The student who got into trouble came from a humble background. He performed well in his studies and was a well-behaved person. He even took on several part-time jobs to help reduce his parents’ burden. Sadly, he never expected to be apprehended under charges of theft.Vivian could hardly believe her ears when she got the phone call. She rushed to the company’s security department where the boy sat in the corner with his head hung low. When he saw her enter, his eyes immediately reddened. “Miss
Unfortunately, things were just as she had dreaded. The young female secretary was pretty but extremely unfriendly. As she walked out of the CEO’s office with a dark expression, she shot Vivian a cold glance and asked, “What’s there to talk about?”Vivian flashed a warm smile at her. “He’s young and has made a silly mistake. We should give him a second chance to redeem himself, don’t you think? I’m here to apologize for him.”The secretary snorted. “Of course, he’ll have a second chance: in pris
At this point, she had no choice but to accept his offer. However, she insisted on saying, “But I’ll be the one paying tonight as a token of my gratitude.”He gave a faint smile. “Alright.”“I’ll call you then,” she said.She drove her student back to school. The boy had been silent along the way. When the car ambled through the school gates, he spoke up in a slightly defiant tone, “Miss Carraway, I really didn’t steal the phone. That woman was trying to frame me. She…she…” He seemed to have dif
Vivian had no idea where this sudden outburst of feelings come from. She raised her brows slightly and managed a reply, “Perhaps we humans have a natural sense of fear of darkness. After all, we’re not nocturnal creatures.”He then went to sit at the table and informed her, “I’ve already ordered the food, if that’s okay with you.”Vivian found herself being involuntarily nervous whenever she looked at his face. She instinctively tried to soothe herself with humor. “It’s alright, as long as it’s
Gripping fear made Vivian lose her voice. Her teeth chattered and she had to support herself with her arms on the table. She wanted to make a noise that would catch someone else’s attention, and she wanted to storm out of the door as well. However, everything was futile. Her body was limp as she sat on the chair. She could not even swipe the plates off the table with her current strength.She started to see patches of black. While she was teetering on the edge of consciousness, she saw the man s
This was the lowest, vilest, dirtiest form of revenge in the world.There was a soft rap on the door before four men filed into the room. One of them brought a video camera. Vivian was starting to feel an impending sense of danger here. She rolled off the wide bed and scampered backward until her back was pushed against the cold wall.Edward stood up and walked up to her. He stopped when he was a few steps away, and he tossed her a sharp tool. “Take this. Show me how you kill.”It was a fruit kn
Edward called the muscular man named Wade Rivera and instructed him, “It’s getting late. Send Miss Carraway home, will you?”He was going to let her go! Vivian felt nervous and excited at the same time. She was worried that her eyes would betray her, so she quickly shut her eyelids. She did not even want to appear too eager to leave. She pushed herself up laboriously from the couch and moved slowly. However, Wade was impatient. He pulled her up and half-dragged her away.Edward suddenly called o
“Don’t go to the police,” he had said with such confidence. Was that a threat? Was it because he had someone backing him up?He was not afraid of her reporting this to the police…Was it simply because he had that video? However, she was not afraid of this form of blackmail. She was a victim. The person who should be feeling humiliated was the people who had done this to her, not her! She refused to give in to this form of blackmail and let herself rot in this filth. She absolutely refused to!
Did you know, Vee?I’ve thought of this more than once. If only our beginning from that night wasn’t so unbearable, how wonderful would it be?… The light from the setting sun spilled towards her from the side, casting a glow on the piece of paper, illuminating the words on it, and giving them a slight shimmer. Just like last year, when she emerged from the ultrasound room in the maternity hospital, weak after a mere two steps, she had to lean against the corridor. She covered her mouth with
Vivian arrived home a little late. She parked the car at the side of the road first, then collected her subscribed newspapers and magazines from the mailbox at her gate. She flipped through the mail as she walked in. To her surprise, she found a letter. It was an envelope made from kraft paper with her name on it.It was a rare handwritten letter with the faint print of a bamboo tree, drawn with Chinese calligraphy ink. The bamboo was tall, straight, and fierce just like the script on the lette
“It’s been three months now, why isn’t the little one moving? When will the baby quicken?” he asked her, “Can it hear me? Will it remember my voice?”He even asked, “Who do you think it’ll look like, Vee? Will it be a girl or a boy?”She knew very well that he was harboring evil intentions, but she gave into him and crumbled anyway. She sobbed and screamed, “Kill me, Sean Jackson. Kill me. I will never give birth to this child even if I die! Never!”He soothed her, “Alright. Don’t give birth
His lower jaw tightened. The lines on his face stiffened icily like the cold edges of a knife. In reality, he had given up long ago. His heart was as dead as ash. However, refusing to accept this, he grasped at everything, hoping to find a straw that could save a life, not to save himself but to save his child’s life. That was how well he knew her. He knew that once she escaped, she would never spare his child. Did he hate her? Yes. He hated how he couldn’t shoot her dead. Love triumphed over ha
“Then, what should we do?” his aide asked.A hero’s end was, inevitably, death. He wasn’t afraid of death, but he was simply plagued with remaining grievances. After a bout of silence, Edward calmly said, “Do something for me. Once that’s done, just slip away. There are no lives in your hands and you aren’t in the cops’ database. No one will notice you.”This aide had received a great debt of gratitude from Edward once, so he was solely loyal to him. He became distressed when he heard this, so
“You deserve it for all of the crimes you’ve committed!” Vivian screamed, losing control. Her emotions felt strangely steady after that scream. She threw the gun away as her sparkling, dark eyes were filled with renewed determination. She stared at him and spoke, enunciating every word, “Sean Jackson and those brothers of yours, you’ve all got your justice. Beaten to death, right? Arrested, was it? But when you willfully hurt others and view their lives as nothing more than weeds, you should hav
She hadn’t slept the entire night, and she was extremely high-strung. However, she was feeling slightly fatigued. Perhaps because of the comforting glow from the brightening day outside, she lay down on the bed with her clothes on after a bout of hesitation. She had only intended on taking a nap but unexpectedly fell into a deep sleep.Vivian suddenly woke up, startled. She had lost track of how long she had been asleep. She found a figure standing in front of her bed when she awoke and was gre
Vivian was taken aback by his question. “You haven’t caught him?” she exclaimed in astonishment. She thought that they had already apprehended Edward based on the expression on Jake’s face.“Our men have surrounded the condominium,” he answered simply, “He and Wade seized a hostage and hid inside the study. Both sides were caught in a deadlock for a while, but when they burst the study door open, they only found Wade and that hostage inside.”Vivian trembled uncontrollably as she listened to h
The wedding day was drawing to a close. Vivian stayed at the condominium until the day before the wedding. Then, she moved to Edward’s villa by the lake to wait for the wedding ceremony. Edward drove her there himself, feeling reluctant before he left. He turned around and looked at her, then softly said, “Wait for me. I’ll come for you tomorrow, first thing in the morning.”Vivian didn’t respond and simply stood at the doorway, quietly watching him.For some reason, the sight of her like this