Betrayed by Blood: My Second Life as a Queen novel Chapter 124

124 /408

Once the wheelchair was stabilized, Willow turned to leave, but the next second, Asher's hand clamped down on her wrist.

His palm was freezing, lacking any warmth of a living person, and his voice trembled. "Willow, please... just stay and talk to me for a bit, okay?"

Willow stared at him blankly and yanked her hand back without an ounce of pity. "If you want to talk, go find your precious Tessa. I don't want to hear a single word from you. It physically disgusts me."

Asher was stunned. Memories suddenly flashed through his mind—times when he used to lose his temper with her.

Back then, Willow would constantly remind him to eat, cooking up all sorts of nutritious meals to keep his strength up. But to him, he felt like a pet being kept in a cage. He couldn't walk, and he couldn't even eat what he wanted.

He despised the Willow from that time. Whenever he looked at her, all he saw was the memory of being crushed beneath the wheels of that car. All he saw was the steering wheel of the race car he'd never touch again.

He had selfishly channeled every ounce of his misery onto Willow. Tearing her down was the only way he could find some twisted sense of balance.

But he had forgotten.

Saving Willow had been his own choice. She hadn't forced him into it.

She was the most innocent person in all of this.

It wasn't until Willow stood in his hospital room and said, 'Asher, my debt to you is paid in full,' that it finally clicked for him. The misery he had inflicted on her was no less than what the accident had done to him.

After all, Willow's childhood dream was to study music.

But she gave it all up to study medicine—just for him.

Asher's voice broke, thick with tears and desperate pleading. "Willow, please don't talk to me like that. I know I messed up. You're my sister... you can't just abandon me..."

Willow let out a sharp laugh. "Your sister? If you really thought of yourself as my brother, then where were you when Leo held my head underwater in the pool? You just sat there and watched without even trying to stop him. In fact, you said my character was rotten and that I deserved to be taught a lesson, didn't you?"

The boomerang of his cruelty from years ago struck him right between the eyes. Asher was struck completely speechless. His mind instantly filled with the agonizing memory of Willow thrashing and begging for her life in the water.