Sophia pursed her lips and tried to retract her feet again, but Aunt Lucy was using so much force that she could not even move and ended up getting glared at by Aunt Lucy instead.
She lowered her eyes and licked her dry lips, saying hoarsely, "I don't want to accept Mr. Harris' favor."
“Pootoey!" Aunt Lucy harrumphed heavily. "I was the one who asked Vic to treat your legs. This has nothing to do with Mr. Harris. What do you mean by accepting Mr. Harris' favor? You should be thanking me!"
Victor shifted his hand and pressed on another spot, chuckling at her words.
"What’s so funny about that?!" Aunt Lucy smacked his head. "Check Soph’s leg properly. Pay attention!"
Victor let out a long “oh” and sighed. "I always thought that I was your favorite. Turns out that I’m not..."
"Aunt Lucy." Sophia lifted her eyes, called out to Aunt Lucy, and retracted her leg in the subtlest way possible.
"Don't move!" Aunt Lucy smacked her leg. "What?"
Sophia looked down at her leg and said in a self-deprecating way, "It’s useless even if I treat it. He will just break it again."
"Are you just going to stand around and let him beat you? Don’t you know how to run?" Aunt Lucy puckered her lips nonchalantly. "Since when did you start standing still and letting others beat you as they like?"
Sophia let out an obscure smile. Her fingers were clenching the sheets underneath tightly.
"That’s enough. We’ll talk about this in the future. If you can treat your leg now, then you need to hurry up and treat it.
"If you think on the bright side, Mr. Harris might not break your leg again after you treat it. If he tries to break it again, run. But, if you don’t treat your leg now, you won’t be able to treat it anymore in the future even if you want to.
"You are only 20 years old. If your leg is cured, you can continue to dance if you want to. Maybe you can even fulfill your former dream, don’t you think?" Aunt Lucy's voice softened slightly.
Sophia's eyes flashed. She looked down at her right leg, a little moved by her last sentence.
"I didn’t know you had such a gentle side to you, Aunt Lucy. I'm a little jealous of you now, Ms. White." Victor let out a “tsk” sound and teased her as he was worried that Sophia would find it hard to get out of this embarrassing situation.
Aunt Lucy scolded him with a smile, and he would respond occasionally. Even so, he kept his eyes on Sophia's leg, looking extremely focused.
"I need to check your entire leg. Please excuse me, Ms. White," Victor stood up and said. After obtaining Sophia's consent, he bent down and lifted up her right trouser leg. His jade-like slender fingers crawled up her knee gradually.
Aunt Lucy rested her chin on one hand as she studied on the side and blurted out, "Vic, must you do it in such an erotic manner when you perform your checks?"
Victor’s hand paused. The corners of his eyes twitched slightly. He nearly choked on his own saliva.
Click.
At this moment, the door of the ward was pushed open.
Sunlight poured in through the crack of the door, casting a long shadow on the ground. Charles held a briefcase in his hand. His eyes flashed as his gaze fell on Victor's hand that was resting on Sophia's thigh.
"Don’t you know how to knock? The education you received worries me!" Aunt Lucy chuckled as she looked at him. Her words were not the least bit compassionate.
"This is my place. I don’t think that there’s a need for me to take such an unnecessary move." This VIP ward was reserved for Charles. After muttering those words, he lowered his head and asked Victor, "How’s her leg?"
Victor put down Sophia’s trouser leg, stood up, and smiled. "I’m sorry, Mr. Harris. I have to keep the patient’s information confidential. I can’t tell you."
Sophia frowned and was about to speak when Aunt Lucy was one step ahead of her. "I thank you on behalf of Soph, then."
"Yeah." Charles darted a cursory glance at Sophia's leg with an indifferent look on his face. He opened his mouth but did not say anything at all.
Victor raised his eyebrows at the sight of this and said, “You don’t need to go and ask others, Mr. Harris. I can tell you roughly about Ms. White’s leg. If she had received treatment in time when you broke her leg two years ago, then she would have recovered in no time.
"However, she was sent to prison at that point in time. If my guess is right, many people had further beaten Ms. White's leg during that time. Also, her leg was exposed to cold temperatures for quite some time." He turned his head and looked at Sophia. "Right, Ms. White?"
Charles's Adam's apple rolled slightly after hearing his words. His right finger bent slightly as he tapped the side of his leg. His jaw and spine tensed up in an unnatural manner.
Sophia glanced in Charles' direction, a touch of sarcasm in her voice. "Mr. Harris should know this better than I do."
Charles frowned almost imperceptibly. The depth of his eyes was dull and obscure, but he did not say anything.
"When Ms. White was released from prison, the bone in her right leg that Mr. Harris broke had deformed. Also, after prolonged exposure to the rain and cold this time, Dr. Freeman performed the examination and said that parts of the cells in her right leg are dead.
"To sum up, it is very difficult to treat Ms. White's leg now," Victor said.
Sophia lowered her eyes. Her eyelashes trembled, and her fists hanging on her sides clenched uncontrollably.
Very difficult?
"Money won’t be a problem," Charles’s breathing had turned more rapid than usual. "As long as you can heal her legs, apart from giving you remuneration, I will also fulfill one of your requests.”
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