My First Love Died, Now My Step Uncle Wants Me-Chapter 82: I Don’t Want It Anymore

The door was ajar, with sharp, broken edges of glass jutting out—directly in Nina Wynn’s path.

"Nina!"

Caleb Rhodes’s eyes went cold. Before he could stop her, she had already slammed into it.

With a loud BANG, Nina Wynn was thrown to the floor.

The glass door recoiled violently. After a loud CRACK, the glass instantly spiderwebbed, a testament to the force of the impact.

Nina Wynn’s body was numb from the impact. She lay stunned on the floor for a few seconds, and just as she tried to get up, Caleb Rhodes swept her into his arms.

His expression was terrifyingly cold. "Nina Wynn, what do you think you’re doing?"

His voice was piercing.

Nina Wynn began to struggle, trying to break free from Caleb Rhodes’s grasp.

"Let go! Leave me alone!"

"Caleb Rhodes, leave me alone! Just leave me alone!"

"Caleb Rhodes, you’re just like them!"

...

Caleb Rhodes gripped her wrists and calves tightly to keep her from running off again. He carried her out through another door.

He took her straight back to her hospital room.

Nina Wynn remained hysterical, struggling violently and managing to break free from Caleb Rhodes several times.

But since she couldn’t see, she was soon covered in injuries.

Caleb Rhodes stared at her freshly bloodied knee, his eyes dark and cold. His voice was as if it had been frozen in an ice cave. "Warner Zimmerman, go get the doctor. Give her a sedative."

Nina Wynn started struggling again, her voice raspy. "No! I don’t want it! You’re the ones who should get a shot! You’re all bad people!"

As she spoke, she grabbed Caleb Rhodes’s arm and bit down hard.

The sleeve of Caleb Rhodes’s shirt was already splotched with blood. His fingers had also been bitten badly and were still bleeding.

The butler glanced over, her expression still impassive. "Third Lord Master, your hand needs to be treated as well."

The doctor arrived quickly and forcibly administered the sedative.

She slowly lost her strength. Her unfocused eyes were hollow and vacant. Her head lolled onto Caleb Rhodes’s shoulder, like a broken doll.

Caleb Rhodes laid her on the bed and took a damp towel, carefully cleaning the small wounds on her body.

Her forehead, face, fingers, and the soles of her feet were all covered in tiny cuts. Some were still oozing blood; others had already scabbed over.

None of the wounds were deep. Aside from the rather serious one on her knee, the rest were just minor cuts. But against her exceptionally fair and delicate skin, they looked alarming.

The alcohol still stung, especially when he disinfected her knee. Nina Wynn flinched from the pain.

Caleb Rhodes frowned. Looking at the large scrape on her knee, he asked in a low voice, "Does it hurt?"

Nina Wynn didn’t answer.

After being forcibly sedated, she was tired. She stared blankly at the ceiling, not saying a word, allowing Caleb Rhodes to treat her wounds.

When Caleb Rhodes finished treating her wounds, he saw that she had fallen asleep.

Her body was curled up, and the arm resting on the edge of the bed was slender and pale, looking utterly fragile.

He squeezed her hand, his eyes a terrifyingly deep shade.

He lowered his head and pressed his cool lips to her forehead. His voice was hoarse. "What do I have to do to make you behave?"

There was no answer. Nina Wynn was sleeping so deeply that even her curled eyelashes barely trembled.

Just then, the butler came in with a small first-aid kit and brought it to Caleb Rhodes. "Third Lord Master, please tend to your own wounds."

Caleb Rhodes took off his shirt, revealing several bite marks on his forearms. All of them had broken the skin, and a few were bitten so deeply they were like little puncture wounds.

He disinfected them with a blank expression and then looked at his fingers.

She had bitten down hard—so hard he could almost see bone.

The butler’s expression finally flickered. She said in a low voice, "I’ll call a doctor. It might need stitches."

Caleb Rhodes’s face was devoid of expression, his tone just as cold. "No need. Let it scar."

The butler opened her mouth as if to say something, but ultimately remained silent.

After a long moment, she glanced at the sleeping Nina Wynn and said in a hushed voice, "You suspended all of Miss Crystal Rhodes’s credit cards. She’s been demanding to see you. She’s gone to the hotel to find you many times in the last few days, and to the company as well. They just called to say she’s at the hotel making a scene again."

A sharp glint flashed in Caleb Rhodes’s eyes. He gently caressed Nina Wynn’s sleeping face for a moment before pulling his hand back and gazing out the window.

His already icy eyes were now even colder and darker, his expression frighteningly grim.

