In Love, Never Say Never (Ashton Fuller and Scarlett Stovall) novel Chapter 600

“And it was all because I came to K City that I got to know Jared and Joe. Naomi got to know them as well. She became interested in Jared and I didn’t expect it at all. She always had a weird personality since she was young but she was never a scheming person. Besides, Jared was interested in someone else back then, he wasn’t interested in her at all. Naomi shamelessly pursued him for two whole years, and for some reason, Jared finally agreed to date her. Nonetheless, she took the initiative and broke up with him not too long after that. She probably found out that Jared likes someone else, so…”

“Why did she commit suicide then?” Naomi was an optimistic person. Even if her heart was broken, it shouldn’t have been the reason she chose to end her life.”

Ashton kept silent but I noticed that there was something wrong with his hand. It was the first time I saw him so anxious and uneasy.

He was trembling!

I reached out to take his hand but he managed to hold mine first. He looked up at me and I noticed that his eyes were getting watery. His voice choked as if he couldn’t get his words out all of a sudden.

“You don’t have to say it, Ashton. It’s okay,” I said and didn’t try to pursue the matter anymore.

A moment later, he sucked in a deep breath and he grew noticeably calmer. “I was the one who lost her that night. She called me so many times but I didn’t pick up. I didn’t do it on purpose. I just thought that it was one of her usual tantrums but I didn’t expect her to go to a nightclub herself. K City ten years ago is so different from the K City now. Naomi was destroyed that night.”

My heart skipped a beat when I recalled his conversation with Zachary at the hospital.

I stared at him and asked uncertainly, “Did Zachary’s men do it?”

Ashton nodded. “By the time Jared and I found her, she had already been left in the alley beside the nightclub. Her body was covered in blood and was filthy all over.”

He looked up and locked eyes with me. His eyes were icy cold as he said, “Those ten men ruined her face after they did such a disgusting thing to her. Naomi stayed in the hospital for a month but her injuries were too serious. Her reproductive system had been destroyed.”

I felt goosebumps all over my skin as my body trembled. The fear I was feeling made it hard to breathe.

So the reason Naomi committed suicide was that she had been gang-raped and her face was ruined…

No wonder Jared wanted to use sulfuric acid to hurt me. He wouldn’t stoop so low as to use the same way to hurt me, he just wanted to kill me.

“But there is no bad blood between you and those people. Why were they so ruthless?” Even if they had done it for revenge, just what kind of grudge did they hold that they had to do something this bad?

Ashton shook his head and sighed, “K City was in complete chaos back then. Many other women were innocent just like Naomi was. Zachary was a powerful person and he kicked out most of the shady characters who were under him because he wanted to clear his guilty conscience as soon as possible. These people wanted to taint the Moore family. And when they found out that Zachary’s daughter who had been missing for years was about twenty years old, they specifically sought out girls around that age and were extremely cruel with them.”