?Chapter 142:


    For a second, Ste froze. She barely had time to react.


    Then—suddenly—a strong hand grabbed her wrist and yanked her back. She stumbled into a firm chest, breath caught, heart pounding. When she looked up, she was met with a familiar face—cool, focused, sharp-jawed. William.


    He held her steady with one arm wrapped around her waist, his eyes still fixed on the motorcycle.


    The rider swerved, trying to adjust and circle back toward them. Without letting go of her, William stepped forward, lifted one leg, and mmed it into the side of the bike with precision.


    The motorcycle flew off bnce, skidding and crashing against the sidewalk.


    The rider groaned and scrambled to get up, clearly nning to flee. But William was faster. He lunged, grabbing the man by the cor and hauling him upright in one fluid motion.


    The rider struggled, but it was no use. William ripped off the helmet and turned to Ste. “Do you recognize him?”


    Ste knitted her brows and gave a faint shake of her head in response to William’s question.


    William didn’t say much either—he just took out his phone and made a call.


    A few minutester, Luca showed up with some bodyguards and walked straight over to William. “Mr. Briggs,” Luca greeted firmly.


    William’s face remained cold and unreadable. “Take this man to the station. He tried to hurt us on purpose. Let the police look into it properly.”


    The moment the man realized William was serious about handing him over to the authorities, panic shed across his face.


    “Wait, I-I didn’t mean to—” he stammered.


    But no one gave him a chance to finish. He was swiftly escorted away, struggling uselessly as the bodyguards led him out.


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    Now that the chaos had passed, Ste finally noticed the throbbing in her knee.


    She nced down and saw the skin had been scraped, probably when William had pulled her aside earlier.


    She figured it wasn’t anything too bad. But the next second, without warning, William leaned down and picked her up into his arms. Caughtpletely off guard, Ste let out a small gasp and instinctively clutched onto his neck.


    “O H-hey! What are you doing?”


    “Don’t move,” he said calmly. “We’re going to the hospital.”


    Luckily, the hospital was only about ten minutes away from the shopping district.


    When they arrived, William exined the situation to a nurse, who then pointed them toward a treatment room to wait.


    The room was quiet and empty, and William gently lowered Ste down onto a chair.


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