Having been with him for many years, the butler naturally understood his thoughts. She asked quietly, "Should I have her sent away?"

Caleb Rhodes narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice, "Reinstate her credit cards."

’I have no intention of dealing with Crystal Rhodes right now. Nina needs to recuperate in peace; it’s best the two of them don’t cross paths.’

The butler was taken aback for a moment, then her expressionless mask slipped back into place.

"Yes."

Neither of them saw the sleeping Nina Wynn’s eyelashes tremble, or how her hand secretly clenched the bedsheet beneath her.

The butler added, "Miss Wynn’s graduate school admission has been taken care of. They also sent over her diploma."

Caleb Rhodes’s tone was cold. "Put them in my safe."

’I have no intention of letting her continue her studies for now. The priority is for her to recover. School can wait.

’Besides, even if she did go back to school after she recovered, I wouldn’t allow her to live on campus.’

On the bed, Nina Wynn’s hand twitched, but she didn’t open her eyes.

Nina Wynn slept long and deep, not waking until noon the next day.

When she woke up, she was no longer shouting or struggling, but she was unnervingly silent.

She was perfectly cooperative about taking her medicine and eating her meals. She just wouldn’t speak.

Nothing worked, whether Caleb Rhodes tried to coax her gently or force her to speak. Even when he gripped her chin so hard it bruised, she wouldn’t so much as whimper.

This went on for two days.

「On the third day,」 Caleb Rhodes had someone bring Roy over.

The little creature was quite clever. As soon as it arrived, it started climbing on Nina Wynn, as if it remembered her scent.

By this point, Nina Wynn could vaguely make out shadows. Hearing the little kitten’s cry, she accurately scooped it into her hands.

The kitten meowed in her hands, its cries adorable and soft. Nina Wynn usually loved to poke it playfully with her finger.

But today, she only stroked its little head before placing it on the bedside table.

Still, she had finally spoken.

"President Rhodes, please take it away."

It would have been better if she had remained silent. The moment she spoke, Caleb Rhodes’s expression soured. "Nina Wynn, what did you call me?"

Nina Wynn’s voice was still soft and quiet, pleasant to the ear, yet it was laced with a distinct chill and sarcasm.

"President Rhodes. Caleb Rhodes. Please take it away."

Her eyelashes fluttered, and she turned her face away. "I don’t want it anymore."

A flash of malice darkened Caleb Rhodes’s eyes. He walked slowly over to Nina Wynn, his tall frame looming over her, almost completely engulfing her.

He looked down on her, his voice utterly glacial as he enunciated each word. "Nina Wynn. Say that again."

The oppressive aura of a man in power washed over her. Nina Wynn felt so crushed she didn’t dare look up, her hands clenching into tight fists.

She lowered her gaze and said slowly, "I don’t want it anymore. Take it away."

Her voice was still quiet, but it held a note of resolve.

Hostility radiated from Caleb Rhodes in waves. The cold darkness in his eyes was terrifying.

He stared at her, motionless, for a long moment before spitting out a single word. "Reason!"

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t nervous under such immense pressure. Nina Wynn’s palms began to sweat, but she spoke anyway. "I don’t want it to be like me."

Caleb Rhodes narrowed his eyes, a dangerous aura filling the air.

"Like you?"

The two short words sounded utterly frigid, as if each was coated in a layer of frost that could chill one to the bone.

But Nina Wynn seemed unaffected. In a quiet, unnervingly calm voice, she said, "Locked in a cage. Played with when he’s happy, tossed aside when he’s not. Maybe one day he and his family will break its legs..."

"Nina Wynn!"

Caleb Rhodes cut her off sharply. His chest heaved violently, and the veins on the back of his hands bulged.

’I’ve never been so patient with anyone in my life, never humbled myself to indulge someone like this. And yet, after everything I’ve done, she shows zero gratitude.’

He seized her chin, forcing her to look up. His voice was like ice. "Nina Wynn, I’ve been far too lenient with you!"

Nina Wynn’s unfocused eyes gazed in Caleb Rhodes’s direction, her heart sinking. She murmured, "So, are you going to decide whether I live or die again, President Rhodes?"

"Are you going to lock me up, or have someone kill me?"

Caleb Rhodes was so furious his chest heaved, the veins on his hands throbbing violently.

’I’m still trying with all my might to hold back!

’If it were anyone else, anyone who dared to mock and defy me like this, I could find any excuse to make them disappear forever. But this little thing before me is someone I’ve held in my heart for years, and she’s so fragile I could snap her in two with one hand.

’She’s still blind and has covered herself in injuries. A poor, pitiful thing. I just can’t bring myself to hurt her!

