Chapter 786 Pressure From Both Sides
When they left the hospital, Tiffany hadn’t even gotten a chance to pull herself together when her phone rang. She took it out and saw that it was her family calling.
A conflicted look flashed in her gaze. She was about to reject the call, but Amelia suddenly took her phone and said, “Let me talk to your parents.”
She picked up the call and said, “Hello. This is Amelia.”
“Amelia? I’m Tiffany’s mother. Can you pass her the phone?” Ophelia said. “Tiff isn’t in a very good mood right now, Mrs. Winters. You can just tell me what you want to say,” Amelia stated.
There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment, and Amelia didn’t urge Ophelia to speak, either. It was as if they were in a drawn-out match of tug-of-war. It all boiled down to who would crack first.
Ophelia couldn’t bear it any longer and voiced, “Amelia, my son has been causing trouble again. Can you get Tiff to send some money over?”
The rage that Amelia felt caused her to laugh instead. “You might not know this, Mrs. Winters, but because you called to ask for money previously, Tiff got into a disagreement with her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law’s in the hospital right now, and Tiff might have to get a divorce from Derrick. If you care about your daughter at all, then you shouldn’t force this onto her.”
After saying that, she didn’t hear anything from the other end of the phone for a long while.
Following the silence, Ophelia quietly questioned, “Is that true?”
“I have no reason to lie to you, Mrs. Winters. Tiff has sent a lot of money back home to help out, and your family’s house is a result of her hard work. You might feel that marrying into a rich family is a glorious event, but the truth about rich families is deeper than you think. Because of Tiff’s disparity in status with the Hissons, her mother-in-law has never approved of her. Think about how hard she must have had it. That’s why I’m begging you not to force her to sever ties with you,” Amelia requested sincerely and earnestly.
“I’m sorry for doing that to Tiff, but her brother has already gotten into a lot of trouble. If Tiff doesn’t give us any money, someone will chop his hands off. It’s not a lot of money, just half a million,” Ophelia protested.
Is she really saying that half a million isn’t much?
Half a million was the amount that an average family would earn over the course of their lifetime. The Winters family didn’t earn a lot. After deducting the family’s expenses, they wouldn’t have much of their monthly income left. They wouldn’t be able to get half a million even if they had saved for years, but Ophelia had the audacity to say that half a million wasn’t much money.
It seemed that the Winters family intended to fully take advantage of Tiffany after seeing that she had married into a wealthy family.
Amelia found it incredibly distasteful. “Mrs. Winters, have you forgotten that not too long ago, Tiff spent two million for her brother? It’s true that she makes quite a lot of money, but she’s not your personal ATM.”
Ophelia began to get angry, possibly because Amelia had refused her request again.
“Pass the phone to Tiff, Amelia. Let me say a few things to her. Something’s happened to her brother. As his sister, it’s not like she can just stand by and watch,” she urged assertively.
“The signal here isn’t very good, Mrs. Winters. I can’t hear what you’re saying. I’m hanging up now.” Amelia then ended the call instantly.
The screen of the phone went black, and she looked at Tiffany apologetically. “I’m sorry, Tiff. I took the liberty to hang up on your family. If you want to talk to them, I’ll call them back right away.”
Tiffany shook her head. She went silent, unlike how bold she used to be.
Amelia tugged on her hand. “Let’s go back to my house for now.”
When they reached the condominium, Amelia brewed a cup of coffee for her. “Try it.”
Tiffany took the coffee, and the heat of the coffee warmed her hands up. She tried her best to smile as she said, “Thank you, Babe.”
Amelia stroked Tiffany’s soft hair. It was said that those with soft hair were soft-hearted as well. Even though Tiffany seemed to be bold and stone-hearted on the surface, she was a very kind person deep down. Truthfully, she was quite bothered by the fact that Kate did not like her.
She had always intended to get married to Derrick, but since their marriage wasn’t approved of by the elder Hissons, she was constantly walking on eggshells.
“Tiff, when Mrs. Hisson wakes up, I’ll go and visit her with you. I think she’ll be fine,” Amelia offered.
Tiffany held onto the cup in her hands and mutedly nodded.
It wasn’t like Amelia planned to go on a tangent, either, so she quietly kept Tiffany company.
When night fell, it took her a lot of effort to coax Tiffany to sleep. She quietly shut the door and turned around to see Oscar standing nearby.
She revealed a faint smile and walked over to him. “You’re still awake?”
He looked at the closed door and muttered, “Is she okay?”
Amelia shook her head. “She’s really upset. She’s under a lot of pressure from Mrs. Hisson, who is constantly trying to make things difficult for her, as well as the fact that Mrs. Hisson has collapsed. On top of that, her family is being so immature. She has to worry about both sides of things. It seems that they intend to drive her into a corner.”
Oscar slipped his hand around her waist. “Do you need me to send someone to her family home and check things out?”
“We should just wait for a while. They’re her family, after all, so it wouldn’t be good if she found out that we were getting ourselves involved,” Amelia pointed out.
