Despite all his provocations, I stayed unresponsive.
When Oliver noticed the bowl of peanut soup on the table, he picked it up and sniffed, immediately exploding with
anger.
“Who gave her this peanut soup? Don’t you know she’s allergic to it? You fools, get over here! Who gave it to her? Are you trying to kill her? Call the doctor! Get the doctor here now!”
In a frenzy, Oliver lifted me up, turned me over, and started pounding on my back, trying to make me vomit the peanut soup I had consumed.
But I was already lifeless, collapsing limply against him.
Perhaps due to Oliver’s violent shaking, I suddenly felt my body lighten and my vision sharpen.
Instinctively, I touched my chest–it no longer hurt.
I felt an odd sense of relief. At least in death, I was free from the intense pain Oliver would have inflicted.
Suddenly, Oliver began to cry. He grabbed my hair, forcing me to look at him. “Melisa, what kind of act is this? Wake up! You can’t die without my say–so! You haven’t seen me rise to become New York’s top elite yet! You haven’t knelt and apologized to me! How dare you die?”
The doctor entered the room and turned pale upon seeing my unresponsive face, promptly reaching for his phone to contact the authorities.
However, Oliver knocked it out of his hand, gripping the doctor’s throat tightly. “Who said you could call the police? My wife isn’t dead! She just had a bowl of peanut soup–how could that kill her? If she doesn’t wake up, you’re not leaving this room alive!”
The family doctor examined me with a frown. “Mrs. Paget clearly suffered a cardiac arrest. There was extensive heart damage before she passed. Mr. Paget, you should send her for an autopsy to—”
The doctor couldn’t finish his sentence as Oliver’s fist sent him sprawling to the ground.
“You want my wife’s body cut open? She’s so beautiful–how can you suggest scarring her? Say anything like that again, and I’ll make you regret it!”
Believing I had merely fallen asleep from a peanut allergy, Oliver dismissed everyone else. He began administering allergy pills, placing them in my mouth one by one. When I couldn’t swallow, he dissolved them in water, drank the mixture, and then breathed it into me like a kiss.
But the liquid only dribbled from the corner of my mouth onto the pillow.
Oliver extended his hand to the pillow, finding it already drenched.
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Chapter 5
288 Vouchers
Those were the tears of anguish I had shed before my death, and every tear I had wept nightly since the downfall of the Talbot family.
“Who was responsible for looking after Mrs. Paget? How did it happen that she slept on a damp pillow?”
The servants exchanged uneasy looks. Oliver had dismissed my personal butler long ago and instructed all nannies and stewards to disregard me.
Oliver glared menacingly and sneered. “No one’s speaking up? Fine–take them all to the bathtub and drown them. Everyone is to blame for neglecting Mrs. Paget.”
I shook my head in disapproval. Oliver always behaved this way–using his power to assert dominance without ad- dressing the real issue. I was already gone, so what was the point of punishing the household staff now?
Father would never have acted so unjustly. That’s why, even though Oliver framed Father and ruined the Talbot fami- ly, he would never have the same unquestioned authority the Talbots once had.
Listening to Oliver’s outbursts, I felt a dull sense of irritation. I leaned against the window, waiting–waiting for my parents and sister to come and take me home.
Yet Oliver wouldn’t release his hold on me. When I was alive, he trapped me in this cramped room, and now in death, he clings to my body, refusing to let anyone take me away.
“Use every medical tool available. I don’t care about the cost–just bring her back!”
The woman who had served me the peanut soup, dressed to look like me in nine different ways, gracefully moved to Oliver’s side. “Mr. Paget, she’s already gone. Stop tormenting her and focus on us. We’re younger and far more adapt- able. Just name any style, and we-”
Before she could finish, a punch sent her flying across the room.
