“The problem is that you’re standing right in front of us, alive and well!” I screamed at him. “You even wanted to take Ashton’s life! You ruined the first half of his life, so who the f*ck do you think you are to stand here and call him your son? A piece of sh*t like you doesn’t deserve to be called a human, let alone a father!”
Nicolas tilted his head, the hints of a smile tugging at his mouth. “I don’t deserve to be a father? And what about you? Do you think that you’re above me? Do you think you deserve to stand up on Ashton’s behalf more than I do?”
“At least I never treated him like a product and threw him away when he was no longer of any use to me,” I spat out venomously. If Ashton didn’t have the heart to deal with this piece of trash, then I wasn’t going to back down on his behalf.
I must have been a sight, my face contorted in rage as I saw red, wishing for nothing more than to tear Nicolas to pieces with my bare hands.
But in the back of my mind, I knew that all I really wanted was to protect the man I loved. Getting myself worked up over Nicolas wasn’t worth it.
Upon hearing my rant, the man in question broke out into a chuckle that grated my ears, grinning meaningfully at me.
“What are you laughing at?” I scowled, unable to stop myself from responding.
Nicolas’ expression was now toned down as he stared at me, but his eyes were devoid of emotion. I felt chills run up my spine at the sight of them. “Women always like to make everything into a soap opera, don’t they? You’re selfless and you’re not scheming, so you expect the same from your partner? Should I tell you about Ashton’s hereditary blindness, and how he kept it under control for so long…”
“That’s enough!” Ashton suddenly interrupted, seemingly refusing to entertain Nicolas any further.
He raised one hand in the air. Soon after, Joseph approached us and opened the cell door, dragging Nicolas out with his arms pinned behind him.
At that same moment, two bodyguards entered the basement carrying a wooden chair. They made a beeline for the cell and set the chair down, taking some ropes out to tie Nicolas up to the chair. After that was done, they secured some sort of metal device to the back of his head, exposing only his face.
Then, some other bodyguards hauled in a large, flat bucket and placed it behind the chair, as well as set up a water pipe right above where the bucket was.
Ashton walked over and kicked the legs of the wooden chair, causing Nicolas to fall backward and land his head in the bucket behind him.
He slowly circled around the older man, observing him carefully. When he reached the water pipe, he turned it on.
A continuous string of drops of water came rushing forth from the pipe, hitting Nicolas’ forehead one after the other without pause.
My breath hitched in my throat. Is this… another form of waterboarding?
Ashton leaned down slightly to make sure that Nicolas would be able to hear him, his eyes fogged over with murderous intent and his tone as cold as ice. “Have a taste of the pain you caused me for months and years.”
With that, he walked over towards me and helped me up the stairs out of the basement, stopping in his tracks briefly to call out over his shoulder, “Don’t feed them food or water for a week straight.”
When we went back to the living room, a group of people in white coats were already there waiting for us.
From what I could recall, the only people associated with Ashton that would look like medical officials were the ones that had been in charge of researching medicine and drugs.
“They invented the very vaccine that Nicolas gave you,” Ashton explained to me, confirming my suspicions.
Taking a good look at the group, none of them seemed particularly evil or villainous. if anything, I spotted some fear in their expressions.
John approached the eldest-looking researcher. “Where’s the antidote?”
The man, who had been hanging his head, ducked into himself even further. “T- There is no antidote…”
“What?” John grabbed ahold of his collar, shaking him violently as he growled out through gritted teeth, “So you’re just going to let her die?”
