Substitute Wife, Genius CEO novel Chapter 88

His focus wasn't on her at all. Completely oblivious to her condition, he strode toward the door.

Dragged helplessly behind him, she gritted her teeth against the excruciating agony. Raising her right hand, she smashed her phone into the back of his head with everything she had.

A sharp pain flared at the back of his skull. His face darkened as he whipped around, ready to lay into her.

But her body had already gone limp, crumpling softly to the floor as she lost consciousness.

Startled, he rushed to catch her. "Summer?!"

Lily frowned and walked over. "Do you think she's faking it, Xavier? She just hit you; she's probably terrified you're going to scream at her."

He looked at her deathly pale face and shook his head. "It doesn't look like it."

"No one touched her, and she wasn't bleeding," Lily reasoned, feigning confusion. "How does a perfectly healthy person pass out exactly when it's most convenient?"

Finding some logic in her words, he shook her gently. "Summer?!"

When she remained unresponsive, Lily said gently, "Your grandfather is in bad shape, isn't he? Why don't you go ahead while I stay here and keep an eye on her? If she really is unconscious, I'll call an ambulance. Carlson's health is more important."

He weighed his options and nodded. "Alright. Be careful around her." He was genuinely worried she might wake up and hurt Lily.

After all, Lily was pregnant.

She smiled warmly and nodded. "Go. Drive safe."

The moment he walked out the door, her tender facade vanished.

She stared down at the unconscious woman with cold, dead eyes, recalling how effortlessly she had owned the room just moments ago.

Especially the way those long, pale fingers had danced elegantly across the keyboard like sprites.

"Feeling pretty smug, weren't you?" Lily lifted her heel and stomped down hard directly onto Summer's right hand, grinding her weight into the delicate joints.

She wanted to completely shatter this hand and see if Summer could ever look so arrogant again.

The thought alone twisted her features into a mask of pure, vicious cruelty.

Lily patted her chest dramatically, her eyes red and shimmering with fake, unshed tears. "Thank goodness you arrived when you did, Paige."

Upon seeing this, Paige turned a wrathful glare toward Summer. "You are going to pay for this! I'm going to tell Mr. Sterling exactly what I just saw—how you violently shoved her!"

Summer forced herself into a sitting position. Her left arm hung grotesquely at her side, while her right fingers throbbed with a lacerating, agonizing heat.

Pale as a ghost, she let out a hollow laugh. "Be my guest."

As she spoke, she blindly felt for her phone and managed to dial 9-1-1.

Seeing her thumb hovering over the call button, Paige lunged forward.

"Are you out of your mind? You're calling the cops?"

She kicked out, aiming directly at the phone to knock it away.

Sterling Group was already under massive scrutiny today. If the police were called into their headquarters, it would spark another PR nightmare that they couldn't sweep under the rug.