Overbearing CEO's Contract Love
Chapter 266: The Woman Who Refused to Wake Up

Chapter 266: The Woman Who Refused to Wake Up

Emma Hart withdrew her hand from her grandmother’s grip and leaned aside, her grandmother’s feigned kindness only intensifying Emma’s annoyance. It would be better, more honest, and easier for Emma to accept if her grandmother just admitted that keeping her around was convenient for her own care in old age.

"Grandma, I don’t need you to worry about my affairs," Emma said. Has it not always been this way? When had her grandmother truly cared about her?

Unlike her grandmother, Emma’s mother had quietly retrieved the deed from the room. After a quick glance at the grandmother, she slipped it beneath her own shirt and walked directly to Emma, placing the deed into her hands, "Emma, take this and solve your problems."

As Emma took the deed from her mother, it felt profoundly heavy. It was only a booklet of papers, but at that moment, it weighed on her with the gravity of all the years that had silently passed. Emma looked up suddenly to see her mother’s hair had grown prematurely gray, the years having taken their toll, leaving her with nothing but worn hands rougher than those of her peers and those silvery strands.

"Mom..." Emma’s voice trembled. There had been a time when Emma thought her mother, like everyone else, only saw her as a means to make money. Emma felt a pang of emotion; her mother was always contradictory, never overtly defending her, yet occasionally doing something profoundly touching.

Emma’s mother patted her hand, "Child, use it."

Behind them, the grandmother, witnessing the scene, snapped. She snatched the deed and stuffed it into her bosom, "What are you doing?" she exclaimed in alarm, staring at Emma’s mother.

Emma’s mother tried to soothe her, "Mom, please, let Emma have the deed."

"Give it to her?" The grandmother said reluctantly. "And leave me to sleep on the streets?"

"Mom, Emma is just using the deed for a loan, we can still live here," Emma’s mother explained patiently.

"A loan? How do you know she won’t just sell it?" the grandmother shouted.

Emma was shocked by her grandmother’s volume despite her age. With a cold laugh, she thought, did her grandmother think everyone was like her? That she would hate them enough to sell the house and leave them homeless?

Who was it that always resorted to such measures, yet she had never harmed them? For the sake of the big house, she had always lived a life of restraint and quiet desperation.

Tears briefly traced Emma Hart’s cheeks, surprising her with their sting. She had thought herself immune to such words, yet the pain was unmistakable.

"Family can hurt you the most because you can’t guard against the wounds they inflict," Emma realized.

"Mom,Emma is not that kind of person; how can you say that?" Emma’s mother said in her always gentle tone, offering futile explanations and defenses, unable to snatch the deed from Grandma’s grasp.

"I don’t care whether she is or not! Without this house, you go out and make money. At your age, which company would hire you?" Grandma snapped viciously.

Emma felt like her head was about to explode. Why did all these troubles have to tangle up with her? She was truly exhausted.

"It’s all because your beloved grandson got into trouble! Do you think I want to borrow money for myself?" Emma shouted.

Grandma listened in surprise to Emma’s words, and her mother anxiously asked, "What’s going on?"

Emma wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. What was there to cry about?

Standing before her grandmother, Emma raised her head defiantly, "Yes, your beloved grandson! He needs the money, so it doesn’t matter whether you give it or not! You deal with your grandson yourself!" With that, Emma turned to leave.

Behind her, Grandma grabbed Emma’s arm, "Don’t go!"

Emma snorted coldly, turning her body away. Had their attitudes changed so drastically now that the family’s golden boy was in trouble?

Grandma looked down at the deed in her shaking hands, "How can I believe what you say?"

"You don’t have to believe me," Emma retorted coldly. "I never asked you to believe me, nor did I insist you give me the deed. Whether or not I have it makes no difference to me." Emma was sarcastic, her patience thinning. She didn’t want to say she was considering their age, but it seemed they were ungrateful.

Emma felt foolish for caring so much.

Grandma slowly pulled out the deed, and Emma’s mother watched intently, but Emma Hart did not rush to take it. Instead, as Grandma extended the deed towards Emma, she abruptly withdrew her hand, clutching it tightly to her chest again. "No! I can’t give you this deed! You can find money elsewhere; go ask that Mr. Sterling, I don’t believe you can’t get money from him!"

Asking for money? Hah, as if Damien Sterling would just do as she asked.

"You’re wasting your time with him, huh? For someone like him, that amount of money is nothing," Grandma rambled on before Emma, whose vision began to blur as her grandmother’s figure grew indistinct and her head felt unbearably heavy...

"Emma... Emma, what’s wrong?"

Amid her mother’s hysterical cries, Emma lost consciousness.

White walls, the sharp scent of disinfectant, and a white figure paced before Emma, with a dark silhouette beside it, looming like a sinister deity. Even though Emma couldn’t see clearly, she could still feel the authority and oppression emanating from the dark figure.

"How long until she wakes up?"

The dark figure spoke in a deep, gloomy voice, his eyes fixed on the woman lying on the hospital bed.

"It’s hard to say, but it should be soon," the doctor replied cautiously, careful not to overpromise. After all, the story of the obstetrician who was inexplicably fired had spread through the hospital, and no one dared to misspeak, risking their job.

Emma felt light slowly seeping into her eyelids as she lay there, her eyelashes trembling slightly.

Damien Sterling, anxious, pulled at the doctor preparing to leave, "Is she about to wake up?"

The doctor looked at Emma and called her name a few times, but she showed no response.

In that moment, Emma could hear the doctor’s voice clearly but chose not to open her eyes. It seemed as if there were two different worlds between closing and opening her eyes, and right now, she preferred to stay in her own tranquil world.