Karma Doesn’t Sleep: The Revenge Queen Rises novel Chapter 197

Adrian clenched his jaw, then finally decided to trust Amelia.

He knew better than anyone that with Clive’s pulse so wild and unstable, taking him to the hospital probably wouldn’t help at all. It wasn’t going to kill him, but it would be enough to leave Clive miserable and half-alive for quite a while.

Adrian took the first-aid kit Amelia handed him, balancing the mug of steaming medicine she’d just warmed up. As he headed upstairs, he paused at the corner and glanced back.

Amelia had already left the bottom of the stairs. She was making her way to the kitchen, her slim figure swallowed up by the soft moonlight pouring through the windows. She looked so delicate, like a breeze could just carry her away.

Adrian forced himself to look away and hurried toward the study.

In the kitchen, Amelia stopped and opened a small cupboard in the corner. Inside was a compact freezer—the same one she’d bought five years ago.

It was filled with a dozen or so medicine packets, sorted into three different kinds, all carefully prepared for Clive.

Five years ago, in those last days before her due date, she’d already started worrying something might go wrong. She couldn’t stop thinking about Clive’s health, afraid that if she wasn’t around anymore, he’d grieve so hard his old illness would come back.

After all, the stomach is always the first to get hit when your heart’s messed up.

So she’d gone to a pharmacy she trusted, paid up front for ten years’ worth of medicine, and arranged for them to prepare five packets of each of the three recipes every month. The pharmacy would deliver the new ones, toss out the old, and make sure the house was always stocked.

Looking back, she realized she had worried way too much.

She could have ended up in a coma, or even died that day five years ago, and Clive probably wouldn’t have cared—maybe he wouldn’t have even shed a single tear.

A cool night breeze drifted in through the window, carrying a quiet chill.

Amelia closed her eyes for a moment.

Her mind wandered back to the very first time she met Clive.

She was twelve, and it was the height of summer. She remembered that it was raining. She’d just come in from the backyard pond, arms full of fresh lotus seeds to bring to her grandfather at the pharmacy.

When the Hawthorne family had run out of options, they’d brought him to the old pharmacy.

That day, with cicadas buzzing outside the window, her grandfather finished the story. She got up to close the window, looked up at the sky, and found herself staring at the clouds for a long time, her cheeks burning with a feeling she didn’t quite understand.

A girl’s first crush always sneaks up out of nowhere—just like that summer rainstorm that left her drenched.

A sudden gust of wind snapped her out of her memories. Amelia opened her eyes and looked out toward the night.

The sky was clear, filled with countless stars.

She wiped away tears she hadn’t even noticed, then turned and walked away without looking back.

This whole love story, she realized, had always been a solo performance.

And now, it was finally time to let the curtain fall.