本棚
検索
ホーム / Imagination / I Bet My Soul on His Loyalty / Chapter 4

共有

Chapter 4

作者: Silk & Feathers
Third-Person POV

It was the following morning when Samuel pushed open the front door of the villa. He still carried the faint scent of Xena's perfume, his face showing the exhaustion and irritation of someone who had stayed up all night.

"I'm home, Stella! S-Stella?" Samuel loosened his tie while changing his shoes, casually looking over the living room—then abruptly froze. He noticed Stella lying still on the carpet next to the couch.

Samuel furrowed his brow, a trace of annoyance crossing his face. "Why are you still lying on the floor when you're not even a child anymore? You'd better get up now. Otherwise, your stomach will act up from the cold again. Come on now…"

There was no response from the person on the floor, so Samuel marched over and grabbed her shoulder. "Why are you still throwing a tantrum—"

Samuel's voice stopped mid-sentence. He felt a freezing, ice-like temperature beneath his hand. She was rigid and completely lifeless. He froze all over, then suddenly flipped Stella over.

He was met with the sight of Stella's pale complexion and dried necrotic blood around the corners of her mouth, her chin, and even her neck. Her eyes, which had once looked at him with nothing but tenderness, were closed tight, completely devoid of life.

"S-Stella? Stella!"

Samuel's mind instantly went completely blank. He then, with a trembling hand, reached out to check for her breath, but there was nothing.

He backed away in sheer panic, but his foot struck an envelope on the coffee table. He then noticed the words written on the envelope. "To Samuel Hudson."

He opened the letter with trembling hands and skimmed through it. He noticed the terms like "one-billion-dollar cash reward", "traded points to heal your legs", and "cheating results in immediate death" in the letter.

He widened his eyes in terror and yelled, "T-That's impossible! You're definitely lying to me, Stella!"

Just as he was screaming on the verge of a total breakdown, a flat, emotionless mechanical voice rang out abruptly through the villa.

[Stella Shepherd's death has been confirmed. Destruction protocol concluded.]

Samuel snapped his head up and whipped his gaze around the space, looking exactly as though he had seen a ghost.

That mechanical voice kept ringing out, sounding like a judgment from Death itself.

[Due to contract termination, the leg recovery reward issued to Samuel Hudson—the target—is now permanently rescinded.]

"W-What—" Samuel felt a sharp, ripping agony tearing through his knees before he could even understand what was happening.

Samuel's legs instantly gave out beneath him, accompanied by the sickening crunch of bones breaking and nerves severing. He screamed in agony and collapsed heavily to the floor, landing on his knees right before Stella's lifeless corpse.

この本を無料で読み続ける
コードをスキャンしてアプリをダウンロード
前のチャプター 次のチャプター

最新チャプター

  • I Bet My Soul on His Loyalty   Chapter 10

    Stella's POVI looked down at the man at my feet, who resembled nothing more than a heap of garbage. Samuel, the once proud and powerful award-winning actor, had thrown away what was left of his self-respect just to beg for my forgiveness.I felt no pity or anger when I looked at him, only absolute indifference and mockery."Samuel…" I calmly called out his name, my voice echoing through the empty theater.Samuel immediately looked up, his eyes filled with hope.I looked him in the eye, delivering each word like a fatal blow. "You ought to know that you personally killed the woman who gave up a one-billion-dollar prize for your legs, drained her points, and threw away her own life for you on your seventh wedding anniversary."In that instant, the spark of hope in Samuel’s eyes went dead, his pupils contracting violently.I continued, "You left her all alone in a restaurant to wait for death, just to comfort a stand-in who was scared of the dark. Did you forget how she coughed up

  • I Bet My Soul on His Loyalty   Chapter 9

    Stella's POVIt was three days later when Charlie drove me to the century-old grand theater in the city center. Samuel had already bought the place. He kept it closed year-round, but Charlie still managed to use his connections to get the keys.I could smell the scent of withered roses mixed with dust rush toward us the moment we pushed open the heavy theater doors. The vast stage still held the scenery from seven years prior, when Samuel had proposed to Stella. There were thousands of withered white roses blanketing the steps leading up to the center of the stage, where a crystal piano sat buried in dust."You have nothing to be afraid of, Stella—I'm right here with you," Charlie said as he held my hand firmly, the warmth of his touch giving me constant reassurance.I took a deep breath, pulled my hand free from his, and slowly climbed the steps covered with withered roses. I took a step in the center of the stage, and it felt as if some long-dormant switch had been triggered.

