Chapter 1168 Threat
Natalie lay in bed weakly. Next to her was a young lady called Betty, who prostrated herself on the ground while holding a tray of food.
Despite her posture, Natalie averted her gaze elsewhere coldly, not bothering to spare her a glance. Timidly, Betty said, “Madam, you haven’t eaten in two days… If this continues, your health will suffer. If Master blames me for this, I…”
Truth be told, she was not trying to gain Natalie’s sympathy, for her master indeed gave her that warning before leaving. Her life would be in danger if she failed to take good care of the woman before her.
For the past few days, Betty had done her best to take care of Natalie, but the latter had barely eaten anything. In fact, Natalie’s last meal was a bowl of plain oatmeal porridge from two days ago.
Hearing her plea, Natalie finally showed some reaction, tilting her head slowly to look at her. With her brows furrowed, she corrected Betty by saying, “Don’t call me ‘Madam,’ for I’m not his woman. Besides, I told you that I won’t eat unless Bastien comes to see me.”
Her voice was weak. Despite exerting all her strength to speak, she only managed to breathe those two sentences. As Natalie seemed to be getting weaker, Betty got so anxious that she began to weep.
“I don’t know when Master will be here… Please, eat something! If you want to see Master or leave this place, you’ll have to be strong enough to do that…”
Natalie wanted to live on, but she had to say that the young lady before her was too naive. Even if she did eat on time and recover quickly, Bastien would still figure out a way to threaten and force her to act against her wishes.
Thus, it was better for her to take the opposite approach. In any case, he would never let her die, so she should buy as much time as possible.
After all, she firmly believed that Samuel would never give up on her. Afraid of getting punished, Betty remained in a kneeling position in front of Natalie.
After a seemingly long while, footsteps finally sounded outside the bedroom. The person did not bother knocking on the door and entered the bedroom directly.
It was Bastien, clad in a shirt. Initially, there was a quirk in his mouth when he entered the room, but the sight of Natalie’s weak and fragile appearance wiped the smile off his face. What replaced his joy was an expression of pure malice.
Storming over to Betty, he demanded, “How did you take care of her? How dare you ignore my order?”
Betty dared not say anything in response. All she could do was press her forehead closer to the ground, trembling in fear.
Natalie glanced at Bastien and said icily, “She did try to feed me, but I refused to eat. This has nothing to do with her.”
He could tell she showed mercy to the maid even though she had cut ties with him. At that discovery, he took the bowl and spoon from Betty and declared, “If you finish this, I won’t punish her. In fact, I’ll even reward her. But if you refuse to eat, I’ll order someone to chop off her right hand. It’s your choice, Natalie.”
As it concerned a young lady’s right hand, Natalie could not help but feel that Bastien was more crazed than she initially expected.
His gentleness was fake. In reality, beneath his mild-mannered facade lived a crazy man.
Hearing Bastien’s threat, Betty started groveling at Natalie’s feet.
She slammed her forehead against the ground repeatedly. Each thud seemed to reverberate in Natalie’s heart.
Natalie knew Bastien was using Betty’s life to threaten her.
Closing her eyes, she made up her mind without hesitation. “Give it to me. I’ll eat it.”
Bastien was a madman. If it were just between her and him, she would never have caved in, but things were different since an innocent being was involved. There was no way she could disregard human lives as he did.
The second those words fell from Natalie’s lips, Betty stopped pounding her head against the ground, but she still could not stop weeping.
Bastien quirked his lips. “That’s more like it, Natalie!”
