After that, he closed the door, turned around, and marched back towards the villa. Specky went forward and tried to halt him in his tracks. He said, “Please calm down, Ed. We shouldn’t do anything rash right now. Baldie is already teaching him a lesson. Don’t worry. We won’t let him go so easily.” “Let go!” Edward reinstated coldly. Specky knew that if he let Edward go, he would certainly go and end Morris’s life. To prevent this from happening, he could just hold him even tighter. “Ed, thin
Vivian had no grasp of how long she had been in slumber. The last thing she saw before closing her eyes was the gloomy, dark sky. By the time she woke up, it was still the same tenebrous hue.The female doctor, who had been attending to her wounds, loomed and asked softly, “How are you feeling?”Instead of answering her question, Vivian scanned her surroundings sluggishly.Perceptive to a fault, the doctor quickly offered, “Mr. Levin is in the study right now. I can ask him to come around.”“No
Vivian nodded. After a beat, she asked, “Was it you?”His lips curled. “Yes.”“Through hired hands?”He shook his head without breaking his smile. “No. I did it myself. Used up all of my magazine clips, that one.”Shock dawned on her face while he leaned closer and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Don’t fret,” he said under his breath, “I have an alibi. They won’t catch me.”Nonetheless, the cops might not apprehend Edward due to lack of evidence, but it did not mean that the Baker family wa
This was the first time Vivian had ever shown any keenness to rekindle the warmth in their relationship. Naturally, Edward felt immensely gratified, strafing aside the door to let her in and eagerly asking her what kind of book she wanted. Hurriedly, he led her to the bookshelf in his study, looking at her with glittering eyes.He wanted to please her so much. “Pick a book for yourself. Any book can be yours! You know reading isn’t my thing. I only have them around for the ambiance.”She didn’t
Vivian started to move outside with Edward following closely on her tail. When he reached the door, he blurted out, “Vee.”His hand covered hers resting on the doorknob while he drew closer to her from behind. It took him a while to finally summon the words from his dry throat, “I’m so sorry about the past. Please...please forget them, please? I’m begging you.”Vivian was quiet for a heartbeat before answering him with a gentle pat on the back of his hand, “Let’s move forward from now on, Edward
It served as such a forceful plunge into despair that Edward lost all sense of guilt. Pure lividity began to fill the vacuum as a rage that could not be harnessed by rationality surfaced.“What do you want me to do, Vivian Carraway?!” he fumed through gritted teeth as his hands clutched her shoulders tightly. “What the f*ck should I do to make you forget? What must I do to satisfy you?! I’ve killed Morris Baker on your behalf. I’ve murdered his entire family on your behalf. What else is there le
Vivian chuckled softly. “Which ‘thing’ are you referring to?”Renne was bright not just by name but in character. She understood Vivian almost immediately, and after a long pause, offered, “Say, wanna hang out?”It was an invitation straight out of left field. Regardless of her surprise, Vivian was disinclined to disrupt her best friend’s peace or to drag her into the quagmire. With lightheartedness in her tone, she answered, “Nah. I’ve not been in the mood to go anywhere lately.”Renne was quie
Vivian quickly stowed the porcelain doll back before haphazardly wiping her tears away. Picking up an album and hugging it to her chest, she opened the door and answered, “What’s the matter?”It was hard to ignore the fresh trails of tears faintly glistening on her face. Wade considered her carefully before asking, “Are you, uh, alright?”Vivian never liked hiding the obvious, so she did not try. “I’m fine. I just couldn’t help crying over pictures of bygone memories,” she conceded with a sorrow
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