He nodded and didn’t say anything more.
The two of them returned to the bedroom and took a shower together before changing into their sleepwear. As they were lying on the bed, Amelia said, “Oscar, can you think of a way to talk to Old Mr. Hisson? I feel like he’s the most reasonable elder among the Hissons. You should put in a good word for Tiff in front of him. I’m guessing he won’t make things too hard for Tiff, for your sake.”
Oscar agreed, “Okay. I’ll go look for Old Mr. Hisson tomorrow.”
She soon fell asleep in his comfortable embrace.
The next day, he went looking for Terrence. He said something that caused Terrence to immediately allow Tiffany to go and visit Kate in the hospital and even told Finnick not to cause trouble again.
When Amelia relayed this information to Tiffany, she immediately bought a bunch of food and took it with her to the hospital. However, when she got there, she was faced with Kate who didn’t wake up all afternoon.
Tiffany went there for three days, and Kate slept for all three days. When the Hissons saw that she was unconscious for so long, they began to grow anxious and told the doctor to give her another check-up. The doctor informed them that her vitals were all stable, so she could wake up at any time. As for the reason why she had yet to do so, the doctor suggested that Kate might just not want to wake up yet.
In the blink of an eye, Kate had already been unconscious for six days. That was already more than the Hissons could take. Everyone began to see Tiffany in a different light.
Finnick shot her a stare that would have left her dead if looks could kill.
“Are you satisfied now, Tiffany? You made your mother-in-law so mad that she hasn’t woken up until now. What a jinx. If anything happens to her, I’m settling the score with you,” he thundered through gritted teeth.
Tiffany looked at Kate, who was still asleep on the hospital bed. She was about to retort but swallowed her words.
Terrence leaned on his cane and uttered, “Tiffany didn’t do it on purpose, Finnick. You shouldn’t blame her too much.”
Finnick’s expression darkened. He clenched his fist and argued, “I can go along with you when it comes to anything else, Dad, but you can see my wife unconscious in the hospital bed, too. If she doesn’t wake up, I won’t acknowledge Tiffany as my daughter-in-law anymore. If Derrick doesn’t get a divorce from her, then Kate will no longer be his mother.”
In response, Terrence let out a long sigh. He didn’t know what to say, either.
Tiffany’s lips were quivering. She feebly murmured, “I’ll take responsibility.”
“What responsibility? If my wife doesn’t wake up, are you going to pay me back with her life?” Finnick snapped in an overbearing manner.
Just when Tiffany was about to speak, Derrick stopped her. “This has nothing to do with Tiff, Dad. Mom has always been sick. The doctor already said that she could relapse at any time.”
At that point, Finnick was so enraged that he was trembling from head to toe.
He clenched his teeth. “Are you really protecting that vixen, even now?”
“Tiff isn’t a vixen, Dad. She’s my wife,” Derrick insisted.
“Get lost,” Finnick commanded.
Upon hearing that, Derrick hooked his arm around Tiffany’s waist and took her straight out of the ward.
Tiffany caressed his face and said, “You should go back in, Derrick. Don’t make your dad angry. Considering Mom’s condition, I’m sure he’s having a hard time.”
Derrick tapped the tip of her nose. “I’m sorry for making you suffer like this.”
“I’m fine. I was the one at fault in the first place. I’m already happy that you don’t blame me. I’m sure both Granddad and Dad don’t want to see me right now, so I’ll get going first,” she suggested.
“Be careful on your way back, then,” he replied.
Tiffany nodded and went out of the hospital.
The moment she left, Crystal got out of her car. When she saw Tiffany’s fading back figure, her lips curled up into a sneer.
“I’ve planned this for so long, Tiff. I doubt you won’t take the bait,” she icily mumbled to herself. “You were dead set on getting married to Derrick, weren’t you? In that case, I’ll let you have a taste of defeat in your marriage. Derrick will be mine and mine alone.”
She walked into the hospital and took the elevator up. When she stepped out, she saw Derrick leaning on the railing.
Approaching him, she piped up, “Derrick, is Mrs. Hisson awake yet?”
He eyed her. “Why are you here?”
“Mrs. Hisson’s been unconscious for a few days now. Since I’m younger, it’s only right that I come to visit her,” Crystal explained.
Derrick remained silent.
Crystal leaned against the railing with him and asked, “How about we go get a drink?”
“No thanks,” he rejected.
That made Crystal sneer. “You don’t have to be so defensive around me. I can tell that you’re not in a good mood right now. After all, your mother got so mad that she collapsed because of your own wife and hasn’t woken up until now. Anyone with some common sense can tell that if someone hasn’t woken up by now, they might be in a vegetative state for the rest of their life.”
Derrick’s fist tightened. “Get lost!”
She was undeterred by that. “Let’s go have a drink and let loose. Just because we didn’t succeed as a couple doesn’t mean we have to be enemies.”
He contemplated the idea. For some unknown reason, he eventually agreed to go with her.
