Can’t Win Me Back by Ginger Sue

Meanwhile, Zoe experienced dizziness in the aftermath of the slap. The taste of blood lingered in her mouth. She grimaced from the excruciating pain in her ear. Due to the pain, she abandoned her attempts at maintaining composure in the public eye.

"Ouch! My ear! It hurts!" After being slapped twice on the right cheek, her ears rang, causing her to yelp in pain.

"Zoe! My dear Zoe!" Cornelius wailed and rushed toward his granddaughter without carrying his walking stick. His eyes widened in shock as he tried to help her up from the floor, but she was too weak to get up after Landon's powerful slaps.

Sitting on the ground and looking frail, she sobbed. "Grandpa, my ears hurt. I can't hear anything in my right ear."

"What did you say, Zoe?" Cornelius was frightened. Despite raising his voice by her ear, she couldn't hear him very well. Unfurling a trembling hand from her right ear, she gasped at the sight of blood on her palm.

"My

the doctors and the ambulance in a frenzy. Landon, standing aside, observed the chaos emotionlessly, as if an invisible barrier

of being Cornelius' grandson, he now felt

are you insane?" Cornelius glowered at him in disbelief, momentarily disoriented by the shock. "Zoe is your only sister and the sole daughter of

you think I should be

by Landon's declaration,

still in power in the Harper Group. Do you have any respect for me when you hit your sibling in front of

I respect you," Landon replied with a chilling look. "That's why I stopped

guests fell into a hushed