’And yet it’s this little thing who can push me to lose control again and again. My famed self-control and composure shatter in her presence.

’I want to crack open her head right now and see what the hell she’s thinking!

’Everything was clearly fine. She had been unbelievably docile just a few days ago. But I only stepped out for a few minutes during her statement, and when I came back, she was like this.

’Her personality has completely changed, as if she’d suffered some great shock.

’I’ve reviewed the surveillance footage from that day. The two officers had done nothing at all; they just stood outside. After a little while, Nina Wynn started to lose control.

’I was present for the entire interview and statement. The questions from Leo Morgan and the two officers were all standard procedure; they didn’t say a single extra word. Besides, Nina Wynn had barely answered at all at the time, so there was nothing that could have provoked her.

’So, even now, I have no idea why she has suddenly changed.

’I am now filled with immense regret that I didn’t take her with me when I went to Aridia. I regret even more that I didn’t take her in and raise her myself when she first came to the Rhodes Family, letting her grow up so wayward.

’But what makes me even more agitated than her defiance is the thought that I can’t completely control her, that she might be harboring rebellious ideas.

’She actually dared to say she hated me!

’I hadn’t even had the chance to punish her, and now she dares to call me by my full name and tell me to get rid of the cat.

’I went to so much trouble to get this cat. A few days ago, it broke its leg and almost didn’t make it. I specially flew in a top-tier veterinary specialist from abroad to perform surgery and have been doting on it ever since, all so she would spare it a glance and be a little happier.

’Now she dares to say she doesn’t want it, and even dares to say she doesn’t want the cat to be unfree and bullied like her.

’Is being with me really so unbearable for her?’

He tightened his grip on her chin. "Nina Wynn, you’re utterly ungrateful!"

He narrowed his eyes. "So you don’t want this cat anymore? Fine. I’ll have someone take it away right now!"

"To the dump. A kitten this small will be dead on arrival."

His tone was cruel. "It’s full of feral cats and stray dogs. A sweet-smelling little kitten like this will be torn to shreds in minutes."

Nina Wynn trembled with every word he spoke.

Her subtle tremors did not escape Caleb Rhodes’s notice. His tone was cold and ruthless. "But this is what you wanted, Nina Wynn. You asked for this!"

Nina Wynn’s body started to tremble, her chest heaving.

But she said nothing, biting her lip so hard it might bleed, her hands gripping the sheet beneath her as if trying to tear a hole in it.

Caleb Rhodes’s gaze swept over her face, finally landing on her defiant lips. He said coldly, "Warner Zimmerman, take the cat away. Right now!"

The butler stepped forward, her face impassive, and put the kitten back into its carrier.

Perhaps wanting to be petted, the little one meowed incessantly. Its soft, plaintive cries made Nina Wynn’s heart ache.

But she remained silent, the force in her hands nearly enough to shred the sheet.

Caleb Rhodes stared at her, motionless, and saw that she still hadn’t reacted.

The kitten was taken away, its cries fading into the distance, yet she still didn’t beg for mercy.

A violent fury surged in his eyes. He gritted his teeth, forcing the words out. "Nina Wynn, you’ve got some nerve!"

With that, he turned and stormed out, slamming the door with a deafening crash.

Nina Wynn didn’t see Caleb Rhodes for two straight days.

「On the third day,」 she could finally see a little.

It was still blurry, but she could make out vague shapes.

In the afternoon, the butler started packing her things, explaining that she was being discharged to go home for a few days.

Elysian City was already cold by then, filled with the desolation of late autumn. A light rain fell continuously, slicking the ground. The wind blew, sending sycamore leaves scattering with a rustle that made one instinctively pull their coat tighter.

Nina Wynn stood in the wind holding an umbrella. The wind was strong, whipping open her unbuttoned coat to reveal the cream-colored hem of her dress and a sliver of her slender ankle. She looked fragile and frail.

The butler got out of the Rolls-Royce and opened the door, her face as impassive as ever. "Miss Wynn, please get in. The Third Lord Master is busy today and won’t be coming."

Nina Wynn said nothing and got into the car.

The door closed, and the car pulled away slowly.

Just then, the window of a black Hongqi sedan parked by the roadside rolled down, revealing a pair of cold, indifferent eyes.

The owner of those eyes wore a fine white shirt. He looked clean and noble, with an imposing air.

His gaze followed the Rolls-Royce until it was nearly out of sight. Finally, Willson Lawson, in the driver’s seat, spoke. "Third Lord Master, you’ve been waiting here for almost an hour. Was it just for a single glance?"