CHAPTER 18: CHAPTER 18: CAN I GO HOME WITH YOU?

The bar is located in the bustling area of Astra City, just a few minutes’ drive from the hospital.

The doctor looked at Natalie Vaughn’s palm, with furrowed brows that never relaxed. Not only had the original wounds split open further, but the broken bottle’s edge had also cut deeper into the skin, with small pieces of glass embedded inside.

The smell of alcohol on Natalie was strong, but her eyes remained clear.

Being close to the bar, the doctor had seen all sorts of injured patients, but it was the first time encountering someone like Natalie. She reeked of alcohol but showed no signs of drunkenness, and her new injuries overlapped with the old ones.

The doctor glanced at Zane Thorne.

"How could you, as a guardian, bring a young person to the bar?"

Hearing this, Zane’s brow furrowed, while Natalie couldn’t hold back her laughter, looking up at Zane with a triumphant smile.

"Uncle?"

The man’s expression stiffened slightly, staring at Natalie, who indeed looked like a high school student with her high ponytail. His gaze fell on her bloodied hands, and he chose not to pursue the matter.

Seeing Zane’s expression, Natalie’s mood instantly brightened.

It took the doctor nearly ten minutes to remove the glass shards from Natalie’s palm, apply medicine, and wrap it with gauze.

"Try not to touch water or heavy items in the next few days, and make your movements as small as possible."

Natalie thanked the doctor and was about to get up when Zane pressed her back into the chair. Then the man crouched down, grabbed Natalie’s ankle, and pulled it out.

"There’s another wound here."

The doctor looked down and noticed it indeed existed.

Natalie belatedly looked down at her right leg, spotting a red mark on her calf with blood droplets, and her calf muscle stained with blood.

It was probably scratched during her last kick at the bottle.

Natalie’s eyes shifted slightly; she hadn’t noticed it herself, but how did Zane... notice?

Retracting his hand, Zane stood up, making way for the doctor to handle it, only to find Natalie staring at him.

"What are you looking at?"

Natalie pursed her lips, her eyes curling up with a smile.

"Uncle Zane, you’ve got an amazing eye for observation. I didn’t even know myself."

Hearing this address, Zane felt a pang in his head, the veins on the back of his hand twitching slightly.

"Don’t damn well call me that."

Zane’s brows knitted tightly, irritation clearly in his eyes.

The contrast of blood’s red against the skin’s white was indeed stunning on Natalie. Yet, from the bar to the hospital, even while her wounds were being treated, she hadn’t uttered a sound. If not for her tightly knitted brows, he would have thought she felt no pain at all.

The agitation bubbling within Zane was hard to suppress; he even felt like he needed a cigarette despite being in the hospital.

He didn’t quite understand how Natalie, who grew up pampered by the Vaughn Family, could react this way to injury. With such care, one would expect her to feel aggrieved. Wasn’t she quite good at playing the obedient one? How come an injury turned her into a wooden doll?

Natalie couldn’t fathom what Zane was thinking or why he was suddenly so agitated. She was pondering how to respond as a doctor on the side spoke up.

"What’s with you? Scolding the young one when she’s injured?"

Natalie’s brow twitched; her intuition told her that if she let the doctor continue to misunderstand, Zane might explode.

"Doctor Uncle, I was just joking. He’s my boyfriend, calling him uncle is just a playful thing between us."

She added a playful wink after saying this.

Hearing this, the doctor seemed to have an existential crisis, looking at Natalie’s face, then at Zane’s, and finally couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity.

"Young lady, how old are you?"

"Almost 24."

The doctor was taken aback.

"24? I thought you were eighteen."

Any woman would be delighted to hear such words; Natalie was no exception.

"Yep, I tend to look younger, and he’s just six years older than me."

The doctor finally believed in their relationship, pursed his lips, as if wanting to say more but restrained himself.

Matters between a couple are not something to meddle in.

When Zane heard the word ’boyfriend’, the hand resting at his side twitched unconsciously. He lifted his gaze to see Natalie sitting obediently on the stool. Who would have thought that half an hour ago, this girl had taken down five men at the bar with her bare hands?

It was rather fascinating; the irritation he usually quelled with a cigarette was lightly suppressed by a few of Natalie’s words.

Zane turned to look out the window; the night was dark, and the rain was pouring harder.

The man raised his right hand to pinch his left wrist, his eyes deep and fathomless.

Once all the wounds were treated, Zane stretched out his hand toward Natalie.

Natalie raised an eyebrow, disregarding Zane’s earlier unexplained anger, and placed her hand in his palm. Once back in the car, Natalie directly asked.

"What was that about earlier?"

Letting it slide is one thing; figuring out the reason is another.

The Vaughn Family’s daughter never endures another’s lousy mood.

Zane deeply gazed into Natalie’s eyes; after a moment, his gaze shifted, scanning over her injured hand, then her wounded leg.

Yet he only said one thing.

"It’s my issue."

Natalie: ....

She hadn’t even said anything, so why was Zane admitting fault? Natalie genuinely couldn’t fathom the man before her.

"At the bar..."

Natalie paused.

"Did I cause you trouble?"

Zane glanced at her.

"Even if it blows up, I can handle it. Feel better now?"

Such an answer was unexpected for Natalie, given they weren’t in a mutual benefit relationship at the moment. Zane had no obligation to go to such lengths for her.

Natalie felt something was off but couldn’t pinpoint why, although it didn’t stop her from feeling overjoyed at Zane’s words.

Seeing the young girl sitting beside him, moving around without any heed to her injuries,

Zane finally asked.

"It doesn’t hurt?"

"With injuries like these, this bit of pain is manageable."

The hardships she endured and the pain she suffered while learning karate with James Vaughn as a child were far worse than this. Compared to that, these wounds were child’s play.

Seeing Natalie’s lack of drama or signs of painful endurance, Zane curled the corner of his mouth.

"Your karate skill is quite impressive."

At this, Natalie began to boast.

"Of course, don’t underestimate me. Even if more men like tonight come, I can take them down."

Zane laughed out loud; Natalie indeed had that capability. The car stopped at a red light, and the man turned his head to look at Natalie, slightly battered in appearance, and asked.

"Back to the Vaughn Family?"

Natalie immediately shook her head.

"No way, I can’t go back like this."

Otherwise, the family would be in an uproar.

Zane wasn’t surprised, given Natalie had to maintain her good-girl image with the elders.

"Then where to?"

Natalie’s eyes darted around, her fingers resting on her chin as she pondered for a moment.

Then, as Zane pressed on the gas pedal to drive forward, she tilted her head to look at him, her eyes curving up.

"Can I go to your place?"