Love Contract

"You need to go to see a doctor and get yourself examined," Victor said in a worried tone as he supported Mary.

"Thank you, but I'll be fine. I need to go see the family first." "Kevin, please calm down. Don't provoke the reporters, they are really aggressive. I don't want you to get in trouble," Mary added as she instructed Kevin.

"Understood. I won't." Kevin nodded in acknowledgment.

"Now you must know what it's like to be surrounded by a horde of reporters," Victor jokingly said as he chuckled to break the tension.

"Haha, yeah, it's intense."

Both Mary and Kevin smiled bitterly at his remark.

"By the way, what are you doing at the gate of the hospital, Victor?" Mary asked as she tilted her head in confusion.

"Oh, well." Victor suddenly averted his eyes to avoid her gaze and brushed his hair aside with nervous fingers. "I followed after your car." He then looked into Mary's eyes and spoke earnestly, "But it was only because I was worried about you. I thought something happened to you. I guess my instincts weren't wrong after all..."

"Victor, you..." Mary's expression tensed up as she balled her hands into fists and complained, "You're so reckless. Why did you follow me? You must really not be involved in any sort of scandal, right? You've been trying hard to avoid them lately."

"That doesn't matter. It felt good when I made headlines last time," Victor said with a reassuring smile smeared across his face.

"Alas, what more to expect from you." Mary raised her hands up in the air in a surrendering gesture as she heaved an exasperated sigh.

Kevin observed their casual exchange of words from the side as though he were an outsider. He was a product of conflicting emotions running amok inside of him as he thought, 'Has the self-centered superstar Victor fallen head over heels for Mary?'

When they followed the staff from the General Manager Office to the gate of the operating room, they realized that the child had incurred critical injuries on the head. And the old man, suffering from a severe rise in blood pressure, was in operation.

"Will he be alright, doctor?" Mary pulled the doctor aside and asked secretively. "If the operation concludes without any complications, he will be out of danger. There's nothing we can say before that. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait until then."

"Alright, let's go check up on the couple first," Mary said after having let the doctor go. She clenched her fists tightly and took a deep breath to brace herself.

The group soon arrived in the ward with silent steps. The middle-aged woman had just previously regained her consciousness and was still in a state of trauma. Soon as her eyes met Mary's and the other people accompanying her, she immediately sat upright.

"What are you doing here? What do you want with us?" The woman refused to talk as she shouted, "Did you come here to finish us off? Is that why you came here, huh?"

"Madam, you're taking this the wrong way. We only came to visit you to see if you're doing okay." The assistant from the General Manager Office, attempted to dissolve the situation by speaking gently. He spoke courteously, "Please relax. There's no need for you to get all worked up. We're only here to help."

"Mark my words. If anything were to happen to my child or my father, I will go to the ends of this earth to make you pay!" The woman's arms were dressed with thick gauze to provide support. "You want my house, don't you? There's no way in hell I'm giving it up!" "I understand. But madam, we have already decided on the price in advance, haven't we?" said the assistant.

"We haven't. I don't recall any such event." The woman continued to scoff at them, spewing venom from her mouth in the form of words. "You rich people only care about scraping the last part of the land we have left and seizing it for yourselves. We will never agree to this atrocity!"

"Don't be so rude!" Kevin retaliated, unable to withstand the insults being hurled at them. "At the very beginning, every land owned by each family has been assessed for their value. Staying true to our word, our company has paid the full amount for it. But now you regret the deal we made just because you feel you've been underpaid. You have the nerve to use the lives of your family as a backdoor to escape this confrontation. Serves you right!"

"Kevin, enough!" "Please pardon his behavior, madam." Mary bowed to the woman out of guilt and pulled on Kevin's sleeve to straighten him up. "I'm so sorry."

"You're all evil, the lot of you!" The woman felt exposed as her pressure point now lay bare to them. Feeling cornered, she flung forward in desperation and grabbed ahold of the glass on her bedside table. Roaring on top of her lungs, she declared war with the words that escaped her mouth. "I'll fight you all to my death!"

"Bang!" Mary only recalled envisioning the perfect arc of the glass that flung in her direction before it collided with her forehead and blocked her mind from all thoughts.

Hiss... 'What's this feeling... It hurts... Has this woman gone over this scenario enough times to perfect her aim? If something were to happen to me, it would be counted as an injury from work, right?' Mary thought.

"Mary!"

