Chapter 6
I really didn’t know what I owed Luke Crawford; I just truly liked him, a lot.
When he first went blind, he bumped into a vase while walking, and I rushed to help him, afraid he might get hurt. But he pushed me onto the broken vase pieces.
I studied his preferences and honed my cooking skills bit by bit, but whenever he was in a bad mood, he would flip the entire table over, spilling hot broth onto my hand. I didn’t even make a sound.
Because he couldn’t distinguish between day and night and had trouble sleeping, I stayed up all night reading to him. I treated him like a treasure, carefully trying to soothe him.
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Chapter 6
+ 5 Points
For these six years, I took care of him with all my heart and effort. But every time he got drunk, every time he was in a bad mood, he would repeatedly say, “Sylvia Green, that’s all you owe me! You owe me!”
But Luke Crawford, what exactly do I owe you?
Is loving you also a kind of debt?
I thought that by leaving, I could start a new life.
But I didn’t expect that Luke Crawford would force me back in this way.
That day, I was in the middle of signing the rental contract when I received a call from the property management. Bella White was causing a scene in Luke Crawford’s
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Chapter 6
5 Points
MICH
apartment.
They couldn’t get in touch with Luke Crawford and could only contact me.
When I rushed back, the door was wide open. Bella White was sitting in the middle of the living room, and the things I had packed, preparing to move out, were all thrown around in chaos.
A crowd of neighbors had gathered outside, watching.
The looks they gave me carried an indescribable meaning.
But I didn’t have time to care about that; I was frantically searching for something amidst the mess.
Finally, I spotted the corner of a box sticking
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+ 5 Points
out from an overturned storage bin.
I rushed over without thinking, but Bella White grabbed my hair.
With a haughty look, she glared at me and said, “You shameless woman, trying to seduce my husband! As expected, a mother who is a mistress raises a daughter who becomes one too!”
“What did you say?” I was furious and lunged at her, trying to rip her mouth off.
She pulled hard on my hair, and I felt an excruciating pain on my scalp. Then she slapped me across the face with force.
Half of my face swelled up, and I fell to the ground.
“This is what happens when you seduce
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pter 6
+ 5 Points
other people’s husbands!” She held her head high, smiling victoriously at me.
The murmurs of the onlookers grew louder and louder, surrounding me.
“I see, so she’s the mistress. No wonder she always looks so strange–never talking or smiling whenever we see her.”
“Yeah, the last time I asked her, she said she was just their housekeeper. Turns out she’s being kept…”
“She’s so young, and instead of doing something good, she’s out here destroying other people’s families.”
I heard those voices, but I only smiled faintly.
Bella White didn’t need to go this far; I was already leaving anyway.
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pter 6
+ 5 Points
Holding my box, I silently stood up and began to leave, but suddenly, Bella White pushed me from behind.
She grabbed the box from me, smiling as she pulled out a jade bracelet, green and lustrous.
“So, you were hiding something good after all. Did Luke give this to you?”
“Give it back! It’s something my mother left for me!”
I wantded to turn
to grab it, but a sharp pain
seized my stomach, and I reflexively bent over, clutching it.
Bella White raised the bracelet high above
- me.
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5 Points
“Give it back! It wasn’t given to me by Luke Crawford. It’s my mother’s!”
I glared at her, my anger clear, speaking every word slowly and deliberately.
It was the only keepsake my mother had left us, a bracelet meant to protect me and Daniel. We each had one.
I could not let this woman take it.
Bella White was momentarily startled by the fierceness in my eyes, shrinking back slightly. But then, her eyes suddenly lit up. “Luke!” She rushed to meet him.
Luke Crawford arrived in a hurry. The property management had cleared the neighbors watching the spectacle and quickly apologized before leaving, leaving us alone to handle our “family matters.”
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+5 Points
He frowned, glanced at me, then at Bella White, but remained silent.
It was clear that anyone who had their private life turned into a public spectacle wouldn’t be in the best of moods.
I didn’t care about Luke Crawford. My eyes were fixed only on the bracelet my mother had left me. I lunged at Bella White, but this time, Luke Crawford stopped me.
“Luke Crawford, that bracelet was left to me by my mother…” My eyes were red, but I still looked at him with a glimmer of hope.
With just one word from him, Bella White wouldn’t dare to make any trouble.
But Luke Crawford’s expression was so cold, as though I had committed some
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Points
unforgivable crime.
Bella White, now emboldened, grew more audacious. “Oh, it’s your mom’s? Sorry, I thought it was a gift from Luke. Here, I’ll give it back to you.” With that, she lightly tossed the bracelet.
I tried to catch it, but it was too late. I could only watch helplessly as the bracelet fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.
My face went pale in an instant, as though my heart had shattered into pieces along with it.
Luke Crawford seemed to not expect Bella White to actually throw the bracelet. Seeing my distressed expression, he tried to
comfort me: “Sylvia, it’s just a bracelet. Bella White didn’t mean it. I’ll buy you another
one.”
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I suddenly turned around. “Didn’t mean it?!” I laughed out loud, but tears unexpectedly slid down my face.
My eyes were bloodshot as I stared at him, stepping closer, one step at a time. “Then tell me, Luke Crawford, what do you mean by ‘mean it‘! Why was Bella White allowed into this apartment? Isn’t it because you gave her the key? The jade bracelet was the only thing my mother left for me. It was a token to protect me and Daniel! Why do you think you can just throw it away, break it whenever you want?!”
years
All the of infatuation, sacrifice, endurance, and grievance suddenly broke loose. The string that had bound me snapped at that moment.
I couldn’t stop laughing, tears crawling down
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my swollen face. “Luke Crawford! What did I do wrong that you have to treat me this way?!”
Like a madwoman, I rushed at Bella White, slapped her hard, and grabbed her hair. I would return everything she had inflicted on
- me.
Luke Crawford might have been stunned by my accusations and my frantic actions. By the time he came to his senses, Bella White and I were already wrestling with each other.
But he still chose to push me away, protecting Bella White.
“Sylvia Green, are you out of your mind?!”
Bella White was crying in his arms.
My hair was disheveled, half my face
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swollen, with faint traces of blood.
I suddenly felt like I had lost all my strength, sitting on the ground, staring blankly at the shattered jade bracelet.
Everything before me suddenly seemed absurd.
The person I had devoted six years of my life to, allowing my mother’s legacy to be destroyed before my eyes, and watching me being beaten, yet choosing to protect someone else.
So what was I to him?
It turned out that from the beginning, it was, just a transaction, a one–sided wish on my part.
At some point, my phone fell out of my
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pocket, ringing incessantly. The abrupt ringtone sounded like a dirge, lamenting my years of humiliation and wishful thinking.
Finally, after who knew how many times the ringtone had sounded, I numbly picked up the phone from the ground and pressed the answer button.
A hurried voice came through. “Miss Green? This is the hospital. Your brother is in critical condition. Please come quickly…”
My ears buzzed explosively, and it felt as if the world suddenly collapse before my eyes.
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