Chapter 463
Raven never imagined, not in her worst nightmares, that the Ridge Viper would actually come for her.
She was frozen in terror, her mind blank. Cold sweat broke out across her forehead, her face drained of all color. Every hair on her body stood on end.
No. This couldn’t be real. The Ridge Viper actually came for her? She had to be dreaming. This had to be a nightmare.
But in the next heartbeat-
Hiss!
A blur of motion.
The Ridge Viper lunged straight at her eyes.
A searing pain exploded across her face.
It hurt-God, it hurt so much!
For a split second, Raven thought she’d gone blind. Everything happened too fast for her to grasp. The viper struck before she could even flinch, its fangs tearing into her eye.
She instinctively slapped a hand over her left eye. Hot blood oozed between her fingers, a shocking crimson against her pale skin. The sight was horrific.
“Help! Help! Somebody help me!” Raven’s scream was raw, tearing from her throat, shattering the silence of the night.
But the Ridge Viper wasn’t finished. It struck again—her hand, then her neck- each bite more vicious than the last.
No one could possibly understand the agony Raven was in, and there was nothing she could do but scream. Scream for her life.
No one knew how much she regretted everything now. She regretted ever bringing the Ridge Viper’s egg home. She regretted ignoring Caitlin’s warning.
But there’s no such thing as a cure for regret.
What good did it do now?
Her desperate cries finally reached the security guards outside.
“That’s Miss Raven! The screams are coming from her room p>
“Hurry! Third floor, now p>
A group of guards thundered up the stairs.
The Cartwrights were jolted awake by the commotion. Raven’s mother scrambled into her coat, rushing into the hallway, while her father, Virgil Cartwright, snatched his glasses from the nightstand and hurried after her.
By the time they reached Raven’s room, the housekeeper had already forced the door open.
Raven’s mother was the first to burst inside.
The scene stopped them cold.
A thick, gleaming viper-almost as wide as a forearm-was coiled tightly around Raven’s neck. Blood soaked her face, her left eye nothing but a raw, gaping wound.
Blood was everywhere.
Raven’s mother had never seen anything so horrifying. She screamed in terror, her face twisted with panic. She’d thought her daughter was having a nightmare-
or at worst, maybe a burglar had broken in and taken her hostage.
No one ever imagined this: her daughter being mauled by a viper.
Virgil and the staff stood frozen, paralyzed by shock.
The head of security was the first to recover. He grabbed the protective gear and charged forward, determined to wrest Raven from the snake’s jaws.
But the Ridge Viper seemed almost intelligent. As the guards advanced, it turned its head, loosened its coils from Raven’s neck and shot out the open window in a flash.
It was gone in seconds.
The security chief lunged for the window but arrived too late. He peered into the darkness where the viper had vanished, then bolted outside.
“After it! Don’t let it get away p>
A viper that venomous and vengeful couldn’t be allowed to escape. If they didn’t
kill it now, the Cartwright family would never know peace.
The other guards raced after their leader.
Everything had happened so fast—if not for Raven, lying bloodied and broken on
the bed, no one would have believed what they’d just witnessed.
Only then did Raven’s mother snap out of her shock. She rushed to the bed, sobbing, “Raven! Raven, can you hear me p>
Raven was covered in blood, already slipping into deep unconsciousness.
Moments later, an ambulance wailed outside.
Raven was rushed from the house, loaded into the ambulance, and whisked away to the hospital.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at the ER.
The doctors wheeled her straight into surgery.
The first order of business with a venomous snakebite was to administer the antivenom.
Thankfully, the Cartwrights had seen the viper and could tell the doctors exactly what had bitten her. After the antivenom, doctors began the gum work of cleaning and stitching Raven’s wounds.
Half an hour later, the doors to the operating room swung open.
Two doctors in blue scrubs stepped into the hallway.
“Doctor-how’s my daughter? Is she going to be alright?” The Cartwrights hurried
over, voices trembling with hope and fear.
“Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright, please rest assured,” one of the doctors said gently.
“Miss Cartwright is no longer in critical danger p>
The Cartwrights finally let out the breath they’d been holding.
But then the other doctor spoke, and their relief was shattered.
“Although Miss Cartwright’s life is no longer at risk, I’m afraid her left eye was completely destroyed. She’ll need a prosthetic eye in the future p>
He paused, then continued,
“Additionally, the viper left deep wounds on her face. She will have permanent searring. Please prepare
yourselves for this outcome p>
Crash!
The world seemed to collapse around the Cartwrights.
They’d known Raven was badly hurt-but never imagined their daughter would be left disfigured and blind in one eye.
Blind. Disabled.
Raven was only thirty years old. She and Gordon’s relationship hadn’t even
blossomed yet. After this, would anyone from a respectable family even consider
her?
Raven’s mother couldn’t bear the blow. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted right there in the hospital corridor.