The Apple of My Eye

When Vicky realized what Cassie had said, the latter was already gone. Vicky was furious, but there was no way for her to vent her rage.

"Damn it! Even a lowly nurse treats me like that!" Infuriated, Vicky climbed down from the bed and looked for a landline.

David had confiscated her phone, telling her that it had been because he was concerned about her health. He had also said that it was to prevent her from spending too much time playing on it.

Now that her phone wasn't with her, there was no way to reach Charles. Even if she wanted to throw a tantrum or open up about her emotions, the right person just wasn't there.

Vicky walked out of her ward and into the corridor. When she finally managed to find a landline, she stood in front of it and lifted the receiver, only to realize that she hadn't memorized Charles' number. Of course, she also didn't know how to reach David.

Agitated, Vicky forcibly tugged the phone line out of the wall.

"Miss Ruan, don't you know that this is public property? What you're doing is vandalism!" A nurse confronted Vicky upon seeing what she had done to the phone.

She didn't care who Vicky was and what sort of power she had. Everyone here was either a patient or a patient's visitor. No one had special privileges here.

"Don't you know who I am? How dare you speak to me like that? Do you think I can't pay for this phone?" Vicky lashed out at the nurse. It was as if, finally, she now had someone to receive all her anger. "Miss Ruan, I don't care who you are. Here, you're a patient, just like everyone else," the nurse declared, showing no indication of being intimidated by Vicky. 'She was in the wrong. How could she still behave like she's the boss around here?' the nurse wondered.

The nurse didn't take this act of vandalism lightly. To teach Vicky a lesson, the nurse called up her superior and brought the matter to his attention.

"Sir, the patient in room 805 is making a scene in the hall," the nurse reported the matter. She made it seem as though it was graver than it actually was.

"Okay, I'll be there in a minute." The department manager hung up the phone and quickly headed to the eighth floor.

Growing nervous, Vicky pulled the nurse close and asked, "What do you want? Do you want money from me? Do you know that I'm Charles' fiancée?"

"That's bullshit. Even if you were the last woman on earth, Charles would never fall in love with you." It was Cassie who had spoken. She had watched the drama unfold. When she saw how shameless Vicky had been, Cassie was unable to control herself. She had stepped out from where she had been quietly observing everything and promptly set Vicky straight.

"Who are you to say so? How do you know how Charles feels about me?" Vicky now trembled with anger.

"I just know it."

"Enough!" The department manager interrupted, seeing one of his nurses in a dispute with a patient.

Despite her irritation, Cassie kept quiet and stepped to the side. She hated Vicky but didn't want to cause the manager any trouble.

"Are you in charge of the nurses here?" Vicky turned to the man, expecting him to recognize her status.

While the man wasn't the person who was directly in charge of the nurses, he still had considerable authority in the hospital. He nodded-a signal for her to proceed.

Vicky pointed an accusing finger at the man and claimed, "Your nurses are mistreating me! I want to file a complaint!"

She then began to narrate how the nurses had allegedly mistreated her. The manager could see that she was being unreasonable, so he kept shaking his head as she talked.

"What does that mean? Why won't you say anything? Don't you believe what I just said?" Vicky felt frustrated. She wanted to ensure that the nurses got punished, but it was beginning to look like that wasn't going to happen.

"Miss Ruan, you deliberately damaged our landline. You should feel lucky that we're not even asking you to replace it, but now, you have the gall to blame us! I don't see the logic here!" the first nurse couldn't help arguing.

Cassie had wanted to say something earlier, but then she decided against it. There was no use communicating with someone like Vicky.

Vicky answered back. With every word, her voice grew louder and louder. The manager had no choice but to grant her request and help her reach Charles.

Together, they went to a working landline and called him, but he didn't pick up. Vicky then called David, who was with Charles in Shining Company. David looked at Charles, who was speaking in a meeting. He promptly walked out of the meeting room and answered the call.

"Okay, okay. I get it," said David. After the call, he fell silent, clearly deep in thought.

Half an hour later, the meeting ended.

David followed Charles back into his office.

"What happened? Is something wrong?" Charles could deduce from David's face that something must have gone wrong. Otherwise, David wouldn't be behaving so anxiously.

"Vicky is making trouble in the hospital." David wore a helpless look on his face.

Charles had asked David to take away Vicky's phone so that she wouldn't be able to bother him. However, she had caused havoc in the hospital to reach him. It seemed that he had to go to the hospital and talk to her after all.

"Let's go. Besides, I've more or less finished my work here," Charles declared. Without delay, they headed to the hospital.

When they arrived, they caught Vicky crying and accusing the hospital's staff of mistreating her.

Charles was rendered speechless. 'She's the one making a scene here. What a shameless woman! She's even blaming the nurses!' he thought.

"Charles, you're here! You're finally here! They were all bullying me. All I wanted was to call you, but they all stopped me from doing so. They even accused me of damaging hospital property!" Vicky blabbered. She had dashed along the corridor toward Charles the moment she spotted him.

Having been accused unfairly, the nurses felt like slapping Vicky.

Charles didn't say anything. He simply took her back to her ward.

David stayed out in the corridor to straighten things out with the nurses and the management. After helping Vicky back onto her bed, Charles asked emotionlessly, "What do you want from me?" "Charles, are you avoiding me? Are you in love with another woman?" Vicky suddenly burst into tears.

Charles had planned on scolding her for being too temperamental, but he didn't have the heart to do this to a crying woman.

"Charles, just answer me!" Vicky pleaded, shaking Charles' arm.

Charles gently shook her arms off and said, "No, why do you think so? Is this what this is all about? You only wanted to ask me this? Don't you know that I have a lot to do at work?"

"I'm so sorry, Charles. It's just that you haven't visited me for days. I was afraid that something had happened to you. That's why I wanted to call you. I was worried about you, and I've missed you!" Vicky felt like she had been wronged.

Heaving a helpless sigh, Charles said, "I'm fine. Nothing's going to happen to me. Don't worry. And remember one thing: I have a lot of things to deal with at Shining Company right now. I don't have the time to visit you every day."

Vicky fell silent after hearing Charles' explanation. She didn't want to keep whining for fear of making Charles hate her. She didn't want to drive him further away.