Chapter 4
No wonder they were siblings–both Tracie and Sean were masters at twisting the truth.
Their words might seem like they were defending someone, but in reality, they were just dumping all the blame onto the other person.
It was just like a month ago, at Mount Gravenwood, when Tracie had whispered in Lumina’s ear, “Your parents must‘ ve done something terrible to end up dying in this mountain, don‘ t you think?
“I heard their bodies were devoured by wild animals. It must‘ ve been a gruesome death. Who knows what wicked things they did?”
Before Lumina could even react, Tracie had already fallen. Her right leg was a mangled, bloody mess.
In that moment, Floyd slapped Lumina
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across the face with fury and left her behind in Mount Gravenwood. “You crazy
woman! If anything happens to Trace, you’ll stay here for the rest of your life!”
Lumina cried out, begging him not to leave
her like this.
The truth was, her parents had died on a wilderness expedition. Ever since then, she had been terrified of the outdoors, of animals and especially of dark, eerie forests like this one. Had it not been for the desire to always be near Floyd, she would have never come on this trip.
Now, Floyd was about to leave her here to fend for herself.
Lumina sobbed, her body trembling, her thumb pressing desperately against the side of her middle finger. Her voice cracked as she pleaded, “Please don’t do this to me! I swear, I won’t do it again, I’ll never dare again!
“I won’t follow you anymore, I’ll stay
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Chapter 9
far away from you, just please don’t leave me here!”
It was unclear which of her words triggered him, but Floyd’s anger only intensified.
“Alright, Lamina! You really are something!”
The rescue team abandoned Lamina. They left her with nothing but a small package of food.
As her thoughts gathered, Lumina realized she had bitten her lips so hard they were bleeding and the sharp pain spread throughout her body, like needles piercing
her skin.
Floyd suddenly grabbed her hand.
“Apologize to Trace now!”
His grip was so tight that it tore open the wound on her elbow again. Blood dripped down her arm, staining the white sheets like the open maw of a beast.
Memories of Mount Gravenwood rushed
back and Lumina instinctively flinched, but
Chapter 4
Floyd pinned her down.
Following the trail of blood, he was shocked to discover a deep, ten–centimeter gash on her elbow, the flesh torn and spilling blood.
“You said you already checked her thoroughly,” Floyd snapped, his eyes glaring at Sean as if he were ready to tear him apart. “How on earth that huge wound appear on Lumina’s hand?”
“I… I…” Sean stammered, unable to say a word.
In reality, he hadn’t done any kind of check–up on Lumina. Throughout the entire ordeal, he had simply locked her in the examination room and occasionally shot her a look of disgust.
“I had planned to give you a full body check–up,” he said, his words dripping with a slimy emphasis that made Lumina feel nauseous. “But looking at you now, not quite human, not quite a ghost, I
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couldn’t be bothered to touch you.
Seeing the situation turning against her, Tracie quickly shifted the blame back to Lumina.
“Lumina, how did that wound suddenly appear on your hand? Did you do this on purpose to avoid the wedding delay?”
As Tracie spoke, she shot a subtle, knowing glance at Sean, who quickly understood.
“Yeah, during the check–up, there was no wound. You must ve secretly grabbed my scalpel when I wasn‘ t looking and cut yourself!”
“Always lying! You‘ re beyond help!” Floyd’s voice shook with rage.
