CHAPTER 27: CHAPTER 27: TALIA, WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED AT THE STABLES THIS AFTERNOON?

Talia Rhodes follows the rescue team outside.

Winter Donovan and Yvonne Coleman also hurry over.

Yvonne sprints to Talia’s side, urgently asking, "What happened?"

Talia’s mind is a blur. She replies, slightly dazed, "I don’t know either. Just now, Selina Hughes asked me to teach her how to ride a horse. She was riding just fine, then suddenly Winter went berserk, and Selina was thrown off. She seems seriously injured."

Winter furrows her brows in thought, "Winter gets regular check-ups every month. Before bringing it out today, we even did a special examination, and all indicators were fine. How could it suddenly go crazy?"

Yvonne clenches her fists, "Could Selina be up to something? I remember she initially only wanted Adrian to teach her, right? She never really liked you, so why would she suddenly ask you to teach her?"

Winter says, "The staff have already controlled Winter and injected it with a tranquilizer. They’ll conduct another examination later. Talia, don’t blame yourself; this isn’t your fault."

Upon hearing this, Talia looks thoughtfully in the direction where the rescue team disappeared.

She recalls Selina’s odd smile before the accident.

Her intuition tells her that Selina is undoubtedly connected to this incident.

But...

Why would she do this?

Thinking of the look Adrian gave her earlier, Talia feels she might have an answer.

But isn’t Selina afraid of endangering her life like this?

Did Selina go to such extremes just to create a rift between Adrian and her?

They’ve only met twice, yet Selina risks her life to frame her!

Talia is deeply shocked.

Selina Hughes is a downright lunatic!

...

Inside the ambulance.

Selina’s face is pale, tears in her eyes, looking quite pitiful.

She calls out plaintively to Adrian beside her, "Brother, I hurt so much..."

Adrian gently comforts her, "We’ll be at the hospital soon, let’s see what the doctor says."

Tears stream down Selina’s face, her voice weak, sobbing, "It really hurts. When I fell from the horse, I was so scared, brother... I was afraid I’d never see you again..."

She grips Adrian’s hand tightly, her cries intermittent, "Brother, did I cause you trouble? Boo hoo... Originally... Everyone was happy today, but I had an accident, boo hoo... Brother, am I a troublemaker?"

"Don’t say that." Adrian hears her words, and his eyes show heartache.

After all, she’s his little sister whom he watched grow up. Though not by blood, it felt as close.

"Alright, don’t cry anymore." Adrian’s voice is soft, coaxing, "We’re almost at the hospital."

Selina sniffles, choking back sobs, "When brother comforts me, the pain goes away..."

Adrian reaches out and gently pats her head, "You’re still the same as when you were little."

At the hospital.

The doctor takes X-rays and examines Selina.

Her injuries aren’t too severe: a fractured tailbone, soft tissue damage, a slight dislocation of the elbow, and multiple scrapes, thankfully no internal organ damage.

The doctor says it’s a stable fracture; about a month of hospitalization should suffice for recovery.

After the examination and medicine application, the nurse administers a painkiller, finally quieting down the consistently complaining Selina.

Talia follows to the hospital and just reaches the ward door, hearing Selina cooing inside to Adrian.

She sweetly says, "Brother, I have a cast on my arm, it’s inconvenient to eat, can you feed me?"

Talia stops in her tracks.

She hesitates.

Would entering now be inappropriate?

Adrian’s voice comes, "I’ll call for assistance."

Selina insists, continuing to act coy, "Oh, no, I want brother to feed me personally. Why won’t you?"

Adrian gently persuades, "Be good, you’re not a little child anymore. Besides, I have a girlfriend now; I’m about to get engaged to Talia soon. We should avoid suspicion at this time."

Talia’s heart is lightly touched.

She hadn’t expected Adrian to refuse Selina’s request for her sake.

Upon hearing this, Selina abruptly changes her tone, no longer soft, but several pitches higher, "Even siblings should avoid suspicion? Brother, is Talia Rhodes such a petty woman? She causes me to fall off the horse, and you don’t care about me, instead, you refuse me because of her?"

Talia turns, preparing to leave.

She doesn’t have the audacity to impose herself where she’s unwelcome.

Since Selina doesn’t like her, there’s no need for her to go in.

Adrian’s voice carries a hint of anger, "Selina, I’ve told you, Talia will be your sister-in-law. You cannot be so rude to her!"

At that moment, a nurse holding an IV walks to the ward door, seeing Talia. The nurse says, "Excuse me, please move aside."

The two people inside turn simultaneously and see Talia at the door.

Talia sighs and walks in behind the nurse.

Selina’s eyes openly show disdain, "Why are you here?"

Almost at the same time, Adrian also speaks, "Talia, you’re here."

The nurse administers the IV to Selina.

Selina coldly stares at Talia, her gaze as sharp as needles, piercing Talia.

Talia remains dignified, meets Selina’s eyes, and coldly says, "You accuse me of causing you to fall off the horse?"

Selina initially expected Talia to be nervous or panicked after her fall, but she hadn’t anticipated her calm reaction at this moment.

It was quite unexpected.

Nonetheless, Selina composed herself.

She continued her act, didn’t immediately respond to Talia’s questioning, but turned to Adrian, feigning tears and grievance.

"Brother, I know I left a bad impression on sister Talia the first time we met. Today at the horse ranch, I was thinking that sister Talia is my future sister-in-law, so I wanted to get closer to her..."

Selina’s eyes brim with tears, "I asked sister Talia to teach me to ride, because I wanted to interact more and close the gap between us."

"I didn’t expect her to dislike me this much. At that moment, she suddenly kicked the horse when I wasn’t paying attention, and the horse instantly ran off like crazy. I was frightened."

Selina, the drama queen, tearfully accuses, "Sister Talia, I understand if you don’t like me, but we have no grievances. Why do you want to harm me this way?"

At this point, Selina stops and looks up to see Adrian’s expression.

Adrian slightly furrows his brows, yet his tone is not harsh. He asks Talia, "Talia, what exactly happened at the ranch this afternoon?"

Beneath the blanket, Selina’s uncasted hand clenches into a fist.

Her brother actually doesn’t believe her!

Why is he so gentle with Talia Rhodes?

Back in middle school, when girls bullied her, brother directly got those girls expelled by the school.

In high school, when some thugs harassed her, brother found people to beat those thugs up badly, landing them all in the hospital.

In university, when a creepy guy stalked and photographed her secretly, brother had that guy’s hand crippled.

Now, she’s "bullied" by Talia Rhodes, covered in injuries, laying in the hospital with a cast and IV, yet brother didn’t immediately blame Talia; instead, he asks Talia what had happened?

Jealousy rampages wildly in her heart.

Selina wishes she could rush over and beat Talia Rhodes right now.