The car showed no sign of slowing down-not even for a second.

If Lyle hadn''t reacted fast enough by shoving Grace several feet to the side, they would undoubtedly have been sent flying through the air.

Instead, the two cars collided with a thunderous crash, and smoke immediately began to rise.

Anger boiled within Lyle as he stormed forward to confront Jodie. However, Grace''s hand shot out, grabbing his arm before he could take a step.

He shook her off with a snarl. "When have you started letting people get away with this?"

No sooner had he spoken than Grace gestured toward the direction where Jodie

was.

It turned out that due to her excessive speed, the crash had caused the car door to deform, trapping Jodie inside the smoking car.

The same person who had shown no fear moments before was now panicking with tears building in her eyes. The sight was made more gruesome by the blood seeping from the wound on her forehead where she had hit the windshield.

She pounded at the window, but her strength was no match for the reinforced ss. It barely budged.

Lyle scoffed and let out a burst of hystericalughter. "Serves her right. That''s what you call ''karma.'' She can burn in there for all I care. The car''s about to go up in mes anyway."

His words hung in the air as he watched Grace''s unexpected movement.

"Don''t tell me you''re going to be all saintly and save her?"

Grace walked right past him to her own car instead.

"I wonder if the insurance will cover this," she muttered with a sigh.

That car was an expensive car.

Lyle''s nose practically wrinkled in annoyance as he grabbed her wrist, intent on hailing a cab. "Let''s go. Just call the insurancepany. They''ll know what to do."

She nodded. Once they settled into a cab and merged into traffic, she calmly ced a call to the insurancepany.

Meanwhile, trapped inside the wrecked car, Jodie could only watch helplessly as Grace disappeared from view. Thick smoke began to billow from the car, and in a terrifying instant, mes erupted, ripping a scream from her throat.

"Help me! Help!"

Fortunately, the road wasn''t entirely deserted.

A few passersby witnessed the ident and rushed over to her aid. However, the cars were both fused together by the impact and heat. It took more than ten minutes of frantic effort before they managed to pull her free.

As a result, her arms and legs were severely burned. The pain was more than she could bear, and she passed out on the spot.

She hated Grace.

She would kill her for this, no matter what it took.

...

When the hospital called, Ethan initially thought he had misheard.

Jodie, burned?

He even canceled his overseas conference without a second thought and instructed Tim to take him to the hospital.

After two hours of waiting, Jodie finally woke up, and the sight of him triggered a torrent of desperate weeping.

The doctor stepped forward and

removed his mask, saying, "She has sustained''s severe burns to her hands

and thighs. Skin grafting will likely be necessary. But you should

understand that no matter howfn6523 ???s ??????? ?s ?????? ?? FιndＮovel/fn6523

sessful the graft, it will never fully

restore the original appearance."  s

At best, she might look a little less frightening.

Jodie''s eyes burned with a raw intensity, her entire body trembling violently as she desperately cried out Uncle Ethan do you kn no was Grace who did this to me.

She

crashed into my car and leftme

there on purpose."

to s

Ethan''s brows furrowed. Without missing a beat, he turned to Tim and ordered, "Look into it."

A call was made, and within minutes, the intact dashcam footage was delivered. Jodie had exaggerated parts of her story, but it was true that Grace had left her behind to burn.

She then tried to lift a hand to wipe her tears, but the pain made even that impossible. So instead, she simply sobbed violently and bitterly, her body shaking from the force of it.

It wasn''t long before the rest of the Henderson family arrived.

This time, even Jordan himself hade in person, his presence casting an immediate and solemn air over the entire hospital ward.

Jodie''s sobs grew even more pitiful in front of him.

She choked out the words, "Grandpa, I want Grace to pay for what she''s done. She ruined me! She destroyed my face, my hands, and my legs! I''m a monster now! I''ll never be able to face anyone again."

Jordan remained standing. His expression was unreadable-neither outrage nor sympathy flickered across his face. Instead, he turned calmly to Ethan. "Ethan, what''s your n?"

If he dared to protect Grace, then perhaps what Theodore had imed wasn''t just nonsense and the rumors outside would no longer be mere spection. Ethan truly had feelings for that woman.

Ethan remained seated in his wheelchair with his gaze lowered. "Give me three days. I''ll take care of it."

The words had barely left his lips when Jodie flung off her nket and tried to rise from the bed. However, she was still connected to the IV, and the sudden movement caused her to nearly copse to the floor.

She gripped the bedsheet with trembling hands, all while mming her forehead repeatedly against the floor until blood began to seep from the point of impact.

"Grandpa, I don''t want him to handle it! He''ll side with Grace, for sure! I want you to get justice for me!"

Her cries turned into incoherent sobs before she gasped out her final usation.

"He still keeps the magnolias she

sent him and even has them in the

best vase The Palm Bay maids told me everything! He won''t even look at the flowers I gave him! Having so long with him, how could not know that he likes magnolias? He definitely has a crush on Grace!"  s

With that, an uneasy silence settled over the ward.

Just outside the doorway, Yancey paused in his steps as a faint mocking chuckle escaped his lips.