"Madam!"

"Mrs. Lan!"

Mary could hear everyone calling her name from behind, but her mind was a blur, and her body refused to respond. She felt a crimson red, warm liquid trickle down from her forehead and cloud her line of sight Soon after, she was struck with a splitting headache that blacked out her mind.

"Mary, hang in there, please!" Before Mary's motionless body could hit the ground, Kevin caught her from behind and let out a helpless cry, "Call the doctor! Now!"

Watching the scene unfold from the sidelines, Victor remained frozen in place out of trauma. His eyes trembled out of rage when they fell on Mary's innocent face, drenched in blood. It was as if a switch went off in his mind and blocked his ability to think. "You... How dare you. How dare you lay your dirty hands on her!" Consumed by his violent tendencies, Victor stormed his way towards the frightened woman, pushing aside anyone who dared come in his way. Without a hint of hesitation in his eyes, he grabbed her by the neck with both hands and began digging his fingers into her skin to choke her. "Do you want to die? Huh!? I'll fucking kill you, right here! Right now!"

"Victor, snap out of it!" Victor's eyes reflected murder. Unable to keep from watching any further, the others quickly intervened and tried to pull Victor away from the woman. "Victor, don't be an idiot! Get ahold of yourself! Are you going to strangle her to death?"

"Let go of her!"

The woman's face switched colors, responding to her growing wrath. She struggled and scratched at Victor to make him let go.

"Victor, stop. Mary needs you right now!" Helplessly watching the situation deteriorate, Kevin called out to Victor, trying to appeal to his sensitive side. "We need to take Mary to a doctor, right now. We don't have much time."

Even with the combined strength of the others repelling him away from the woman, Victor refused to budge. But after hearing Kevin's appeals, he snapped out of it and rushed to Mary's side. He took her with careful hands from Kevin's hands and shouted before he lifted her up delicately as though she would break with one wrong move. "Why didn't you take her to the doctor yet! What were you waiting for, huh?" Kevin rolled his eyes at his reaction. 'I was opening up a path for you, you mindless fool.'

Holding Mary tightly in his arms, Victor rushed through the corridors. "Doctor!" Her blood slowly familiarized itself with the fabric of his shirt, causing it to stain. "Please, someone. I need help! Where's the doctor?"

When the nurses caught wind of Mary's condition, they quickly escorted Victor to the emergency room.

After having her medically examined, the doctor explained to a worried Victor, "She passed out because of her blood phobia, and high levels of stress. There's nothing to worry about, she'll be fine." Hearing that, Victor let out a sigh of relief as his tensed expression relaxed. Leaning against the wall, he studied the nurse tending to Mary's wounds with delicate fingers. "Ring, ring, ring..."

"Hello?" Victor exited the ward with his phone stuck to his ear as he entered the corridor, and leaned his back against the wall. "What is it, Jorge?"

"Seriously? You're asking me that as if you don't know. What did you do?" Jorge's voice sounded blunt as he addressed Victor. "You're everywhere on the news! I can't catch a break with you!" "Heh." A tired smile finally formed on Victor's lips.

"You..." At this point, Jorge was too consumed by rage to string the right words. "I told you to stay away from Mary! But you seem to willingly welcome trouble your way with open arms! You're in a deep mess this time, Victor. I don't know if I'll be able to cover for this."

"Sir," a nurse called out to him from the ward as she peeped out from the door. "The lady admitted here has regained her consciousness. Would you like to see her?"

"I'll be right over." Victor pulled the phone away from his ear for a brief moment to nod at the nurse and then placed it back. "I've to go now, Jorge. I'll call you later." "Victor! Come back to the company right this instant! Hello, Victor? Do you hear me!? Fuck!"

"Du, du, du..."

Slipping his phone back in his pocket, Victor shoved his hands in his pockets and walked casually towards the ward. "Such a handsome face..." Staring at Victor's broad back, the nurse gushed over his looks. "It's the lady charmer, Victor..." "How are you feeling?" Victor walked over to Mary's side. With eyes filled with compassion, he peered in to examine her face. "I'm doing alright." With a bandage wrapped around her head, she asked, "Is the elder's ope ver yet?"

Victor gave his shoulders a slight shrug. "I don't know"

"I see." Mary broke eye contact with Victor and said, "You should call Jorge so he could come and pick you up from here."

