Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 617

Chapter 617: One Monster down (2)
When Ariana opened her eyes, she felt a crushing relief as she looked around the ward.

As she stared at the white ceiling with the white light shimmering down on her, Ariana could hear the sound of machines beeping, and her eyes burned with tears. Not because of the burning sensation in her chest or the pain in her heart but because of the instant relief.

She was back.

When she was lying on the floor and Nicolai begged her to not leave him alone while crying her name, Ariana regretted making such a move out of desperation. She wanted to turn back time and try another time; maybe she would have a future—a better one than the one she had in mind.

But it was too late.

The blood that oozed out of her wound was too much and the inky tendrils that had their grip on her throat made it impossible for her to continue fighting as if she was too dirty to be seen by Nicolai.

That’s why she gave it all up.

However, when Nicolai cried for her to stay with her, she couldn’t help but fight one last time.

“Ari?”

And just like that the relief turned into guilt as she turned her eyes and looked at her mother who had just woken up. She seemed to have slept on the stool with her head resting on the edge of the bed.

The guilt in her mother’s eyes made Ariana unable to breathe. Her mother who was gentle and kind, with a radiant smile on her face, was now looking at her with puffy eyes and a blotchy face. Her eyes filled with raw guilt as she took in Ariana’s appearance.

“Ari?” Keon, who was resting on the other side of the room, slid down the couch and rushed towards Ariana. Behind him was her father, who did not speak because he seemed to be unable to speak.

The two of them came to a stop in front of her and Ariana sucked in a cold breath.

The two of them were staring at her with blaming glances but she knew that they were not directed at her but at themselves; they blamed themselves for not being able to protect her.

They were looking at her in the same manner as she used to look at herself when Ariana thought about how she failed to protect herself when it mattered the most.

“Ari!”

“Ariana!”

Two broken cries echoed in the ward and Mateo and Emil, who had gone out to bring breakfast, rushed inside without caring for anything else. When Emil saw Ariana lying on the bed with her eyes open, he started to cry in relief; rivulets of tears started to stream down his cheeks.

He wanted to hug her but was afraid to touch the wound that was still healing.

“Oh, thank goodness. Thank goodness, you are awake.” Mateo squatted down and covered his face; the utter relief mixed with guilt that rippled through his veins mirrored Ariana’s.

Why did she do that? How could she do that?

“Sweetie, are you okay? Does it hurt too much?” her mother asked, her hands were raised in the air in an awkward manner; she wanted to touch her but at the same time she didn’t dare to because other than the wound on her chest, there were many other cuts on Ariana’s body due to her fall on the glass-covered floor.

“I… am fine…” Ariana replied in a hoarse and groggy voice. She wanted to sit up but the pain made it a bit difficult.

Her family rushed ahead and helped her as carefully as possible; it was as if she was going to break if they were to touch her in the slightest wrong way. Ariana felt disgusted by herself when she thought about how she was the cause of this; it was because of her that her family had to walk on eggshells around her like this.

If she had been a bit stronger, then her family wouldn’t be the one who had to suffer, and Nicolai— what was she going to tell him?

The doctors were brought into her ward, where they checked up on her and asked a few questions before leaving her with her family. Her mother continued to hold her hand while her brothers and dad looked at her from the side. They did not say anything but Ariana knew that they had suffered no less than her.

However, as she glanced at her family, she realised that there was a presence that was missing. One that she needed the most.

The giant mountain of a man.

Was he supposed to be here after he found out the truth about how disgusting you are? A voice in her head sneered.

Her mother squeezed her hand and sobbed harder than ever, “I am sorry, sweetie; I am so sorry…”

“Why are you saying sorry?” Ariana stared at her with confusion in her eyes. “It was not your fault; you didn’t do anything. It is I who should be apologising.”

“No,” Theodore spoke for the first time, his voice choked with sobs and now Ariana knew why he hadn’t spoken till now. It was not that he didn’t want to speak but because he was too afraid to speak. “You do not need to say sorry; you have done nothing wrong for you to say sorry. Absolutely nothing wrong, you hear me? It was us who failed as your parents and didn’t even notice that our child had been swapped. It is us who let you down; your mother and I knew that there was something wrong with that bastard and we still let him off for the sake of the business corporation as we underestimated how crazy he was.”

“Dad, I—”

“We saw what he did to you.” Her dad confessed in a rush as if he was going to feel sickened to the core with the thought of the things that he saw in the video.