  • I Bet My Soul on His Loyalty   Chapter 8

    Stella's POVIn the days that followed, Samuel began relentlessly harassing me. He would send me large bouquets of white bellflowers every day, which happened to be my absolute favorite flower in my previous life.I didn't even spare them a single glance and directly asked the nurse to dispose of them in the trash.Charlie helped me move into my new place on the day I was discharged from the hospital. Samuel was blocking the entrance in his wheelchair the moment we reached my apartment complex. He looked even more haggard than he had at the hospital, though his eyes held a desperate, manic spark of hope."You've finally been discharged from the hospital, Stella…" Samuel wheeled himself closer, his voice cracking with emotion. "Please return home with me, Stella. I've kept everything in the house exactly the way you left it. I've cleaned that carpet, too… I'll never abandon you for someone else again, so please just forgive me, Stella…"He cried as he described how he had lived a

  • I Bet My Soul on His Loyalty   Chapter 7

    Stella's POV"I-Is it really you, Stella? It must be!" Samuel, like a madman, desperately spun the wheels of his wheelchair with both hands, rushing toward me recklessly. He looked shockingly gaunt, his formerly handsome features caved in. He looked like a dying man gripped by a final, frantic burst of life with his bloodshot eyes and manic expression.He yelled my name as he rushed toward me, reaching out a trembling, skeletal hand to grab my wrist in a vice grip. He possessed a terrifying amount of strength, squeezing so hard that it felt like my bones would snap."Let go of me!" I wrenched myself free from his grip, driven by pure instinctive aversion. I looked at the emaciated, disabled man before me, my heart remaining completely unmoved. It was only filled with intense annoyance and revulsion. I looked coldly at him and said, "You've mistaken me for someone else.""T-That's impossible! How could I ever mistake you for someone else?" Samuel burst into tears, pointing at me

  • I Bet My Soul on His Loyalty   Chapter 6

    Stella's POVIt was a year later when a sound rang out inside the system space. [Warning! Samuel's obsession has exceeded safe levels, causing the timeline to approach a breaking point!]Then, the system's chilling, mechanical tone resounded within the void. [In order to stabilize the timeline, an emergency remediation plan is now underway. Stella's consciousness will be transferred into the body of a vegetative patient who has just woken up. As a penalty to maintain balance, all love and emotional ties to Samuel will be permanently severed from Stella's soul.]I slowly opened my eyes as the steady rhythmic sound of the electrocardiogram monitor echoed through the room. The blinding sunlight made me squint subconsciously. I then heard someone with a gentle, refined voice speaking right beside me. "You're finally awake."I turned and saw a young doctor in a white coat. He wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and had handsome, refined features. He kept his head down as he earnestly

  • I Bet My Soul on His Loyalty   Chapter 5

    Third-Person POVSamuel desperately struck his own legs, but everything below the knees had already gone completely numb. That same crushing despair from seven years ago, when he had been trapped in a wheelchair like a useless shell of a man, washed over him like a storming wave.It wasn't until this exact second that he realized what Stella had said in the restaurant the previous night—that he wouldn't be able to see her again after he left—hadn't been a threat at all. "I-I'm so sorry, Stella! I know I'm in the wrong now, so please come back!"Samuel thrashed in despair on the floor, trying to hold Stella's body, but he could only crawl miserably through the pool of blood. His piercing wails were the only sound echoing through the villa.Stella's funeral was very bleak. There was no media coverage, no relatives, and no friends—only relentless rain and a solitary gravestone.Samuel was forced back into the very wheelchair he had thrown into the storage room seven years ago. He h

続きを読む

あなたも気に入るかもしれません

無料で面白い小説を探して読んでみましょう
GoodNovel アプリで人気小説に無料で！お好きな本をダウンロードして、いつでもどこでも読みましょう！
アプリで無料で本を読む
コードをスキャンしてアプリで読む
DMCA.com Protection Status