The hospital. A patient room.
Annabelle Linton slowly opened her eyes. The scent of hospital disinfectant was the first thing that flooded her senses when she woke.
A wave of dizziness was still washing over her, and an endless ringing filled her ears. She felt incredibly weak.
Annabelle Linton stared blankly at the snow-white ceiling above, her mind struggling to catch up.
'Leona Grant slammed me against the wall. Didn't I die?'
She subconsciously touched her empty, flat stomach. Her baby had been five months along. Just a few more months and he would have been born...
But now... she could clearly feel that the baby was gone...
She was still alive, but her child was gone...
Annabelle Linton shot up and began to cry from grief when she heard a gentle voice. "Annabelle, you're awake?"
Annabelle Linton tilted her head slightly, only then realizing someone else was in the room.
She turned her head in a daze and saw her grandfather's kind, smiling face.
Annabelle Linton paused, then asked urgently, "Grandpa, are you okay?"
Patrick Grant was taken aback for a moment, then a wave of warmth spread through him.
She was truly the granddaughter-in-law he had chosen himself. Even at a time like this, she was still worried about his health. But Leona... he could only sigh.
Patrick Grant smiled faintly. "Grandpa's fine, I just caught a bit of a cold. It's you I'm worried about. What Leona did this time was truly too much..."
The mention of it was like a knife to Annabelle Linton's heart. She broke down crying. "Grandpa, why didn't I die? Why am I not dead? I have nothing left, so why can't I even die? Why won't even heaven grant me death...?"
Patrick Grant sighed and said sorrowfully, "No matter what happens, you shouldn't joke with your own life. Even if Leona doesn't believe you, Grandpa believes you. Why were you so foolish...?"
Annabelle Linton recalled how, after the incident, he had adamantly refused to believe her and even killed her child. She cried in agony, "Grandpa, I swallowed my pride and explained it to him so humbly, but he didn't believe me, and he even..."
'Killed my child!'
The moment Annabelle Linton thought of this, she couldn't continue.
Just then, Madam King came in. Seeing Annabelle Linton crying so heartbrokenly, she couldn't stop her own tears from falling. "Young Madam, how could you be so foolish? We all know Miss Yates accidentally fell down the stairs herself. You were just standing nearby and tried to catch her but couldn't. The Young Master doesn't believe you, but we do! How could you try to kill yourself with sleeping pills? What would we do if you were gone...?"
'Killed myself with sleeping pills...'
'Killed myself with sleeping pills?!'
Hearing this, Annabelle Linton was stunned, as if struck by lightning!
'What did Madam King say?'
'I pushed Vivian Yates down the stairs, Leona Grant didn't believe me, and I tried to kill myself with pills?'
'Huh?'
'But that clearly happened two years ago. Why are they talking about it now?'
'What's happening *now* is that Vivian Yates framed me, Leona Grant still didn't believe me, and he pushed me against a wall and killed my child!'
Annabelle Linton's expression grew stranger and stranger as she heard Madam King continue, "Young Madam, it's a good thing I found you in time, or else how could I ever face everyone? But don't worry, Young Madam, Miss Yates is fine. She just has a minor scrape on her forehead. When she wakes up, we'll have her explain things to the Young Master. He'll believe you then."
Annabelle Linton's face grew paler and paler. 'What on earth is going on?'
She scanned the hospital room uneasily. Suddenly, her eyes fell on the date of the newspaper on the bedside table. Her eyes widened. "What day's paper is this?"
Madam King didn't know why Annabelle Linton was asking, so she could only answer honestly, "To answer your question, Young Madam, that's today's paper. The Old Master was watching over you all morning and read it to pass the time."
Hearing this, Annabelle Linton's face was a picture of disbelief.
The date on the newspaper was clearly from two years ago!
As she was reeling from the shock, her phone suddenly rang. Madam King brought it to her. "Young Madam, it's Young Master Ryan."
She subconsciously reached out and took the phone, and she saw the date on the screen—it was also from two years ago!
Annabelle Linton was completely and utterly baffled...
She answered the call in a daze. From the other end, a young man's urgent voice came through: "Annabelle Linton, why did it take you so long to answer? You had me worried sick! I heard you tried to kill yourself with sleeping pills. Is that true? You can't be so foolish!"
Hearing him say this, Annabelle Linton gradually began to realize that something was wrong.
'Time... it really seems to have rolled back more than two years...'
'But how is this even possible?'
She subconsciously touched her forehead. It was smooth, with no scar, scab, or bandage. She touched her hair—it was long, not the short hair she remembered.
She confirmed it again: time truly seemed to have rewound to two years ago...