RUMMAGE

"Stop pretending to be unconscious, Katherine. Do you still want to marry me? If you don't apologize to Emily, then I'll never marry you."

At the sound of a man's voice, Katherine Holt pressed a hand to her pounding head and fought to open her eyes.

She looked toward the speaker—Preston Barnes, who was standing beside the bed.

A deep frown sat on his face, impatience plain in his eyes. Emily Wilson leaned against him, quiet and fragile-looking.

It took Katherine a long moment to process what had happened.

So she was still alive.

A few hours earlier, she and Emily had been in a car accident.

She had called out to Preston for help. Yet he had rushed to save Emily instead, the daughter of the Holt family's housekeeper.

The truck driver had hit the brakes hard, and the vehicle came to a sharp stop.

Katherine had been dragged beneath it, her leg trapped under the heavy bumper. The bone snapped the instant the weight crushed down on it.

Pain tore through her body. Cold sweat covered her skin as she struggled to breathe and looked through the narrow space beneath the truck.

She saw Preston holding Emily in his arms, worry written all over his face as he checked her injuries.

Emily had only twisted her ankle and gotten a few minor cuts.

"Call an ambulance..." Katherine forced the words out with the last bit of strength she had.

However, no one answered her.

A few moments later, the sound of an ambulance siren rushed closer, and several paramedics climbed out with a stretcher.

Preston stayed close beside Emily as he helped her into the ambulance. Then he told the paramedics to leave with them.

Katherine was left beneath the truck.

If a passerby hadn't stopped to call for help, she would've bled out on the roadside long before the police and firefighters arrived to pull her free.

From her hospital bed, Katherine looked at Preston and Emily, both perfectly fine, and felt her heart turn cold.

After her father's accidental death, her mother couldn't bear the emptiness in the house. She'd taken in three boys from an orphanage—Preston, Carson Howard, and Tyler Clark—and raised them as her own.

Her mother had also decided that one of the three would eventually marry Katherine and inherit the Holt family's business with her.

As absurd as it sounded, she, the Holt family's heiress, mattered less to the three than the daughter of the housekeeper.

Katherine said nothing and only looked at him. For some reason, her silence irritated Preston.

Normally, the second he showed even a little anger, Katherine would've already been flustered, clinging to his arm while apologizing with tears in her eyes.

But today, she stayed completely quiet.

Had the accident scared her that badly?

In his eyes, it had only been a car accident. The truck hadn't even run her over completely. He didn't think it was serious at all.

"Katherine, enough already," Preston snapped. "You're awake, aren't you? Apologize to Emily right now!"

Katherine's empty stare didn't escape Emily's notice, and inwardly, she was thrilled.

If the accident had really damaged Katherine's mind, then everything belonging to the Holt family would eventually fall into her hands.

She pressed herself closer to Preston and leaned more heavily against him. A soft cry escaped her lips. "My ankle hurts so much, Preston. I almost wish I'd been the one lying there instead. If I could trade places with Katherine, she wouldn't have to suffer like this."

Preston had already been irritated by Katherine's strange silence, but Emily's gentle voice quickly softened his expression. He lowered his head and spoke to her in a comforting tone. "You're too softhearted, Emily. None of this would've happened if Katherine hadn't dragged you out with her today. This is all her fault."

Then he looked back at Katherine, disgust clear in his eyes. "Just wait until Carson and Tyler come back from their business trip. Once they hear you almost got Emily killed, they won't let this go."

The moment Katherine heard their names, the last bit of warmth in her heart disappeared.

When she was younger, she used to follow the three of them everywhere, calling after them sweetly like a little shadow.

Her father had died when she was still a child. Her mother spent most of her time managing the company, so the three boys had become the center of her world.

But everything had changed three years ago.

Her extraordinary talent in art had earned her a recommendation from her mentor to attend one of the country's top art academies.

Three years passed, and she returned home full of excitement, only to realize everything had changed.

Somehow, Emily had become the center of them.

They no longer welcomed her warmly or even cared that she'd just come back from a long journey. All they expected from her now was obedience to Emily's every demand.

Over the past few months, they'd even been willing to put Katherine in danger just to protect Emily.

When Emily was diagnosed with leukemia and needed a blood transfusion, the three of them dragged Katherine to the hospital and forced her into donating her blood.

The doctor warned them that taking too much blood at once could put her body into shock, but none of them listened. They still had 800 milliliters drawn from her.

Katherine lost consciousness in the blood collection room while the three of them stayed by Emily's bedside, surrounding her with concern.

Another time, during a heavy rainstorm, Emily coughed once, and the three men rushed her home. They pushed Katherine out of the car because her rain soaked clothes might dirty the seats, then left her alone on the side of the road in the pouring rain.

She burned with fever for three straight days afterward and nearly developed pneumonia.

Then, two weeks ago, Emily secretly ate mangoes despite being allergic to them and broke out in hives.

Without even asking questions, the three decided Katherine must've mixed mango juice into the food on purpose.

As punishment, they locked her inside the dog cage behind the house with an agitated dog that nearly went mad at the sight of her.

If a servant hadn't found her in the middle of the night, the animal would've ripped her throat open.

Every memory flashed through Katherine's mind one after another.

Slowly, she shut her eyes.

At that moment, she hated herself for ever agreeing to let her mother take in those three ungrateful men.

Since Emily was the only one they cared about, then fine. She would give them exactly what they wanted.

"Get out," she said coldly.