Departure with a Belly (Alaric and Victoria)

Chapter 113

Elaine shot to her feet.

“Is he still downstairs? I’ll chase him away. Honestly, what a delusional upstart.”

4

Just as she was about to leave the room, Claudia called out to her.

“Wait.”

“Claudia?”

To Elaine’s surprise, Claudia smiled and gently said, “Let him in.”

64

Everyone in the ward stared at her in shock as they all cried out at the same time.

“Claudia?” they shrieked.

“Did you forget what he did to you?” Elaine exclaimed. “Christopher Drevel is a

ruffian. If you let him in, you’ll…”

“Elaine,” Claudia interrupted in a soft voice. “No matter what he did to me before, I

am now hurt. If he knew of that and came here to visit me at the hospital, that

Chapter 113 Prove Yourself

means he cares about me. Should I not be touched by someone capable of showing

me such concern? How could I chase him away?”

Everyone else disagreed with that sentiment.

“Claudia, he doesn’t care about you. He likes you. If you acknowledge him, he will

only get worse. Let’s ignore him, please?”

“Yes, Claudia. I know you are so nice that you think he’s being nice by visiting you,

but why would he visit you unless he had an ulterior motive in mind?”

“Harden your heart. What if he does something to you?”

However, Claudia was unexpectedly stubborn that day. “He wouldn’t do anything to

1. me. I know you’re concerned about me, but he’s really here to visit me. Let him come

in.”

Seeing that they were going to continue protesting, she smiled and added, “Alright.

I’ve made up my mind. You can stop.”

When they realized there was no way to convince her, they had no choice but to call

Christopher in.

Chapter 113 Prove Yoursel!

Still, that did not stop them from grumbling as they went.

“What’s going on with Claudia? She hates Christopher, right? Why would she let him

in?”

“Perhaps she changed her mind due to how bad her injuries are. Somehow, that

made her think he’s really here just to visit her.”

“Oh, I just don’t understand her.”

They headed downstairs to find Christopher still waiting with a floral bouquet. He

was a thug, someone who knew Claudia in school but had long since dropped out.

However, he continued to bother her after dropping out.

He only stopped when she moved abroad where he could not follow her.

Recently, he had somehow heard about Claudia’s return and was back to harass her.

He was quite handsome but with an alcoholic father, a mother who worked at a

massage parlor, and no proper job of his own, who would want to date him?

Nevertheless, Claudia was the daughter of someone rich and powerful. Hence,

Chapter 113 Prove Yourself

everyone went along with what she said.

They soon led him up to Claudia’s room.

He had been so overjoyed to hear about being given permission to see her that he

followed close behind them with his bright and gaudy bouquet.

When Christopher walked into the room, he found Claudia sitting on the bed,

looking miserable and pitiful with her head covered in thick loops of gauze

bandages.

“Claudia!”

He initially wanted to take a few steps forward in his excitement, but with

consideration that she had potentially run away to spend years overseas because

he had been too fervent in his pursuit, he decided to instead vibrate on the same

spot as he stared at her.

The passion in his eyes made Claudia’s stomach churn with disgust. Every inch of

him, including the so–called trendy outfit he had curated for himself, was revolting to

her.

Chapter 113 Prove Yourself

She would never have allowed someone like him into her territory if he were of no

use to her goal.

“How did you get hurt, Claudia? Are you okay? I–I bought you a bouquet. Do you like

it? I was going to bring you some fruits as well, but I wasn’t sure what you liked,” he

said.

He was so cautious and tentative in his speech.

She found his voice grating. It was too coarse, too crass, and too insecure.

She still suppressed her dislike to force a smile on her face. “I’m okay. It’s good

enough that you’re here. You didn’t have to buy me anything,” she said.

“How can I visit you with empty hands? That would be rude,” he responded.

Disdain was painted all over the faces of the others in the room.

“No one’s asking you to come empty–handed, but you should at the very least bring

something nice with you. Look at the flowers you brought! They’re so ugly and

gaudy. Did you find them on the side of the road?” someone commented.

Chapter 113 Prove Yourself

“Yeah! How could you even visit Claudia with that bouquet?” someone else said

with a scoff.

The disparaging remarks caused a dark look to flash in his eyes as his hands

tightened around the bouquet. Claudia noted every twitch of his body. She pursed

her lips and tentatively called out, “Please stop saying that. It’s good enough that

he’s willing to visit me. Mr. Drevel, you can just come empty–handed next time. You

don’t have to buy anything special.”

As expected, the dark look vanished the moment she spoke up. He then replied to

her in a sweet voice, “Okay.”

“Claudia!”

Everyone shot her looks of disagreement.

She ignored them to continue to cheerfully chat with him. The longer the

conversation went on, the more Christopher admired her. As expected, the woman

he chose was not like other girls. Claudia did not look down on him at all.

She was so different…

Chapter 113 Prove Yourself

Everyone merely thought that Claudia was behaving oddly. After all, she was

actually talking to Christopher, a thug!

They glanced at each other and decided to turn their attention to him instead.

“Hey, you’ve seen her now. The bouquet is in her hands. You should go now,” one of

them called out.

“L…”

“What? We only let you in to visit her. Did you think you could stay here? Look at

yourself first. Do you think you’re worthy of her?” someone else interrupted. Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

“Enough. Stop that. He’s… Ah!” Claudia suddenly fell to her side and let out a cry of

pain in the middle of her sentence.

“Claudia!”

Everyone hurried over in worry.

“Are you okay, Claudia? Is it your head?”

Chapter 113 Prove Yoursel

With closed eyes and a pale face, Claudia shook her head while leaning into Elaine’s

arms. It took her a moment before she forced a smile on her lips once more.

“I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me,” she said.

Her feeble appearance had her friends clenching their fists in anger. “It’s all Victoria

Selwyn’s fault. If she hadn’t pushed you, you would not be hurt. You’re even going to

have a scar now.”

Claudia weakly shook her head once more. “It’s all in the past. Please forgive her

actions.”

Christopher narrowed his eyes as he processed what he heard. “What did you just

say? Who pushed Claudia?”

She froze. She was about to speak up when someone answered, “Victoria Selwyn.

She was one of our schoolmates. You’ve seen her before, Christopher.”

That jogged his memory.

With Claudia still in her arms, Elaine smirked as if a thought suddenly struck her.

“You keep claiming you like Claudia and that you would do anything for her. Now,

you have a chance to prove that. Victoria is the one who hurt her. Shouldn’t you do

something about that?”

Chapter 114 Hold It in for Now