Chapter 78 Did You Need Something?
Elsa looked at Alexander with open hostility.
Her face was pale and her voice weak.
"Alexander, you're despicable."
His expression remained calm.
"Your mother is in the hospital. I'll take you there."
At the words your mother, Elsa's already pale face lost even more color.
She shoved past Alexander and ran toward the road to hail a taxi.
Alexander turned and watched her frantically stop one and leave.
He did not stop her.
He did not follow.
When Elsa reached the hospital, the relatives who had come to visit had just left.
"Mom."
She crouched beside the bed, frightened and aggrieved all at once.
Margaret sat up and wrapped both hands around Elsa's icy fingers. Tears filled her eyes.
"You're out. That's what matters. You're out."
Elsa tried to reassure both parents.
"Dad, Mom, don't worry. I'm innocent. I'll find a lawyer and fight this case to the end."
Harold and Margaret exchanged a glance.
Margaret chose her words carefully.
"Elsa, we know you've been wronged. We also know we can't do much to help you. Don't make choices because you're worried about us. Think everything through before you decide anything. Don't act on impulse."
There was a desperate finality in Elsa's eyes.
"Don't worry about me. I know what I'm doing."
If prison was the price of divorcing Alexander, then she would pay it.
As her parents, Harold and Margaret understood how stubbornly their daughter had made up her mind.
But as her parents, they could not bear the thought of watching her actually be sent to prison.
They were trapped between the two choices and had no solution.
That afternoon, Aunt Joyce, an old neighbor from the Winters family's former home, asked Elsa to meet at a cafe.
The moment Joyce saw her, she sighed repeatedly.
"You and Alexander looked so perfect together. You were the couple I believed in most. I never imagined things would end like this."
Elsa sat quietly across from her, visibly exhausted.
"Don't feel sorry for me, Aunt Joyce. A man who cheats isn't worth regretting."
Joyce leaned closer.
"It's true that you have evidence of Alexander's affair. But Elsa, have you thought about the difference between the Winters family and the Horton family now? Forget your family. No one in all of Saintville can stand against Alexander."
Elsa nodded numbly.
"I know."
Joyce hesitated.
"Your parents are getting older. Your mother's health is poor. Noah has his university entrance exams next year. If you insist on fighting Alexander until one of you breaks, can you afford what it will cost?"
Elsa rested both elbows on the table and pushed her fingers into her hair.
Of course she understood the price of turning Alexander into an enemy.
But she saw no other way.
Joyce continued, "You have parents, a brother, friends, a career, and a promising future. Throwing away the best years of your life in prison because of one man isn't worth it."
After leaving Joyce, Elsa wandered the streets alone for a long time.
Every word had made sense.
And still Elsa could not do what everyone wanted.
The wounds no one could see, the torment that had followed her through one day and night after another, hurt more than death.
If ten years of freedom was the price of escaping the prison of her marriage, she was willing to pay it.
Wanting the case resolved as quickly as possible, Elsa called Attorney Coleman herself.
He not only refused to take the criminal case, he refused even to meet her.
Before hanging up, he tried to persuade her gently. Every careful word implied the same thing: give up.
Elsa did not make things difficult for him.
After that call, she visited four or five law firms in succession.
Not one would take either her divorce case or the criminal matter against her.
The hope in her eyes slowly turned to despair.
This was Saintville.
Alexander's territory.
She should have expected this.
The night air was bitterly cold.
Elsa stood beside the road and pulled her coat tighter around herself.
"Elsa!"
A car window lowered nearby. Violet was calling to her.
Elsa stopped.
As they talked, she learned that Eleanor had fallen ill from anger and worry after hearing about her detention.
Lucas had fought bitterly with Alexander over her and the two still were not speaking.
Even Violet had nearly been sent abroad.
Everyone who tried to help her had been suppressed by Alexander with absolute force.
While Elsa was still talking to Violet, her phone rang.
Harold's panicked voice came through the moment she answered.
"Elsa, come back quickly. Your mother has been taken into emergency care."
Violet drove her straight to the hospital.
Margaret was still in intensive care when they arrived.
The doctors would not allow family members to crowd the hallway, so they were sent back to the room to wait.
While Elsa, Harold, and Violet waited anxiously, a middle-aged woman arrived with a little girl.
The woman entered the room and dropped to her knees without a word.
All three of them were startled.
Harold hurried forward to pull her up.
"Lillian, what are you doing? Get up."
Elsa recognized her as the wife of her cousin Daniel.
Lillian sobbed.
"Uncle Harold, please help us get Daniel out too."
Elsa's voice tightened.
"Lillian, Daniel and I have no grudge against each other. Why did he frame me?"
Since being detained, Daniel had refused to explain himself and refused to see anyone.
But Lillian was his wife. It was hard to believe she knew nothing.
Lillian shook her head firmly.
"Elsa, Daniel is an honest man. He would never willingly do something illegal."
Crying, she removed the hat from her daughter's head.
The girl's scalp was bare.
"Three months ago, Dolly was diagnosed with leukemia. We've spent every cent we had. We don't even know how we'll pay tomorrow's medical bill, and the phone shop's rent is due in two days. Without Daniel, my daughter and I can't survive. Please help us."
The little girl clutched the edge of Elsa's coat and cried.
"Aunt Elsa, I want Daddy."
Elsa stared at the child.
Her hands clenched at her sides.
Daniel's daughter had leukemia and the family desperately needed money.
That was why Alexander had been able to use him.
And that was why Alexander had remained so calm: he was certain Daniel would not risk changing his testimony when his daughter's life depended on the money.
Elsa looked at the sobbing mother and child, thought of her mother still in emergency care, and remembered Attorney Coleman refusing even to meet her.
Then she turned and left the room.
In the hallway, Elsa called Alexander again and again and sent message after message.
There was no response.
Anger had stripped away what little calm she had left.
She went to the Horton estate, the Crown Club, even the apartment complex where Serena lived.
Alexander was nowhere.
With no other choice, Elsa finally went to the wealthy bay district.
At one in the morning, Alexander stepped out of the elevator.
Elsa was leaning against the wall outside his door, barely able to stay upright.
He stopped.
"Did you need something?"