Chapter 366
But she was too worried about her youngest son’s injury to stay away—she insisted on coming in to see for herself.
“How could you hide something so serious from me?” Adela Ludwig’s voice trembled with anger and worry as she caught sight of the jagged wound on her son’s back. The stitches snaked across his skin, nearly four inches long, looking disturbingly like a centipede. Her heart twisted in pain.
Jamison was lying on his stomach, but at the sound of his mother’s voice, he lifted his head and scowled. “What are you doing in here? Out. Don’t interfere with my colleague’s work.”
Ivy, standing quietly by the bed, tried to soothe her. “Mom, why don’t you wait outside for a bit? I’ll take care of him.”
“You’ll take care of him?” That set Adela off. Her face darkened as she turned her frustration on Ivy. “Look at the state he’s in—you call this taking care of him? I told you two from the start, you’re just not meant for each other. Ever since Jamison got together with you, it’s been nothing but trouble.”
Ivy braced herself. “It was just an accident.”
“An accident brought on by you,” Adela shot back.
Ivy knew when to admit defeat. “Yes, this time it was my fault. He got hurt because of me.”
“Mother, I’m asking you to leave. Don’t make things harder,” Jamison said, his tone turning steely.
The doctor cleaning Jamison’s wound knew his temperament well and, worried that a family argument might break out, tried to defuse the tension. He put on his most diplomatic smile and turned to Adela. “Mrs. Ludwig, why don’t you wait outside? There’s a lot of blood, and I wouldn’t want you to feel unwell.”
With everyone looking at her, Adela couldn’t very well make a scene. She hesitated, then finally agreed.
But as she turned to go, she shot Ivy a sharp look. “You—come with me.”
Ivy didn’t argue. She knew she was about to get an earful.
But just as she took a step, Jamison’s hand shot out and clamped around her wrist. “You stay.”
Adela’s eyes widened in outrage. “Oh, so I’m in the way, but she can stay?”
Ivy was about to gently calm Jamison, but he cut her off with something so outrageously tender and over-the-top that the whole room froze.
“She’s my anesthesia. I need her here with me.”
For a moment, everyone was stunned into silence.
Every nurse and doctor in the hospital knew Professor Ludwig—famed for his surgical skill, intimidatingly handsome, tall, and from a powerful family. But his sharp tongue and icy demeanor kept everyone at arm’s length; no one dared get too close, especially the female staff. He barely spared a word for any of them.
But now, unbelievably, he was clinging to a woman—and saying something so embarrassingly sweet, it was almost out of character.
Rumors had been flying about Professor Ludwig’s sudden, secret marriage. Seeing this, everyone silently agreed: the gossip was true.
All eyes turned to Ivy. No one knew who she was, but everyone was thinking the same thing: even the coldest hero falls for a beautiful woman.
It turned out the girls Professor Ludwig had always ignored just hadn’t managed to get under his skin the way she had.
Ivy had always blended into the background, but after Jamison’s declaration, she felt every gaze in the room land on her.
“She’s my anesthesia.”
The words echoed in her mind, and she could feel herself flushing.
Since when did he get so good at cheesy lines?
Adela Ludwig was just as taken aback, staring at her son for a few seconds before managing, in a tone of utter disbelief, “Are you out of your mind?”
Jamison ignored her, his grip on Ivy’s wrist stubborn and unyielding. “Please, just go.”
“Ungrateful boy! Marry a wife, forget your mother, is that it?”
Fuming, Adela stormed out, muttering to her eldest son in the hall, “That Ivy is a little enchantress—Jamison’s completely lost his head over her.”