“Grandma, I heard that you wanted to see me.” Nora smiled. However, she was so weak that she fell asleep after exchanging a few words with Sebastian. Upon seeing this, a lump formed in Natalie’s throat. Although none of them said it out loud, they all knew that it would be unlikely for Nora to make a full recovery this time.
After Nora had fallen asleep, Sebastian and Natalie turned to leave. When they reached the stairway, Ritchie happened to come home drunk. He had just gone upstairs and leaned on the railing to support himself. When the three of them passed by each other, Ritchie suddenly sneered and cursed, “You damned bastard!”
Sebastian looked at him coldly. The alcohol gave Ritchie unprecedented courage. He flew into a rage and grabbed Sebastian by the collar. “Don’t you dare look at me! You shameless bastard! How dare you come back!”.
Sebastian glowered at Ritchie, his eyes looking frigid, and said, one deliberate word at a time, “Why not? I’ll destroy this place sooner or later.”
“What the hell did you just say? How dare you stand up to me?” Ritchie’s eyes widened with indignant fury. The alcohol made his cheeks bright crimson. He loosened his grip on Sebastian’s collar and looked around, seemingly looking for something. . Sebastian straightened his collar. He did not want to lower himself to Ritchie’s scummy level. When he was about to go downstairs, he suddenly heard a roar from behind him.
“You go burn in hell!” Ritchie picked up a vase from the shelf in the corridor and smashed it against the wall. The glass scattered all over the ground like confetti. The other half of the vase was left intact in Ritchie’s hand but the edge was dangerously jagged.
All color drained from Natalie’s face. She looked at Sebastian and shouted in warning, “Honey, watch out!” With a sharp fragment of the vase held in his hand as a weapon, Ritchie rushed at Sebastian and was about to plunge the makeshift dagger into him. Natalie tried to stop him but failed dismally.
People in the living room downstairs didn’t really know what was happening initially, but when Natalie had screamed, they were all startled. Everyone ran over in horror, but there was no time to stop Ritchie.
Sebastian was quick on his feet and hastily retreated when he saw this. He shoved Ritchie away to avoid the sharp vase fragment that he was wielding. Ritchie had rushed forward too fast and because he was drunk, he wasn’t steady on his feet. When Sebastian defensively shoved him away, he lost his balance. He stumbled and fell down the stairs before he could cry out for help. He rolled to the bottom of the stairs and lay there motionlessly.
“Ah! Mr. Ritchie!”
As the servants in the living room shouted, the servants upstairs also hastily ran downstairs.
“Help! Mr. Ritchie fell down the stairs!”
“He is bleeding profusely. He doesn’t look like he’s breathing!” Hearing the commotion, Patrick came out of Nora’s room with a long face.
“What’s wrong? Why is there such a ruckus out here? Mrs. Klein needs rest. Can’t you keep the noise levels to a decent volume?” A servant pursed her lips momentarily then cried out, “Sir, Mr. Ritchie was pushed down the stairs by Mr. Sebastian!”
Patrick’s face turned pale with fright. He rushed downstairs to check on Ritchie, who was lying seemingly lifelessly on the ground. He held Ritchie up and asked desperately, “Ritchie, can you hear me?”
Ritchie’s eyes were closed and it was clear he had lost consciousness. Patrick shouted at the servants, “What are you waiting for? Call an ambulance!” The servants hurriedly made phone calls. Furiously, Patrick turned to Sebastian who had just come downstairs. He raised his hand and wanted to slap Sebastian.
“How could you do this to your own brother?!” Sebastian grasped Patrick’s wrist and shook it off. He then said impatiently, “You’d better discipline your own son first.” Patrick trembled with anger, but he didn’t continue to fight with Sebastian. He turned around and went to check on Ritchie’s condition again.
It was not until then that Natalie came to her senses. She held Sebastian’s arm and looked him up and down nervously.
“Honey, did you get hurt?” Looking at the father and son, Sebastian patted Natalie on the back of her hand and slightly shook his head He walked away from the scene with Natalie and phoned the police. Seeing the indifferent look on Sebastian’s face, Patrick was enraged beyond words.
“How dare you?! Ritchie’s your brother! If anything happens to him, your grandmother won’t let you go, let alone me!” Sebastian looked into his father’s eyes and said coldly, “He wanted to stab me. Everyone present can testify for me. If I hadn’t pushed him away, he would have fatally stabbed me. Besides, I don’t have a brother.”
A few minutes later, police cars and an ambulance pulled in front of the Klein family‘s home. $ EMTs rushed in to carry Ritchie into the ambulance on a stretcher. Patrick also followed them into the back of the ambulance.
Before shutting the door behind him, he looked at Sebastian sullenly, with unfathomable emotion brewing behind his eyes. The police immediately set out to check the surveillance footage.
Sebastian had briefly explained that Ritchie attempted to kill him, so he had merely acted out of self–defense. It was not difficult to prove what he said.
Patrick was always wary that someone would try to break in and steal top secret documents from his home, so he had installed security cameras everywhere in the villa, except for the bedrooms. It was clear from the footage that Ritchie was about to stab Sebastian with a fragment of the broken vase.
Sebastian managed to dodge and pushed Ritchie away, which was how Ritchie tumbled down the stairs.
Sebastian went to the police station to make his statement, and he was kept there for the time being.
Natalie was worried sick. Before Sebastian had left with the police, she asked, “Shall I call Garrett? I think Ritchie‘s seriously injured.”
