Alexander's eyes flashed dangerously behind his glasses.

In one swift move, he grabbed Travis's wrist and twisted it sharply until bones cracked.

Travis let out an involuntary grunt and was forced to release Nicole.

Alexander quickly caught Nicole around the shoulders, then delivered a sharp kick to Travis's lower abdomen.

Travis groaned again, dropping to his knees in pain.

"If we weren't in a hospital, I'd do much worse."

With those words, Alexander scooped Nicole up and carried her back to her room.

When his assistant arrived, he found Travis slumped against the wall, clutching himself, his face ashen.

"Mr. Graham, what happened?"

"Get me out of here, now!"

With people staring and whispering, Travis couldn't bear to stay another second.

But this wasn't over. He wouldn't let Nicole off so easily!

Back in bed, Nicole felt her discomfort easing somewhat.

"Thank you, and I'm sorry you had to see me like this."

Nicole apologized weakly.

Alexander tucked the blanket around her, his dark eyes studying her meaningfully. "I couldn't reach you for days. So this is where you've been. Why didn't you tell me?"

Nicole managed a small smile. "Just feeling under the weather. I'll be fine in a few days."

Alexander looked at her bruised face, the bandages around her head, and the burn ointment on her hand. His lips tightened, but he didn't press further.

"Focus on getting better. Then think about my offer. You're a Harvard Medical School graduate - don't waste your talents."

"Yes, alright," Nicole responded softly, exhaustion evident in her voice.

For the next few days, Travis didn't return to cause more trouble.

But another problem found her instead.

Seven days later, on a quiet afternoon, Nicole received a call from her father.

As soon as she answered, a woman's piercing scream came through the speaker.

"Nicole, help me! I'm dying! Please, save me!"

The woman's cries were heartbreaking, but Nicole remained eerily calm, almost cold.

"Mom, I'll come get you the moment you divorce Richard Spencer."

Before Nicole could finish, her father's crude, violent cursing filled the line.

"Nicole, how dare you! What kind of daughter tells her parents to divorce? Listen here - if your mother tries to divorce me, I'll go to the Graham estate and slit my wrists. I'll put up posters everywhere. I'll make sure everyone in this city knows what an ungrateful, unfilial daughter you are!"

After his tirade, Richard delivered a savage kick to Helen's stomach.

Helen Watson cried out in pain, clutching her abdomen and sobbing.

"Richard, please don't cause trouble for Nicole! Life's hard enough for her in the city. Don't ruin things for her, I'm begging you!"

"Hah! She's married into money, living in a mansion, driving luxury cars. What's so hard about her life? She's living in luxury while her poor father can barely afford to eat!"

"The money she sends, you waste it all on prostitutes and gambling! Why don't you mention that?"

"You dare talk back to me? I'll beat you to death!"

From the dilapidated house came the sound of a woman's agonized screams.

Nicole hung up the phone in frustration, her back damp with cold sweat.

Her face was pale, and her hands trembled as they gripped the phone.

After she married into the Graham family, Travis's billion-dollar fortune had provided a wedding gift of one million dollars to Nicole's birth parents.

Nicole had given them every penny of it, considering it payment for giving her life.

Just for giving her life - not raising her - because Richard Spencer had thrown her into a dumpster the day she was born.

A street cleaner had found her and taken her to the police station.

The police returned her to Richard, but in his drunken rages, he abandoned her again and again.

The local authorities, unable to watch this continue, reached out to the Spencer relatives to see if anyone would adopt her.

But Richard had burned too many bridges over the years - no relative would take Nicole in.

With no other choice, the authorities placed her in an orphanage.

Nicole grew up there until she was six, gradually learning the truth about her past - that her own parents had abandoned her.

Then everything changed when old Mr. Graham visited the orphanage and saw the bright, lovely child. He took her in as his adopted granddaughter.

That's when she first saw Travis Graham, the golden child.

She fell in love at first sight.

From then on, she would do anything to be with Travis.

When he was sad, she'd make silly faces to make him laugh. When he cruelly dared her to bark like a dog, she did it. When he said dresses made her look cheap, she only wore pants...

From age six to twenty-six, Nicole lived and loved Travis with complete devotion.

She desperately tried to overcome the trauma of her parents' abandonment.

But the day after her wedding to Travis, her father Richard somehow got her phone number and called.

From that day forward, whenever Richard needed money, he would call Nicole.

If she refused, he would beat her mother Helen.

This cycle continued for three long years.

Though Nicole had married Travis, he had never given her a penny.

He'd even made her sign a prenuptial agreement before the wedding.

If they ever divorced, she wouldn't get a cent.

So every dollar Nicole sent to her parents came from her own hard-earned savings.

Recently, she'd run into financial difficulties and couldn't send Richard his usual payment.

True to form, he'd resorted to beating Helen.

He threatened Nicole that if he didn't see $150,000 within a month, he'd show up at the Graham estate with a knife and kill himself right there.

As if things weren't bad enough already.

This morning, when the nurse came to take her temperature, she also brought Nicole's hospital bill - $150,000.

That was exactly how much she had left in her bank account.

Was the universe trying to back her into a corner?