Sebastian didn't spare her a glance, his voice cutting and flat: "I never gave my consent to that alliance."

The third brother arched an eyebrow, a mocking smile playing on his lips: "Brother, are you implying you intend to openly disregard Grandfather's mandates as well?"

The two brothers stood locked in a silent, tense standoff, the faint scent of gunpowder near-palpable in the air.

So, it was a marriage alliance mandated entirely by the elders of the family, and because he refused to submit to it, he had simply selected her as his convenient shield.

The reality laid bare to her.

Sebastian had gone to such immense lengths to assist her previously that a faint sense of guilt had consistently lingered in her mind; now that she grasped he was merely operating with his own calculated motives, the heavy burden completely lifted from her chest.

"Master Sebastian, the backup vehicle has just arrived," the driver interrupted smoothly.

Sebastian gave a quiet nod of acknowledgment. Disregarding the third young master who still stood directly blocking the path, he violently pushed the car door open, stating coldly: "Don't use Grandfather to exert pressure on me."

Likely not anticipating such an aggressive reaction, the young man was pushed back several paces by the opening door, stumbling slightly before stabilizing his footing.

Sebastian stepped down to open the rear door for Scarlett, and she immediately exited the vehicle.

The young man fixed his eyes upon her, feigning a look of sheer astonishment: "I completely failed to notice earlier, but who exactly is this..."

The mocking schadenfreude in his eyes was nearly overflowing. Scarlett cast a casual glance over him, her tone biting and sarcastic:

"Then I suggest you pay an urgent visit to an ophthalmologist to verify your vision, considering a person of my stature was left completely invisible to you."

The young man went completely rigid.

The backup vehicle had pulled up precisely at that moment, and without offering a single beat of hesitation, she pulled the door open and secured herself inside the cabin.

She shut the door firmly, locking the young man's voice out completely.

Sebastian slid into the seat beside her, and the driver immediately accelerated, leaving nothing behind for the third brother but a stream of exhaust fumes and a newly arrived traffic officer who announced levelly: "You executed an illegal lane-merge right into a vehicle traveling straight; the liability rests entirely with your party."

Inside the car, Sebastian locked his eyes onto her, asking quietly: "Are you not infuriated by this?"

Staring into his deep, unfathomable eyes, she honestly couldn't decipher whether she ought to harbor any anger.

"Give me an honest answer," Sebastian said, reading the subtle hesitation written across her face.

"...I'm not angry," she replied truthfully.

Scarlett looked directly at him and added, "Your brother's intentions to incite a rift between us were far too transparent; I am not that dim-witted."

The moment the words left her mouth, she couldn't help but admire her own analytical clarity.

Yet her statement failed to elicit the expected response from Sebastian.

"The back of your clothes is soaked through with blood."

Chapter 21

The words caused Scarlett to go completely rigid where she sat.

A delayed wave of sensation finally reached her brain, and she realized the fabric across her back was damp and clinging tightly against her skin.

The sudden jolt from the collision must have violently agitated her back, causing the newly formed scabs to rip wide open.

But she had explicitly chosen to wear a black outfit tonight; how on earth had he detected it...

Sebastian’s brows tightly knit into a heavy frown: "The fluid has stained the backrest."

Scarlett shifted her head to look back, and sure enough, a sharp streak of crimson was starkly smeared against the brown leather surface of the luxury seat.

As the blood continued to seep out, a piercing wave of agony rushed in to take its place. Her brow furrowed tightly as her mind raced to construct a plausible justification.

Sebastian, however, didn't leave her any room to think, ordering the driver flatly to alter their route toward the nearest medical facility.

"I'm perfectly fine, there's no need to..." Scarlett attempted to reject the idea, but Sebastian’s freezing, authoritative glare instantly silenced her.

"To the hospital," he commanded, his tone radiating an absolute pressure that brooked no argument.

An intense anxiety began to stir in her chest as she frantically mapped out a containment strategy.

The second her clothes were removed for a medical examination, the mangled mess across her back would lay completely bare.

That would be exceptionally difficult to explain away.

