And I? I was always the unrestrained villain.
At some point, the way Benjamin looked at me changed.
Whenever Isabella and I clashed, he took her side.
It was as if he had forgotten our mother’s suffering–forgotten how she had died.
When I confronted him, he only sighed impatiently. “Mom had cancer. There was no saving her anyway…”
How familiar. How cold.
Those were the exact words Richard had used, over and over, to justify himself and protect his mistress. Now, Benjamin could say them just as easily.
From that moment on, I no longer had a family.
And now, the person I had brought into my life, the one I had treated as family–for the sake of those two poisonous women, he had plunged the knife into me again and again without hesitation.
I looked at my broken limbs, then at the filthy phone, and finally, I laughed..
A life like this–filled with nothing but hatred and betrayal- -was truly meaningless.
I didn’t touch the phone.
I just lay there, for three days, until the very end.
2
A
Chapter 3
I thought I was going to die.
But at the last moment, someone kicked open the warehouse door. “Why? Why didn’t you call me?!” Nathaniel charged in like a mad beast.
In the dim light, he saw me–covered in blood, my wrists mangled, my legs so badly injured that the bone was nearly exposed.
All sound seemed to vanish.
“Emily, don’t die! I won’t allow you to die!” His hands trembled as he lifted me, as if he truly cared whether I lived or died.
I cracked my lips and laughed silently.
“Emily! Emily! Please… stay alive!”
Something wet fell onto my face.
Crocodile tears?
Hah…
I was still rushed to the hospital, my life barely saved.
When I opened my eyes, he was there–his eyes bloodshot from a sleepless night.
“Why? Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you ask for help? Why?” He stared at me, demanding an answer.
He couldn’t understand why the person who had once relied on him the most, trusted him the most, would rather die than make that call for help. Even though the phone had been right beside me.
Even though he was my emergency contact.
Even though he was supposed to be my only lifeline.
“Why? Why didn’t you call me?!” Nathaniel kept repeating it like a madman, his voice choked with suppressed hysteria.
I almost laughed. Wasn’t it he who wanted me dead? Who was he putting on this act for now?
I glanced at the phone he had retrieved for me.
The moment my eyes flickered toward it, Nathaniel quickly handed it to me. But as soon as it touched my palm, he realized something.
The dried filth on the screen melted against my sweat–drenched hand, sticky and foul.
As a man, he knew exactly what those stains were.
In that instant, he froze.
ل الله
“They ruined my hands,” I rasped, my throat and lips
SO parched they bled with
every word.
“They made me use my tongue-” My voice was ragged, like a broken bellows, ugly and strained.
Nathaniel swayed on his feet, as if about to collapse.
Shock. Horror. Disbelief. Until all that remained was trembling.
Slowly, I pulled my cracked lips into a smile.
Nathaniel… He was the one behind all this. How long did he think he could hide it from
I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to look at him anymore.
