The Cherished Wife



Annie suddenly felt weak, and tears just started to fall from her eyes.

Cody rubbed his forehead, giving the doctor and nurse a look. "Could you guys give us a minute, please?"

After the doctor and nurse left, Cody shut the door and stepped in. "How are you holding up?"Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

"Not well! I'm doing really badly, Brother. They did this to me! You have to get revenge for me!"

"Revenge?" Cody let out a harsh laugh. Seeing Annie still not sorry for what she had done made him wonder why he had even made a deal with Sean. "Do you even realize what you've done wrong?"

"What did I do wrong? I didn't do anything." Annie stared at Cody, shocked. She could not believe that her brother, who always spoiled and loved her, was not taking her side. He was questioning her, even though she was the one who was hurt. "Your sister is so badly hurt, yet you don't think you should get revenge for me?"

"That's enough!" Cody's voice was sharp as he cut off Annie. "I don't want to fight with you, but what on earth did you do last night at The Majestic Lounge? Do you have any idea how hard I've been trying to find someone to help? No one's brave enough to step up. So, tell me, what did you do that made Charles get involved himself?"

"Charles!"

Annie's eyes widened in shock as the image of a man with icy, piercing eyes and a face devoid of warmth flashed through her mind. She looked at Cody with a blank expression, and Cody almost lost it.

"Did you do something to make Charles mad?"

"No. I swear I didn't!" Annie shook

her head quickly. "Please believe me, Brother. I really didn't. I..." Tears were about to spill from her eyes. "It's true, I've met Charles before, but that was ages ago. He didn't care about me at all! You have to trust Brother. I didn't even see Charles recently. How could I have made him mad?"

me,

Annie was so upset that she tried to sit up in bed, but the pain from her injury made her fall back down. She reached out desperately and grabbed Cody's leg. "Brother, I promise I didn't do anything to upset Charles!"

2

"I..." Annie started to say something but then stopped herself.

Cody was getting more upset by the minute. Annie was still keeping secrets at a time like this. "How can I help you if you won't tell me what happened?"

"Brother, I swear I didn't mean for it to happen. I just wanted to give her a little scare, but I never imagined it would go this far. You have to help me," Annie pleaded, her voice trembling with fear.

"Take a deep breath and tell me everything. Who is she?" Cody asked.

Annie took a shaky breath. "She's my classmate, Noelle. I can't stand her. She stole my boyfriend back in school, and now she's after Winter's boyfriend too. Winter is her own sister At the party, she was flirting with everyone, and I got so angry that... when she went to the bathroom, I had some people scare her. But I never thought they'd use a snake."

"A snake?"

Cody's expression darkened as he stared at Annie. "That was incredibly reckless. Do you realize that could've killed her? Noelle, Noelle..." The name seemed oddly familiar to him. "You're saying you just wanted to scare Noelle? Then why is Charles after you?"