With the star of the night gone, what followed next was the repercussion.
All eyes seemed to be on me as they started discussing the incident.
“This Mrs. Fuller has always been at odds with Ms. Larson. Since the latter has officially joined the family, Mrs. Fuller probably pushed her due to jealousy.”
“I don’t think so. I have dealt with Mrs. Fuller before on several projects. She is a woman of swift actions and resolute decisions. She knows what she is doing and does them well. She’s not the type to hurt someone on such an occasion.”
“In the end, it’s still a relationship issue between a man and a woman. Didn’t you see Mr. Fuller’s expression just now? He was clearly worried for Ms. Larson. If you were the wife, how would you feel if your husband worries about another woman?”
“True, I guess. Since Ms. Larson has rejoined her family, as a person with power, she might just force Mrs. Fuller to divorce Mr. Fuller in the future.”
“Seems like Mrs. Fuller’s going to have hard life ahead of her.”
I simply stood there and listened to their discussions quietly.
Just then, Joe appeared out of nowhere to cash in on my misery. He had been observing the whole fiasco and was now giddy with excitement. He leaned in and jeered mockingly, “Hey, Scarlett, are you blatantly showing off your jealousy now? But I guess it can’t be helped. After all, Rebecca is far above you in terms of beauty, status, and lineage. She is now definitely worthy of Ashton, as for you…”
He purposely left his sentence unfinished. However, his contempt and disdain toward me were not lost on me, he was clearly implying the whole time that I was not suited to be Ashton’s wife.
Raising my eyes to meet his, I shrugged and smiled, “Yes, it may be outrightly obvious, but compared to your sneaky scheming, I am proud that I had nothing to hide!”
“You…”
Once again, he was beaten at his own game. Overcame by frustration and at a loss of words, Joe could only snort before he walked away.
The guests started to disperse for the night. Having seen the exciting spectacle and dealt with the gossips and talks, I left the hall with my head held high.
John was leisurely sitting on a swing in the courtyard. Upon spotting me approaching from the distance, he smiled at me.
Seeing his face, I blurted out, “I’ve never thought that you actually like real-life dramas.” With that, I walked away.
Everyone was bound to change in their lifetime. Five years ago, John was the type of person who liked to torture his victims directly. Now, it seems that he preferred to indirectly involve his victims in compromising situations.
But when I thought about it, he had always loved to drag out his torture session, so that he could squeeze out every single last wail and scream from his victims.
Stepping outside the villa, I realized that the southern suburbs were far away from the city. As it was a wealthy residential area, there were no taxis available.
In addition, unless given permission, no one could enter here by car. As such, for me to be able to hail a taxi, I would have to walk all the way out of this golf course area.
And that was going to be a long journey by foot.
I took off my high heels and hiked along the asphalt road by the golf course. After a while, a car appeared behind and deliberately followed me at a slow speed.
Without having to guess, I already knew who it was. Instead of stopping, I increased my pace.
After walking for a while and seeing that the car was still trailing after me, I decided to stop and sat down on the lawn of the golf course.
A minute later, someone sat down right beside me.
The man let out a long sigh before he spoke with a hint of sorrow in his voice, “Letty, don’t you believe that a bad person may turn over a new leaf?”
I answered his question with another instead, “What is your motive for returning this time around?”
In my memory, John had always been a gentle soul. However, since then he had caused the death of Macy’s parents, forced Grandma to her early grave, and tried to drown both Macy and me. Five years were too short of a time to forget John’s wrongdoings from my memory.
As he laid down, he rested his head on his hands and stared into the deep, dark sky. “I got lonely, so I thought that I would come back and live a good life with you.”
If these words were uttered by a long-lost family member during a reunion, I would definitely be moved. However, there was no warmth between us, only frosty estrangement.
“Do I have to die to be free from you?” I mused as I gazed at the street lights. My heart was feeling gloomy.
Chuckling grimly, he replied, “I won’t let you die. You still got a long future ahead. Without you, I can’t go on.”
I decided to stop talking.
After all, life needed to go on. There was no room for fear.
“Leave Ashton. We’ll live a good life together. We can still be as happy as when we were young. He is not worthy of you.”
I bowed my head, feeling the urge to laugh aloud. Others had thought that I was unworthy of Ashton, and yet, he of all people thought that Ashton was unworthy of me.
“We can never go back to how it was. Grandma is gone and the old mulberry tree at the front door has been cut down. John, please, don’t come to me anymore. Stop ruining my life, okay?” Even though I knew that my words would achieve nothing, I still decided to utter them anyway.
His gaze remained glued to the night sky, his eyes seemed distant and dark. After a long time, he blurted out, “I’ve tried to. But it’s useless.”
I sighed inwardly, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. To hell with this!
Seeing that there was no point in continuing our conversation, I got up and asked him to send me back.
At this point, I figured that if he had wanted to harm me, he would not have spent so much time and effort to get me here. I knew that he just wanted to witness my fear and helpless look to satisfy his selfish desire. After all, he was a hunter, and without a prey to entertain him, he would feel uncomfortable.
With that reasoning in mind, I was sure he would not do anything to me – at least for the time being.
He obediently sent me back to Peakville Estate. However, before I could get off the car, he suddenly locked the door and gazed at me with his dark eyes, “Don’t you have a goodnight kiss for me?”
Damn!
Looking at him expressionlessly, I muttered, “Just open the door.”
The evil side in him seemed to emerge once more as he cocked his brows, leaned against his car seat, and looked at me condescendingly, “What do you think Ashton would feel if he saw you in a car with another man for such a long time?”