Sebastian comforted her calmly.
“Go back to our house and get some rest. There‘s no need to call Garrett. I‘ll take care of it myself.”
In Seacisco‘s best hospital, Patrick kept pacing back and forth restlessly in the corridor that led to the operating room. When Seth arrived and saw Patrick, he asked with concern, “Dad, how is he?”
Patrick rubbed his aching temples and murmured, “We won‘t know until the operation is over.”
Seth helped Patrick to the bench. Then, he leaned against the wall, fidgeting with the ring on his finger agitatedly. Two hours later, the doctor came out of the emergency room and called Patrick and Seth into his office.
“The patient will live–“.
“Wonderful!” Patrick exclaimed with a sigh of relief. The doctor pursed his lips and continued gravely, “The patient will live, but his neck was severely damaged, compromising the nerves in his spine. It‘s very likely that he will be paralyzed for life.” .
Patrick felt like he was riding an emotional roller–coaster. When he heard what the doctor had to say, he nearly passed out on the spot. Seth hurried to help his father, while asking the doctor politely, “Is there any treatment?” The doctor sighed.
“Currently, the local medical tech is limited, so I cannot promise anything for sure. But if it‘s financially possible for you, I suggest you contact some foreign experts in this field.”
By the time Patrick came out of the doctor‘s office, he seemed to have aged ten years. Although Ritchie was by no means an excellent son, he was still Patrick‘s own flesh and blood after all. And now the poor boy was disabled.
Patrick felt caught between a rock and a hard place. If it were anyone else who had hurt Ritchie, he would‘ve done everything in his power to put the assailant in jail. However, the assailant was none other than Sebastian, who was also his son.
“Dad, are you going to let Sebastian get away with this?” Seth asked, as though he could read his father’s mind. With a long face, Patrick said, “He‘s also my son.”
“But Sebastian has never treated me and Ritchie as his brothers. And Ritchie has suffered too much. If he finds out that you let this slide, he‘ll only be sadder.”
As Seth spoke, there was a flash of resentment in his eyes.
He didn‘t have any affection for Sebastian, despite them being brothers. These days, the Klein family and the Larson Group had been battling fiercely. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Seth immediately hired the best lawyers, preparing to sue Sebastian.
When Sebastian was taken to the police station, Natalie contacted his lawyer, prompting him to come as soon as possible.
“Sir, the Klein family is suing you.”
As soon as he arrived at the police station, the lawyer handed the file to Sebastian. ! Sebastian looked through it and sneered coldly.
“I didn‘t expect them to take action so quickly.”
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“Seth is the plaintiff. He‘s suing you on behalf of his brother under the charge of intentional injury. The hospital has provided the prognosis, which points to Ritchie‘s paralysis as a result of falling down the stairs.” The lawyer systematically handed the materials and photos to Sebastian.
Sebastian didn‘t even bother to go through them and tossed all the papers on the table. In an almost leisurely tone, he simply said,
“You know what to do.”
The lawyer understood immediately.
After gathering all the files, he bowed slightly and left to get to work In fact, a week ago, Sebastian had called his lawyer to inform him that he would receive a lawsuit sometime soon, so the lawyer was already prepared for this moment.
After he left, Sebastian kept silent. In fact, he had been expecting all of this. A week ago, Sebastian secretly asked his subordinate, Luis, to take charge of a project and contact Ritchie.
Because the Larson Group was pulling some strings, the Klein Silk Fabric didn‘t receive any orders in the past month.
At the chance of getting a new project, Ritchie accepted it without hesitation. He and Luis were in frequent contact because of this so called project and often shared meals to discuss the cooperation.
On the day of the accident, Sebastian had instructed Luis to ask Ritchie out for dinner. Luis was good at getting people to drink, and that was precisely what he did with Ritchie. After getting plastered, Ritchie decided to get a room in the hotel.
“Why not go home instead?” Luis put down his glass and squinted at Ritchie curiously.
“My brother said that Sebastian‘s coming home to see Grandma today. If I go home, all hell will break loose. The less trouble, the better.” As Ritchie rambled on drunkenly, he stood up to leave.
Luis smiled meaningfully.
“He‘s just a bastard child. Why are you so afraid of him? If you don‘t go back and teach him a lesson, he‘ll probably think that you‘re a coward.” The drunken Ritchie couldn‘t stand such provocation. He kicked the chair nearby furiously and roared, “How could I be afraid of a bastard like him?”
Then, he stormed off angrily.
Seeing that Ritchie had fallen right into his trap, Luis texted Sebastian to say that Ritchie was on his way back home, As expected, within half an hour, Ritchie stumbled into the Klein family villa, reeking of alcohol Sebastian then said those words on purpose to provoke Ritchie Goaded by the alcohol and his anger, Ritchie attempted to kill Sebastian but was instead pushed down the stairs by the latter.
After Seth filed the case against Sebastian, his lawyer told him that this would be a tricky case to win. After all, there was surveillance footage that proved that Ritchie was the one who started the fight
“Although Ritchie is indeed a reckless fool, he wouldn‘t do such a stupid thing. Besides, I warned him beforehand not to come home because Sebastian would be there. It just doesn‘t add up…” Seth‘s eyes flashed. He knew that this couldn‘t be a mere coincidence. In his eyes, this seemned more like a setup The lawyer smiled bitterly.