"You talk too much." Victor's face suddenly turned cold as he brushed her suggestion aside and plopped down on the chair beside the bed. "It's none of your business. Let me deal with it how I want." "I don't want you to get involved in a scandal because of me..."

"It doesn't matter. I'm already involved, with or without you."

"But..."

"Don't worry about me," Victor interrupted, shaking his head. He stared deep into Mary's eyes and continued in an earnest tone, "Mary, ever since I met you, I've been..."

"Mary!"

Victor's confession was cut short by Kevin barging into the ward, out of breath. "What happened?" Mary's attention was stolen from Victor as she asked Kevin, "Did something bad happen?" "Quite the opposite!" Kevin waved his hands, still panting. "The elder's operation was successful! He's out of danger!"

"Seriously? Oh, thank God." Mary clutched her heart to calm her breathing, heaving a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad too." Kevin nodded, unable to contain his excitement. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Mary flaunted him with a big smile to dissolve his concerns.

"Good to hear, or else I would have held myself accountable."

"I'm going out to smoke, excuse me." Frustrated, Victor stood up and headed straight for the door with his gaze focused on the floor.

"Victor..."

"What's wrong with him?" Kevin asked as he pointed in Victor's direction with his thumb.

"I've no clue." Mary shrugged her shoulders, just as confused.

"Victor was the one who carried you all the way here. He cares an awful lot about you."

"Is that so?" Mary blinked several times before shifting her eyes in the direction where Victor went off. She kept her stare fixed in that direction before snapping out of it.

As the sun rose to declare new dawn, the company sent a car to pick Mary, Victor, and the others up from the hospital.

Mary smiled bitterly, to conceal all the conflicting emotions, sprouting within her.

The moment she opened the door of the house, she expected to find William awaiting her arrival in the living room. A series of possible events of William asking about the wound birthed in her mind, filling her up with anticipation.

But the room was enveloped in darkness, and William was nowhere to be found.

The next day, it was the weekend. Waking up earlier than usual, Mary dragged her sluggish body to turn on the TV. Simultaneously, she opened the computer and scanned the news to start her morning.

'An accident in the construction site of AJ Group. A family were buried.'

'The CEO's wife fell injured and was accompanied by Victor in the hospital.'

'The wife of the CEO of AJ Group, is cheating on him by having an intimate affair with Victor, the artist of her husband's company.'

'A senior officer of AJ Group roughed up someone right in front of the hospital gate.'

'The CEO of AJ Group refused to show his face after the incident.'

News about them popped up on her screen, one after another. They not only dominated the headlines, but they flooded the entire page with scandals related to them.

The corners of Mary's mouth twisted distastefully. 'Should I be angry?'

Her phone was flooded with constant calls from the company, but she refused to attend them. 'If William isn't bothered by any of this, why should I be? I'm nobody. The world of business doesn't concern me.' Dragging her steps across the floor, she moved to the window. She spotted a few reporters hiding in the bushes, concealing their cameras. Mary studied them disdainfully before pulling down the blinds. Things had become very troublesome in the afternoon.

Mary felt like an outsider, reading all the news articles one after another.

The statement passed on by the AJ Group to dissolve the situation was quite convincing. It listed the agreements that had been signed by the family who didn't want to move and showed the video at the gate of the hospital. It was obvious that Mary was in a mess, but it still lifted some pressure off her shoulders.

The only thing hard to explain was why Victor showed up at the gate of the hospital all alone.

Some of Victor's fans accused Mary of seducing him when she was already tied to the CEO in matrimony.

Mary smiled to herself and wondered, 'When did they see me seducing Victor anyway?'

Some people even went so far as to extract the scene from the Past of Republic of China where Mary acted as the heroine to provide evidence on her being a shameless seductress.

Mary shook her head at the articles. No matter how many times she watched that scene, at no point did it seem apparent that she had feelings for Victor. Also, it seemed the netizens had keen eyesight, or else how did they find out that the substitute actress was her?

'The wife of the CEO of AJ Group acts as a substitute and stares into Victor's eyes affectionately.'

"Taboo love: the wife of the CEO and the company's actor."

"The wife of the CEO was surrounded at the gate of the hospital. Victor looked anxious to get to her."

For a moment, the topic that was being discussed on the Internet was shifted from the "accident in the construction site" to their "ambiguous relationship".

The whole thing was a complete mess. Overwhelmed by the attention she received, Mary didn't know whether to laugh or cry.