Chapter 3
Audrey POV
The moment I'd managed to pull all the needles from my body, I'd called the police.
Even though the Aethelred Gateway wouldn't open for another eight days, I wasn't taking any chances against a psychopath who'd lived two lives.
Only by getting her behind bars could I safely make it through the remaining days.
However, that very night, Julian walked in, holding a document, and placed it on my bedside table.
"Audrey, sign this letter of understanding."
My eyes landed on the name written there: Cassandra!
I froze for a second, then violently swatted the document away. "She almost killed me! And you want me to forgive her?!"
Julian grasped my shoulders, his voice gentle, almost coaxing.
"The charges for assault are too light. I want her to pay a far more brutal price."
"A price?" My voice spiked. "What price? A price I'll only know after she's killed me?!"
"Audrey, don't say such things!"
Julian forcibly pulled my trembling body into his embrace. "Don't curse yourself."
Perhaps sensing my rising panic, he sighed, his voice softening.
"Okay, no letter of understanding then. The wedding is soon, don't get upset. I want you to be happy and beautiful as my bride."
Hearing him back down, my taut nerves still refused to ease. I didn't relax until I'd torn the letter of understanding into tiny pieces.
I had died once. How could Julian ever understand my fear?
Julian held me tightly, continuing to soothe me.
The next morning, I went for a follow-up examination at the hospital.
As I reached the base of the hospital building, a heavy flowerpot exploded by my feet.
CRASH.
Still reeling from shock, I was helped by a nurse to a room. But as soon as the IV drip was hung, a sharp, burning pain flared in my arm.
I curled up, the pain was so intense, and my arm quickly swelled and turned red.
The nurse frantically pulled out the needle, sniffed at it, and her face instantly turned pale. "It's disinfectant!"
Emergency stomach pumping, wound treatment, even a complete blood transfusion...
After a series of torturous procedures, I felt like I'd been disassembled and put back together. Weak, I was wheeled back to my room on a gurney.
In my hazy consciousness, I heard the head nurse reprimanding someone sharply.
A timid voice spoke. "...It-it was Cassandra. She put a bounty on her on the dark web! She wants her dead..."
My entire body jolted. Cassandra?!
But hadn't she been arrested?!
The junior nurse whispered, "Does Audrey Reed not know? Mr. Thorne left with the letter of understanding late last night. Cassandra was released on bail less than an hour after they brought her in..."
Letter of understanding... late last night... handprint...
My face went ashen. I suddenly remembered the unnaturally deep sleep I'd fallen into last night.
Julian had given me sleeping pills, then forced my handprint onto that damn letter of understanding while I was unconscious!
The betrayal was absolute. Brazen. It felt like my heart had been torn clean out of my chest. I couldn't breathe. The room tilted, my vision tunneling into darkness as consciousness slipped away, and I collapsed into a coma.
...
In the suffocating silence, Julian's frantic voice, like a needle, pierced the darkness, dragging me back to reality.
I struggled to lift my heavy eyelids. The concern in his eyes seemed genuine.
But I only felt a searing irony. The pent-up fear and betrayal exploded. I gathered every ounce of strength and slapped him, hard.
Julian's head whipped to the side from the blow. He was about to speak when his gaze locked onto my trembling hand, holding up my phone screen-
It clearly displayed a dark web bounty page, explicitly targeting me!
"Julian... maybe you should just wait for me to die before showing up?"
Julian's pupils constricted. He instantly understood that I knew everything.
"Audrey, listen to me!" His voice was urgent. "I only got her out because I wanted her to pay a more brutal price! I didn't think she'd actually dare...!"
His eyes churned with towering fury. "This time! I swear I'll make her pay a hundredfold!"
Always the same!
A wave of helplessness washed over me, and my hot tears finally broke free.
"Always the same... a hundredfold? Julian, I'm sick and tired of hearing it! She trapped me in a coffin, buried alive. She left me hanging from a cliff. She threw me into a cage of hunting dogs to be torn apart. And now, she's had me poisoned, forcing me to undergo a full blood transfusion just to barely survive!"
The terror and despair of both my past and present lives exploded in that moment, transforming into a towering inferno of hatred.
"But what about her? She commits evil after evil, yet always escapes unscathed! She can't even stay in jail for more than an hour before my own husband personally bails her out! Julian, your feelings for her..."
"This time is different!"
Julian's eyes were frantic. He pulled me into a fierce embrace, his voice resolute. "This time is really different! This time she dared to hurt you so badly! I swear I'll make her wish she was never born!"
As if to prove himself, he turned and left.
Watching his reaper-lethal back, a sharp curiosity cut through me: what would he do this time?