Sweet Subterfuge

Chapter 24

As if someone had cast a spell on her, Larissa lay there, unmoving, watching as the car sped closer and closer toward her.

A rational part of her urged her to run, but her body refused to oblige.

The screech of brakes engaging pierced the air.

And then, it felt like the whole world had stilled.

Some passersby covered their eyes in fear. Some of them turned their gaze to the

scene.

She didn’t know how much time had passed. Maybe it had been a few seconds, or a few minutes- perhaps it had been ten minutes or tens of minutes. Slowly, sound seeped into Larissa’s ears again.

Unexpectedly, she had not been hit. The car’s bumper had barely touched her when it stopped completely. There wasn’t even a single scratch on her.

Due to the incident, the remaining cars that passed by had slowed down as the number of people gathered around gradually increased, trapping her in the middle of the crowd.

“Miss, are you alright?”

“Can you

stand?” © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“You haven’t lost your mind, have you?”

The passersby interjected one by one, hurling questions at her without pausing.

Larissa blinked. She felt her heart rate slowly return to normal, having stopped momentarily out of fear.

A stranger reached out. Larissa placed her hand in his and stood up with great difficulty, leaning onto his strength.

“Thanks.” She forced out a smile.

Her face was pale, though she didn’t know if it was from the pain or from her fright. Even her voice was extraordinarily weak and feeble.

“Miss, let me take you to the hospital for a checkup. I need to be responsible if there’s anything wrong at all.” His expression was sincere.

Larissa was still confused. “What are you responsible for?”

The man pointed at the parked silver Mercedes not that far away from where they stood. “Don’t you remember? I almost hit you just now.”

Larissa’s mind had been mostly blank earlier. She’d only seen the car and not the

driver.

“Oh.” She nodded. “This is not your fault. You don’t have to be responsible for anything.”

She turned and searched for Janine and Dick.

The cab she had called was still where it was, but the passengers in the car were long gone.

The driver told her, “Those three cowards ran away a long time ago!” He pointed in the direction where they had gone. “They went that way!”

Larissa considered her current situation. She knew that it was impossible for her to try to run after them now.

The stranger gripped her arm. “Since the hospital is just here, you should go in for a checkup! I’ll pay for it.” Seeing as she was about to refuse, he added, “Don’t say no, please. Even if it wasn’t my fault, I have a share of responsibility in this too. I wouldn’t be able to rest without knowing that you’re fine.”

Larissa couldn’t resist him. Plus, she was going in to check on her injuries anyway, so she followed him into the emergency room.

The doctor on-call in the emergency room was the one who had given her a splint the last time she went in. Upon seeing her, the first thing he asked was, “Didn’t I tell you to go to orthopedics for your follow-up? Why are you here?”

Larissa smiled bitterly. “I’ve already gone for my follow-up. I fell outside just now. I want to check if my fracture has been affected.”

“How could you be so careless!” the doctor chided as he gestured for her to remove her clothes.

The man who had accompanied her to the emergency room walked out of the consultation room self- consciously and closed the door behind him.

The doctor removed the bandages wrapped around her shoulder and examined the

site of her injury. Sweat dotted her forehead as pain shot up her arm.

“It’s definitely been misaligned.” The doctor sighed. “I need to fix it with another splint.”

All that hard work spent on recovering for days was utterly wasted. She was back to square one again.

Larissa’s heart filled with bitterness.

When the doctor was done fixing her bandages, the man was still waiting for her outside.

“How are you now?” he asked.