Regret Came Too Late (Grace and Ethan) novel Chapter 120

Indeed, Sidney didn't sleep a wink that night.

When he got up the next morning, dark circles ringed his eyes, and he felt completely out of it the whole drive to the hospital. He didn't fully snap back to reality until he sat at his desk, only to look up and see Alice walking in.

She still had that smug, entitled look on her face as she eyed him like he was a nobody.

"Didn't I tell you to quit already?"

Sidney flinched and stepped back, his lips trembling. "Ms. Lambert, I got dragged into this. You can't just use me and throw me out. We live in a lawful society."

Disgust flickered in her eyes. Sidney talked too much.

"Dr. Tanner, the money's already in your hands. It's too late to back out now. You can't afford the consequences of crossing me, so you'd better do exactly as I say. Or else..."

The threat was clear as day.

After she left, Sidney slumped into his chair, drenched in sweat. He couldn't shake the fear that someone might try to run him off the road again. He had gotten lucky once, but would he be that lucky a second time?

He couldn't die. He had to stay alive.

Just then, he heard that familiar voice from last night—Grace.

She was standing outside Alice's ward.

The second Alice saw her, her face twisted with shock and rage. "Grace?"

Wasn't the Lambert family's bodyguards out hunting her down? How the hell was she bold enough to show up here in broad daylight?

Alice's expression changed instantly. Her eyes welled up, and her fury was replaced with a carefully crafted look of fragile innocence.

"Grace, I already begged Mom not to send you to a psychiatric hospital. Why did you have to come all the way to the hospital just to mock me? I already lost my baby. Isn't that enough for you?"

Grace glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, Carmen and Yancey were right there.

Carmen lunged forward with her arm raised, ready to deliver a slap, but Grace caught her wrist mid-swing. "Mrs. Lambert, is it just your thing to always greet me with a slap?"

Carmen was shaking with rage. "How dare you show your face?"

Grace let go of her wrist, calm as ever. "I didn't do anything wrong. I've got nothing to feel guilty about. Why wouldn't I show up?"

"Grace, what... What are you trying to say?"

"You really don't get it? Alice was never pregnant. This whole thing—every bit of it—was staged. But no one in the Lambert family or in the entire Druville is willing to believe me. I came here today to set the record straight. The truth doesn't need defending.

"You all want to throw me in a psychiatric hospital? Fine. Go ahead. I won't fight it anymore."

Grace had switched tactics. Yancey was the kind of man who'd rather break than bend. Pressing him too hard would only feed the resentment brewing inside him.

All it took was a little weakness on her part, and his macho pride would come rushing to the surface.

The reason she chose to say all this right now was simple—the argument was happening just outside Sidney's office, and he could hear every word loud and clear.

If Sidney wanted a way out, he needed someone powerful to latch onto, and Yancey was exactly that person.

Yancey slowly reached out, wanting to comfort Grace. But just then, Alice stepped out of her ward.

She looked deathly pale and was barely able to stay on her feet. "Grace, I don't know why you'd slander me like this. You're clearly not in your right mind right now."