Winner Takes All

Jack slowly opened his eyes.

A strong scent of disinfectant assaulted his nostrils.

He was slightly groggy, "I am not dead yet?"

Brent who was by his side looked very relieved, "Young Master, that attack with the blade somehow missed all your vitals. You have just fainted due to blood loss. Luckily we are able to rescue you in the nick o time."

Jack put on an empty smile. He never thought about this sudden turn of events.

All the while he just wanted to protect Amber to the best of his abilities. Even if he was stabbed to death by George, he wouldn't have any tinge of regret.

He just needed to buy Brent some time until Brent was able to save Amber. That would be the best possible outcome he could hope for.

It was pure luck that George's blade had missed all of his vitals.

Jack scanned the room and then suddenly put on a solemn face, "What is the name of this hospital?"

If his mother learnt of the fact that he was injured, he reckoned that she wouldn't be able to take it.

"Young master, you don't need to worry about anything."

Brent immediately provided him with solace, "Mr. Ward has put in a word before he left. Therefore, I have transferred you to another hospital." Hearing that, Jack heaved a sigh of relief. He then asked, "How is Amber doing?"

Before he lost consciousness, he had seen with his bare eyes Brent crippling one of George's legs. Amber must have been out of danger by then.

However, she was drugged by Josh, so he didn't know what had become of her at the moment.

"She is fine." Brent reassured him, "In the past 24 hours, Miss Knight has been taking care of you non-stop.”

In the past 24 hours?

Jack smiled wryly, "Since this rascal is fine, why did she have to stay by me after that? How could she put herself through this."

Although he wasn't familiar with Amber's background, he still knew that she hailed from a wealthy family. During their university days, she gave him an impression of being a rich young lady from a wealthy family.

It was certainly not an easy feat for a rich lady like that to take care of someone. Amber must feel that looking after him is a difficult task.

Just as he had just finished his sentence, a creak sounded at the door.

The door to his ward was being pushed open.

Amber was carrying a thermos flask inside with exhaustion written all over her face.

She was totally drained off of her energy after taking care of Jack for one whole day. However, according to the doctor's speculation, Jack should be waking up at any moment now. Therefore, she left the ward and went home to boil some soup for him.

Since Jack had suffered such grave injuries, it was paramount that he needed to drink some nutritious soup to fortify his body.

When Amber gazed at the bed, her whole frame shook.

The next second, with a jubilant expression on her face, she rushed towards the bed and threw herself into Jack's embrace, "Jack, you are finally awake!"

"Ah..."

A drastic change of expression occurred on Jack's face. His wounds were throbbing because of Amber's weight. He frantically yelped, "Amber, it's painful..."

Amber jumped up in shock as she realized what she had done. She caressed his chest and apologized, "I'm sorry, I was too excited. I didn't mean to aggravate your wounds." "It's alright."

Jack suppressed that nauseating sense of pain and forced smile at her.

Jack studied Amber's tired figure and touched her head intimately, "Are you a fool? I'm fine now. Why did you have to tire yourself out like this?"

"What do you mean that you're fine now?"

Amber glared at him, but there were signs of tears in her eyes, "You have suffered such a serious injury because you wanted to save me. It doesn't matter even if I collapse due to exhaustion later. I have to look after you. You are the foolish one, you moron!"

After voicing out her pent-up worries, she stuck herself to Jack's arm and started to cry.

This sudden shift in atmosphere threw Jack off guard.

He didn't know what to make of Amber who was crying non-stop in his arms.

Brent's face turned darker for a few shades, and then with a cough, he solemnly left the ward.

"You big moron, you can't deny that you're a moron. Why asked you to save me? Didn't you know that being stabbed by a blade is that painful? And you even bled so much. You're really a moron." Amber continued crying while she uttered these words.

Jack replied with a smile, "I'm doing all this because you're my girlfriend."

"Then you're really a huge moron." Amber complained.

Jack didn't say anything in response. He just raised his hand and patted her back lightly.

He knew that Amber must be shell shocked from what had happened. It was good for her to clear up her emotions by crying out loud.

Slowly but surely, her wails became more and more muffled.

Then, sleep overcame her after she had exerted much strength to cry.

Jack watched Amber who was soundly asleep in his embrace and he continued to pat her back with affection. He muttered softly, "You little rascal, you have bet on me with your life, so how could I even allow you to lose? Protecting you is my duty."

While standing behind the counter in the bank, Shirley was scared out of her wits.

She never expected that after dressing herself up well and rushing over to the Pisces restaurant, not only she wouldn't be able to meet Jack, she bumped into Katherine instead.

She recalled the scene where the both of them had met. It still felt awkward thinking about it.

Ever since the engagement was called off, she never met Tommy again. She no longer had any ties with the people of the Parry family.

In the eyes of onlookers, what had transpired that time was totally the people of the Parry family's fault.

Her response of cutting their ties was just a move on her side to increase her value on the market.

However, she still felt sorry for Katherine.

From how Katherine had glared at her, she could sense Katherine's hatred.

However, thanks to Tommy, the two of them didn't complete fall out. Instead, they managed to sit around a table and have an awkward conversation. There was still no sign of Jack after waiting for some time. He didn't reply her text messages nor answer her calls. Only by then did Shirley get up to leave. "Is he playing tricks on me?"

Shirley scratcher her head in confusion. Perhaps her meeting with Katherine here was no mere coincidence. It looked like Jack was controlling things from the dark. Shirley bit her lips hard and felt like her frustration was going to boil over.

She had considered letting Tommy be at the receiving end, but the truth was she didn't want to give up on Jack.

This held true especially after she had received five million yuan from him. This incident only fuelled her determination.

However, Jack was always so cold towards her. She always felt uneasy about his attitude.

She decided that she had to make sure Tommy could be her backup!

After coming to a decision, Shirley scanned the hall of the bank and saw that there weren't many customers. She got up to get a leave of absence from the manager.

After leaving the bank, she went straight to a nearby market to buy some fruits. She planned to visit Elissa.

When she was paying for the fruits, it suddenly occurred to her that Jack's mother was also staying in LJ Hospital.

After deliberating for some time, Shirley took a turn and returned to the supermarket to buy some nourishing products. After that, she settled her bill and headed towards the hospital.

After arriving at the LJ Hospital, Shirley temporarily placed the nourishing products in the care of the reception counter before dangling a bag of fruits to visit Elissa.

At the sudden appearance of Shirley, both Elissa and Tommy were delighted. They almost couldn't contain their joy.

Tommy immediately stuck herself to Shirley while throwing her words after words of concern.

His reaction irked Shirley even more and intensified her impression of him as a useless man. She couldn't help revealing an expression of disgust.

She only stayed there for a while before bidding farewell.

Kieran and Elissa both urged Tommy to see her off, and Tommy complied with them and followed Shirley from behind.

Shirley couldn't help frowning, "Tommy, you can go back and take care of auntie. I have other matters to attend to."

After exiting the ward, Shirley sucked in a deep breath, and her usual indifferent expression was replaced with one of smiles.

She increased her pace and returned to the reception counter. She retrieved the nourishing products and hastily headed to Sophie's ward.

Just as she was entering the ward, in the corridor not far away, she saw Tommy with a petrified expression on his face. He was refilling a thermos flask with hot water when she bumped into Shirley.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