Chapter 5 His Cruelty

He pinched her chin so hard that she felt her bones were almost crushing under the pressure. She cried, but not from the pain.

Tears fell silently from her eyes onto the back of his hand. He was stunned for a moment, but then he came back to his senses, angrier. He slammed her back against a pillar, locked her face with his palm, and forced her to look at him.

"How dare you cry!" His cold eyes were full of rage, and anger twisted his handsome features. "Stubborn and unrepentant. Do you live by replying to those men just now? Everly, are you this cheap?"

She looked at his angry eyes and smiled.

She was cheap, her love was cheap, so she fell in love with him.

She had witnessed the women around him come and go, but she still thought she might be different from the rest and that they would be together for the rest of their lives.

It was her fault, really.

She did not answer Carson. She lowered her eyes, and tears continued to flow from her eyes down her face, seemingly endless. Her tears wetted the back of his palm. She opened her lips, but could not make any sound.

She cried even more, which angered him further. He held onto her face tighter.

"Tell me!" He barked.

"It's none of your business whether I'm cheap or not." She finally spoke in a dry and hoarse voice after a long time, "I'm no longer the girl whom your family fostered. You had me punished for the things you think I did, and that's it. We don't owe each other anything anymore."

"We don’t owe each other anything?" He sneered with bottomless rage in his eyes. "You killed Layla. Ten years of imprisonment is less than enough for a sl*t like you. You dare say you owe me nothing?"

Her smile was full of self-mockery. It was still about Layla's death, that thing she had never done. She had been in prison for four years and replayed the entire incident in her head while she was in there. She had already known how cruel Carson was. What else could she expect?

She looked at him and asked bitterly, "What do you want?"

He narrowed his eyes in a way that signified danger, seeming extremely angry. Just as she thought he would strangle her to avenge Layla, he suddenly threw her away, as if throwing away rubbish.

His anger disappeared in an instant. The man who had been furious just now seemed to have vanished without a trace. At this moment, he seemed so cold that he could almost freeze the entire place.

"You will soon learn the consequences of trying to escape!"

This was the last sentence he said before he left.

After he left, Everly and the neatly placed urn both sat quietly in the display room.

She could not stop coughing. The sharp pain made her eyes tear up, she coughed out a mouthful of blood and she quickly covered her mouth.

Her hand, which she used to break her fall on the ground when she fell down, was scratched. Her palm was red with blood as the skin peeled, and it was hard to tell if the blood was from her mouth or her palms.

She looked at the urn with her photo on it thoughtfully. Suddenly, she smiled.

She smiled through her tears.

…

It was more than ten minutes after she cleaned up the place and walked out of the funeral parlor. She walked slowly, and everyone avoided her wherever she went.

Even those men who wanted to assault her before kept away from her.

She did not know what Carson had done. She just lowered her head and walked to her workplace.

Her boss met her at the door.

"Everly, here you are." The boss gave her an envelope and continued, "Here is your salary for half of the month."

She heard what her boss said as she looked at the envelope in her hands, "Mr. Baxter said that he couldn't let you work here anymore, so... You’re fired."

"Mr. Baxter also said, don't think about trying to earn money by spreading your legs. He will inform all the people in Cannesville and no one would dare to take you in."

She pursed her lips and tightened her grip on the envelope. The newly-formed scab on her hand cracked again, and the blood soaked into the envelope.

He was so cruel.