When Love Turns to Ashes Chapter 7

Still feverish and now traumatized, Ethan wouldn't wake.

Through his haze, he heard Victoria shout: "Get the doctor!"

But then Luke's gentle voice intervened: "Victoria, no need for a doctor. My family has a folk remedy that'll wake him right up. Trust me, but everyone needs to leave the room."

Ethan felt everyone leave.

Then searing pain shot through his back. He forced his eyes open to find Luke actually scraping his back with a blade!

"Ah!" Ethan thrashed in agony.

Luke pressed him down: "Don't move! This gua sha is an old family remedy. If you want to get better, endure it."

"What family... uses a blade for gua sha..." Ethan was drenched in cold sweat, struggling harder.

This wasn't traditional medicine—this was torture!

Summoning his last bit of strength, he shoved Luke away violently!

Caught off guard, Luke cried out and tumbled to the floor.

At that moment, Victoria burst through the door.

"Ethan!" She rushed to help Luke, her eyes burning with fury at Ethan. "You upset Luke first! Luke came here to help you out of the kindness of his heart, and this is how you treat him? This is unbelievable!"

Luke played peacemaker: "It's okay, Victoria. He's probably just in too much pain... I don't blame him..."

"No way!" Victoria was livid. "He needs to apologize to you!"

She turned to Ethan, commanding: "Ethan, apologize to Luke!"

Ethan clenched his jaw, defiantly turning his face away.

Victoria's rage exploded. She ordered the guards: "Make him apologize!"

A guard immediately kicked the back of Ethan's knees. He cried out as his legs buckled, forcing him to his knees with a painful thud! Another guard pressed his head down, forcing him to bow toward Luke!

"THUD!"

His forehead struck the floor with a dull sound.

Luke exclaimed: "No! Victoria, this is too much!"

Victoria seemed taken aback by the guards' brutality too. Something complicated flickered in her eyes, but seeing Luke's distress, she suppressed it.

She pressed her lips together, her voice hard: "He's been spoiled. This is the only way he'll learn not to bully you."

"Forget about him now. You have medical staff here. Go rest."

But Luke shook his head, the picture of kind concern: "Mr. Brooks is suffering partly because of me. I feel responsible. I should stay and help."

Victoria relented: "Then rest in the guest room. I'll go get your favorite pastries."

She led Luke away without giving Ethan—still kneeling with his forehead swollen and bleeding—a single glance.

Ethan remained on the floor, the pain in his forehead and back nothing compared to his dead heart.

Watching their intertwined figures fade away, overlapping with the memory of that sixteen-year-old girl who'd sworn to protect him forever, the image shattered like broken glass.

There was no going back.

Never going back.