บททั้งหมดของ The Wind We Once Held: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

My son lay in the hospital bed with tubes running into his body and a drainage bag secured at his waist.When I carried him into Crosswell Medical Center the night before, part of his intestine had been exposed, and there was barely an uninjured patch of skin left on him."He fell. Does that really justify keeping him in intensive care?"Even if he's my son, we can't waste a critical-care bed that someone else may need more."The doctors said he's stable, so stop pursuing this. Julian didn't mean to hurt him. They were only playing."Vivian had repeated those words ever since arriving at the hospital. She still carried the sharp, intimate scent of what she had been doing before she came."Did you even ask the doctor what happened to him?"Hatred made my whole body tremble. I had to clench my teeth to force out the complete sentence.Vivian pressed two slender fingers to her brow in irritation."What's there to ask? He fell. You have always raised him to be too delicate. He eve

That was when panic first took hold of me, and I begged her."Vivian, enough. Please stop keeping Julian near you."She exhaled smoke into my face, her eyes bright with fascination. "No. It isn't enough. He hasn't suffered what you suffered yet. Adrian, have you forgotten? I'm doing this to avenge you."But was it revenge, or had she become addicted to him?I didn't ask. I was afraid of the answer.I could only watch as she moved farther and farther away from me.Now Vivian dressed me again without expression, carefully fastening every button."Do as I say. You wouldn't want the entire world to see your son like this, would you?"On the table, a live security feed showed Eli undergoing catheter care.My heart stopped. I lunged forward and hid the screen against my chest, staring wildly around the room in terror that someone had already seen it.Eli had always been proud. Even as a toddler he refused to be carried outside, and now he made everyone leave the room during every c

Instead, I was the one she destroyed.I returned to the hospital like a ghost."Where is my son?"Eli was nowhere in the room or the corridor. I grabbed a passing nurse in panic.The nurse's blank expression triggered a sudden thought.At Hawthorn Field, the private soccer ground Vivian had built for Eli, my son lay beside the goal. Blood from his wrist had soaked into the grass.My legs collapsed beneath me.People said an heir should learn golf or riding, but Eli had only ever loved soccer.His mother had indulged that love, insisting that her son didn't need to be trapped by other people's expectations. She had built this expensive field for him.Every other time I had seen him there, he had been running. This was the first time he had been so still.I coughed up blood, and pain seemed to tear through every organ.A folded note was clenched in Eli's hand. I opened it with shaking fingers."Dad, I saw the news. I know you were hurt because you were protecting me."Yester

The private room on the top floor of Crosswell Medical Center was empty."My son was critically injured. How could you allow my husband to take him away? If anything happens to him, every one of you is finished."The medical director trembled, unable to understand her. "But Ms. Cross...young Eli has already been cremated."Vivian had opened my message thread to demand answers. The words made her hand jerk, and the phone struck the floor.The impact seemed to shatter the last barrier in her mind.The director worked for her. He wouldn't lie.Panic finally consumed Vivian. She called Adrian again and again, but every attempt went to voicemail.[Adrian, where are you? Let me come get you.][I was wrong. I failed Eli. Please let me say goodbye to our son.]She left the messages in a shaking voice. No answer came.She didn't sleep that night.She held Eli's memorial photograph and replayed the recording over and over.Then she struck herself across the face, again and again."V

A coordinated boycott targeted Crosswell Holdings, Boyle Industries, and Pierce Capital. Their share prices fell at a terrifying speed.My grandfather's people had quietly accelerated every part of it.They had even arranged for Julian and Roxanne's drinks to be tampered with that night so Vivian would discover them together.They amplified the evidence online and attacked the three companies through the market.I had no patience left. I wanted to see them destroyed as quickly as possible."Adrian, don't keep punishing yourself because of them."The hatred inside me softened when I saw my white-haired grandfather still worrying about me.He had lost his wife when he was young and his daughter in middle age. How could I let him lose his only remaining family member too?Grandpa began teaching me finance and corporate operations.With the patience of someone teaching a child to tie his shoes, he gave me all his time and knowledge.The pain and hatred in me became a blade for th