Please Forget Me - Chapter 369

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

The doctor stared at me as if my sharp retort had caught him completely off guard, his mouth hanging open as he looked at me like a stranger.

“You seem angry because I didn’t believe you when you said your grandmother hit you and drugged you. I want to believe you too, but…”

Part of him clearly didn’t want to believe that his own mother had been deceiving him.

“Did anyone witness it?”

There were witnesses, but they would all have been silenced by my grandmother.

“There are no witnesses. But there is evidence.”

I reached for the hem of my dress, about to lift it, when someone knocked on the door.

“Doctor, you’re running late. The Marquis is asking for you.”

As always, other people came before his daughter. He told me we would continue the conversation later and left me behind. By the time he returned, I would probably be dragged straight to the altar.

Even so, I didn’t try to run.

‘At least there’s no medicine.’

Dragged there in my right mind, I would expose the Marquis’s crimes in front of everyone.

I clenched my fists, steeling myself, just as the door opened again. This time it was my grandmother, accompanied by two maids. One of them was holding a glass of water.

A bad feeling crept up my spine.

‘They might have drugged it.’

The first time I’d been medicated was when I drank water left by my bedside because I was thirsty.

“Madam, you must be thirsty.”

The maid said, placing the glass on the table beside me.

‘Do they really think I’d fall for it again?’

I reached for the glass as if relieved.

Clink.

I knocked it over with an awkward-looking motion. The glass tipped, rolled, and shattered on the floor, spilling its contents completely.

My grandmother’s face turned red, then blue. That reaction alone told me everything, there had been something in it.

Had the doctor finally agreed to d**g me? Or was this my grandmother acting on her own because she was growing desperate?

“Hold her.”

The old woman snapped coldly at the maids. She no longer had the leisure to deceive me gently.

“Let go of me!”

I struggled to stand and shoved them away, but I couldn’t overpower two maids hardened by years of labor. They forced me back down. In the meantime, my grandmother pulled a pill bottle from her bag and tipped a single tablet into her palm.

“Open her mouth.”

The maids grabbed my jaw and tried to force it open. I shook my head violently and struggled, but in the end the pill was tossed into my open mouth.

“Ghk—!”

It lodged in my throat. Was she trying to choke me to death? I reflexively blocked it from sliding down, but I couldn’t spit it out. The maids clamped my mouth shut and held my jaw firmly.

“Mmph—!”

“Swallow!”

They pinched my nose, shook my head. Grandmother did everything she could to make me swallow the pill. But I refused.

“Ghk…! Phoo!”

At last, I managed to pry my teeth apart and spit it out. The maids let go with defeated sighs and the next moment…

“You vile little b***h!”

Thud! Fury overtook her, and my grandmother struck my head with her handbag.

“Mother! What do you think you’re doing?!”

A roar rang out. I lifted my head instinctively and saw the doctor standing in the doorway, which had been thrown wide open. His eyes were filled with shock.

“Well—I—”

Caught in the act, my grandmother fumbled for an excuse and found none. It was my chance.

“She tried to force-feed me a sedative. When I spat it out, she hit me.”

“Phineas, I made myself the villain, for your sake!”

With no way to excuse her actions, she resorted to emotional appeals and burst into tears.

“Dana, I’m sorry I hit you. I wasn’t in my right mind for a moment.”

“For a moment? Then what excuse do you have for this?”

I lifted the hem of my dress and bared my thigh in front of everyone. Bruises—red and purple—marred my pale skin, each shaped unmistakably like the tip of a cane. No doctor could fail to recognize marks that had been inflicted repeatedly over several days.

“My God…”

The doctor rushed over and examined the injuries, his face contorting.

“Phineas, this wasn’t my doing…”

“Who are you planning to blame this on? The thugs who kidnapped me on your orders? Or the Marquis? And who are you going to blame for locking me in a closet all day as a child, beating me, denying me even a sip of water?”