God, I was so blind. I perceived his duplicated kindness as a genuine love for me. I never once thought of this. If anything bad happened to Rebecca, he would always choose her.
Seeing my silence, Sally knew that no amount of lecturing would get to me anymore. A soft sigh slipped from her lips. She headed to her bedroom for a change of clothes before leaving the house.
Thoughts engulfing me whole, I stilled for some time before getting up to leave. Mrs. Eriksen, who stayed with me, immediately got up to stall. “Letty, where are you going?”
“The hospital.”
She hurriedly blocked the door. “No, don’t! Mr. Ashton and the Moore family are most likely furious with you, so it’s not wise to go there now. Come, let’s stay here, okay? We’ll deal with things once everyone calms down.”
At her request, I sank back down onto the sofa and buried my face into my palms. The villa became abnormally quiet, save for the drums pounding in my head and heart.
Endless confusion weighed down the air around me.
After a while, footsteps drew closer in the villa. Mrs. Eriksen’s voice sounded, “Dr. Crest. Why aren’t you at the hospital?”
A huge shadow shaded over me. Irritation prickled under my skin as I looked up to see Jared’s slender figure standing in front of me. A distant and indifferent frown etched on his face.
I glanced at the blood on my hands then warned, “Please hire a lawyer if you’re here to accuse me of what happened. I’m in a very bad mood right now, so I can’t guarantee whether I will have an emotional episode and start assaulting you.”
Jared…
He looked at me with profound impotence. Some seconds slipped past before he finally challenged, “There are no knives here. How exactly do you plan to attack me?”
My lips pursed in sizzling annoyance. There was nothing more to say to him.
Then, he sat beside me as Mrs. Eriksen fetched him a glass of water. He sipped quietly with no intention of continuing our conversation.
I turned to him and frowned. “Aren’t you here to lecture me?”
He raised a brow and questioned back, “Why should I lecture you? It’s not like my daughter was stabbed by you.”
I…
“So… you’re here to get amused at my pathetic situation?”
An empty laugh sounded from him as he chuckled, “Do I look like I have nothing better to do?”
Neither? So he’s just here to watch how things will play out…
Footsteps rushed closer from the yard. There was no doubt as to whose it was. Ashton is back.
With blood still tainted on his hands, his slender figure entered the villa. The gloom on his face emitted a dangerous warning, saying that he wasn’t one to be messed with.
His lips parted and he instructed indifferently at me, “We’re going to the hospital!”
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