Chapter 977: Chapter 977: Aren’t You Just Asking for It?

"Yeah, but it was voluntary. She was looking out for you—she didn’t go in for the kill on Nightshade Corporation. At most, she was trying to protect herself, afraid that once I really came to my senses I wouldn’t let her go." Mason Nightshade spoke up for Aurelia.

"You really do dote on her, taking everything onto yourself." Kai Nightshade’s cheeks puffed with anger. "And this time?"

"This time..." Mason’s voice dropped. "This time it was because..."

...

After hearing the whole story, Kai Nightshade stayed dazed for a long time.

After a while, he let out a soft sigh, feeling like he’d suddenly aged a lot. "Forget it. You young people’s business, I’m done interfering.

Back then I ignored what you wanted and dragged you back from the army to take over the Nightshade Family’s business.

These past few years, Nightshade’s business has been getting better and better.

Maybe once you’re old, you start to care less about these things.

From now on, I won’t meddle in Nightshade matters anymore. Same goes for what’s between you and that girl Aurelia—I won’t stick my nose in. You handle it yourself."

"Mm." Mason nodded.

Kai Nightshade wanted to say something more, but after one look at Mason, he just sighed and left.

Mason touched his left chest. There was a thick bandage wrapped around it, and under it was the deep stab she’d given him, only two millimeters off from his heart.

She still couldn’t bring herself to truly do it.

No matter how ruthless her mouth, in that split second she actually struck, she still pulled back.

No more debts between us?

She’d said the same thing last time.

Her mouth was always hard, making people think she was ruthless, but everything she did was backing down, again and again.

These days he’d seen how she dealt with her enemies: she’d pay them back tenfold. Even if she didn’t take their lives, she’d make sure the rest of their days were spent in suffering, dying unwilling.

Even stabbing him, she’d held back, using that to settle the score.

Settle? What he owed her was a life, and a lifetime of happiness—this stupid girl.

After the old Master Nightshade left, Grayson Quinn came back to the ward.

He walked in and saw Mason holding his left chest, lost in thought, a faint curve on his thin lips.

He didn’t even need to guess to know who he was thinking about.

"What, you want to get stabbed again? No need to trouble Aurelia; I can stab you myself." Grayson said sarcastically.

"You wouldn’t dare." A chill flashed through Mason’s eyes.

Grayson shivered, muttering under his breath, "You only know how to act tough with me. You’re so damn capable—when your woman was sticking a knife in you, how come you didn’t know to dodge?"

"I’m happy to let my woman stab me. Are you my woman?" Mason raised a brow. "And my woman stabbed me, so what are you getting mad about?"

"..." Grayson felt a line stick in his throat, neither going up nor down, unbearably uncomfortable. "I really worried for nothing!"

"Check how she’s doing." Mason said again.

Grayson rolled his eyes, sprawled on the sofa peeling a mandarin. "If you wanna know, go check yourself. I’m out. You’ve already been tossed onto a hospital bed by a woman and you still care how she’s doing—tell me that’s not masochism?"

"That’s an order." Mason’s brow lifted.

Grayson’s face went an ugly mix of green and purple. In the end he slowly climbed off the sofa, flipped open his laptop, his long fingers flying over the keyboard as he drawled, "She’s at the hospital right now."

Seeing Mason’s expression instantly brighten, Grayson, courting death, twisted the knife: "She’s there to see Balthazar Shaw—her dad—not you."

Mason shot him a cold glare, his face darkening as he frowned. "Why is Balthazar Shaw in this hospital?"

Grayson said, "This is the military district hospital. He doesn’t have the clearance to get in. But with how bad your injury was, if you hadn’t come here, even with the knife two centimeters off your heart, they still wouldn’t have been able to save you."