Chapter 4
Soon, the messages were withdrawn as if no one had ever sent anything.
Grace’s hand holding the phone trembled slightly as a chill ran down her spine. She couldn’t even breathe.
It turned out that it was all part of their revenge–from her falling into the water, having a fever, till she took those sugar pills.
Antonio fed her the sugar pills just so that she could suffer more.
Soon. Antonio called her.
“Where are you? Why aren’t you at home?” His voice was deep, tinged with a trace of uneasiness that was barely noticeable.
Taking a deep breath, Grace tried her best to make her sound calm. “My fever got too bad, so I came to the hospital.”
He fell silent for a second and then said, “I’ll be right there.”
“No need,” she interrupted him. “After the IV drip, I’ll stay the night here. for observation. Then I can go back. You’ve been quite busy lately. No need to come here for me.”
After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly asked, “Have you checked your phone?”
She realized he called to sense her out, to see if she had seen those
messages.
She lied, saying, “No. The doctor said that if I had come a little later, I
DOGL
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might have died from the high fever. I didn’t have time to check my phone.”
Antonio fell silent again. When he spoke up, there were some obscure. emotions hidden in his voice. He said. “Nothing will happen to you as long as I’m here.”
She tightened her grip on the phone, feeling bitter.
“As long as you’re here? You’re the source of my pain, Antonio,” she thought.
Soon, she was discharged.
After she walked out of the hospital and was about to hail a cab, a bunch of people suddenly rushed from behind her and covered her mouth and
nose.
Before she could struggle, she passed out.
When she woke up, she found herself in a dim hotel room with her limbs. tied up. A couple of punks were around her with disgusting smiles.
“You’re awake, pretty. Chill. We will treat you gently.” One of them. tugged at her clothes.
“Who are you? Let go! Let go of me!”
Grace struggled with all her might. But given how weak she was, she was no match for them at all.
She threw whatever was within reach at them, kicked them, and screamed at the top of her lungs, but all to no avail.
They were about to strip her. Despair filled her heart, and she couldn’t help but cry.
Just then, someone kicked the door open.
“Get lost!” Antonio’s voice was intimidating, filled with great fury.
Frightened, the punks fled at once.
Grace curled up in bed, trembling all over.
She looked up at Antonio. For the first time, she saw panic and uneasiness in his eyes.
“Grace…” He strode over to her, reaching out to hug her, his hands. trembling.
Yet, she was like a frightened deer, flinched away with fear in her eyes.
His hands froze in mid–air, a trace of distress flashing across his eyes.
She wanted to say something, but her vision went dark all of a sudden, and she fainted again.
After an unknown period of time, she woke up groggily.
Someone was talking in the ward. Though he kept his voice low, she could still tell he was furious.
“Why didn’t you tell me in advance about today’s revenge?” Antonio said.
“You wanna finish those 99 times of revenge as soon as possible so that you can be with Juliet, right? You’re so busy, so we lend you a hand,” one of his friends said nonchalantly.
“I didn’t say you could get someone to rape her!” Antonio raised his voice, his anger palpable.
His friends were stunned. Someone else said in disbelief, “Gee. What’s
the big deal? So what if she really got raped? We agreed to make her suffer from the very beginning, right? Why are you so pissed off?”
Antonio kicked the table over without saying anything.
Why was he so pissed off?
In fact, he didn’t know the answer either.
During all those years, Grace had always been pursuing him wholeheartedly. The day he agreed to be with her, she was totally stunned, standing still. After a long time, she beamed and even shed tears out of joy. That look on her face was still vivid in his mind.
He had never seen her like this before.
She lay in bed lifelessly, no different from a withered rose.
For some reason, he panicked. He realized he didn’t want to see her like this.
When she looked at him, he saw her dull eyes, which broke his heart.
His long silence made those people realize something.
One of them asked, slack–jawed, “Antonio, you… This isn’t like you. Could it be that… after all those years, it’s become a real thing, and you’ve accidentally fallen for her?”