Scarlett tracked the fractured light and shadows flashing past the car window, her analytical mind churning to fabricate a solution.

…

The Hospital.

"Remain outside, do not step foot inside the cubicle," Scarlett told Sebastian firmly.

Sebastian made a move to protest, but she anticipated his reaction and cut him off smoothly: "The injury is located entirely across my back, which requires removing my clothes. I am highly uncomfortable with having anyone present during the procedure."

The statement successfully brought his tracks to a grinding halt.

"Go ahead. I will wait for you right out here," Sebastian said, his tone dropping back to a detached register as his hand pulled away from her arm.

The moment Scarlett tracked the nurse pulling the privacy curtains completely shut, her reflexes flared. She instantly pressed a blade against the nurse's throat, wrapping her other hand securely over her mouth to muffle any sound as she issued a low, dangerous threat:

"Two clean lacerations on the right side. Do you grasp my meaning?"

Sebastian was standing right outside the thin curtain, so Scarlett kept her voice drop-dead low, her lips practically brushing against the skin of the nurse's ear.

The nurse’s eyes darted wildly out of pure terror, her entire body going completely rigid.

She swallowed hard, her warm throat immediately catching the razor-sharp edge of the blade, and she nodded her head frantically in absolute submission.

"Is everything alright in there?" Sebastian’s sharp intuition picked up on the subtle shift, his voice ringing out from behind the curtain.

She released her hold on the nurse, slowly easing herself face-down onto the examination table before replying smoothly, "Everything is fine. I am merely waiting for the nurse to swap out the dressings."

Sebastian fell silent outside.

She peeled back her upper garments, exposing the raw, mangled mess of her back, causing the nurse to let out a sharp gasp of air.

Against her fair skin, the sprawling network of whip lashes laid bare, bleeding and entirely torn.

"What is the status?" he questioned from outside.

"It's perfectly fine," Scarlett answered.

"Scarlett, do not attempt to deceive me," Sebastian’s voice dropped to a low, heavy register.

Her heart tightened slightly, but she maintained her level tone: "I am not deceiving you. If you harbor doubts, you are free to verify it with the medical staff."

The nurse took a deep breath, forcing her voice to stabilize into a professional cadence: "Yes, the lacerations are not exceptionally deep."

The nurse wielded the surgical scissors, carefully snipping away the old layers of gauze one by one.

The cool metal of the scissors slid across her flank and upper back, sending a series of involuntary tremors through her skin.

Every hair on her body stood on end as her hands clenched into tight fists, her brow furrowing deeply as she forced her logical mind to suppress her survival instincts.

Ever since her mentor's passing, whenever she sustained physical trauma, she had always tended to the wounds and executed the wrapping entirely on her own.

Being reduced to a helpless target on a table, completely vulnerable to an outsider handling her injuries, triggered a deep instinctual resistance in her heart.

From outside the curtain, Sebastian demanded, "What type of weapon inflicted these wounds?"

Scarlett’s brows tightly knit, her eyes shooting a sharp, warning glare toward the nurse.

The nurse complied smoothly: "Judging by the trajectory, they appear to be clean knife wounds."

Sebastian pressed further, his tone laced with suspicion: "How exactly did you sustain such trauma?"

Her mind raced at supernatural speed, instantly deploying the离谱 narrative she had constructed: "I am entirely oblivious."

"Oblivious?"

"I woke up in the dead of night to find an intruder wielding a blade standing right beside my mattress. He delivered two quick slashes and vanished immediately after."

The justification Scarlett fabricated was entirely absurd, yet it was precisely the type of narrative capable of deceiving a highly calculated mind like Sebastian's.

He possessed a deeply analytical intellect; delivering a flawlessly logical explanation would only incite his suspicion, whereas an entirely chaotic story left him to deduce his own complex conclusions.

Sure enough, Sebastian immediately pulled out his phone and placed a call, his voice dripping with an icy authority: "An unauthorized individual entered Scarlett's residence last night. Execute a full sweep of the surveillance footage immediately."

Scarlett’s heart firmly settled back into place.