Sham Marriage Quit Real Heiress Strikes Back novel Chapter 101

Elena stepped out of the car, said goodbye to Alexander, and walked into the hospital building.

Alexander drove off, his car blending smoothly into traffic.

Neither of them noticed that on a side path not far away, Evan was standing there with a cigarette between his fingers, watching the direction Alexander had gone.

He let out a short laugh and crushed the cigarette under his shoe.

Nathan's so-called wife is more interesting than I thought. Since when does she get involved with Alexander?

Inside, Elena stopped at the nurse's station to confirm Charles's room number, then hurried down the hallway.

Before she even reached the door, she heard voices. Camille and Nathan were sitting beside Charles's hospital bed.

"Grandpa, Camille woke up early to make this soup for you," Nathan said.

Charles's face was cold.

He suddenly knocked the bowl away. The hot soup splashed everywhere, some of it landing on Camille's arm.

She screamed and jumped back. "Nathan..."

She immediately leaned into his arms, deliberately exposing the reddened patch on her skin.

Nathan felt a flicker of guilt and instinctively wanted to comfort her, but Charles's icy stare stopped him. He could only give Camille a subtle look, telling her to endure it.

"You don't need to come see me," Charles said sharply. "I'd recover faster if I didn't have to look at the two of you. Take her and get out. Go."

He saw right through Camille's little act.

Nathan tried to stay patient. "Grandpa, she made that for you herself. She got up at dawn. She's pregnant, and you know you don't like her, but are you really going to ignore your own great-grandchild too?"

Pregnant?

Elena, standing outside, frowned slightly.

What timing.

Inside the room, Charles was furious. "You feel bad because she made soup once? Elena made soup for you for years. Did all of that mean nothing?"

Thinking about how Elena had been missing until now made his chest ache.

Her own parents had never truly cherished her.

He thought that by arranging her marriage into the Hawthorne family, with him there to protect her, she would at least have some happiness.

Instead, he had personally pushed a good girl into a disaster.

The regret weighed heavily on him.

"Tell me," Charles demanded, "have you found Elena yet?"

Nathan hesitated. "Camille wasn't feeling well last night. I went back to take care of her."

He had to admit, even as Charles's biological grandson, he could not have handled it the way she just had.

And Camille... He glanced at her. She was still pinching her nose, disgust written plainly across her face.

Nathan pressed his lips together and looked back at Elena. From the moment she entered the room, she had not looked at him once.

It was as if he and Camille did not exist.

The doctor arrived quickly and examined Charles.

"He's fine," the doctor said. "Clearing that mucus was actually good. Turning him on his side was the right move. That prevented choking."

"Thank you," Elena said, exhaling in relief.

After the doctor left, she sat beside Charles and held his thin hand.

"Grandpa, I'm okay. Please don't worry about me."

Charles squeezed her hand tightly. "I failed you... I'm sorry..."

Elena gave a faint, bitter smile.

Yes, he had arranged their marriage.

But if Nathan had not been greedy, and if she had not clung to that small warmth he once offered, they never would have ended up like this.