Chapter 19

Gripping fear made Vivian lose her voice. Her teeth chattered and she had to support herself with her arms on the table. She wanted to make a noise that would catch someone else’s attention, and she wanted to storm out of the door as well. However, everything was futile. Her body was limp as she sat on the chair. She could not even swipe the plates off the table with her current strength.

She started to see patches of black. While she was teetering on the edge of consciousness, she saw the man sitting there, observing her silently. There was half a sneer on his face while his eyes showed no emotions.

Vivian awoke from the darkness after some time. The first thing she saw was an outrageously huge chandelier. The crystal pendants reflected and refracted the light in dazzling rays.

“Awake already?” he asked.

She struggled to get up, instinctively shrinking away from the voice. The room was spacious. Edward was looking at her while sitting on a nearby couch. His lips were slightly curled upward, and he looked amused. “Miss Carraway, you have a healthy body. You’ve regained consciousness half an hour earlier than I expected.”

Physical quality was not Vivian’s only strong suit. She had exceptional mental qualities as well. Otherwise, she would not have been able to escape with her life from the incident four years ago. Despite the fear making her panic, her rational mind was urging her to remain calm. She forced her eyes shut. When she reopened them, she had accepted her current situation. She asked shakily, “Are you a man or a ghost?”

Edward snorted softly and mocked her, “The witty and daring Miss Carraway asking such a dumb question?”

The question was indeed dumb because it exposed just how frightened she was. There were no ghosts in the world. There was no way that Sean Jackson could have come back to life. Therefore, the only possibility was that he did not die, after all. He was not dead, and he was now back to get revenge!

Her nightmare had come true. The devil whom she deeply feared was now right before her very eyes.

She seemed to have been transported back to the scene four years ago. He sat there, regarding her with his cold eyes. His dry gaze was as sharp as a knife as he said, “Make it clean. Don’t leave any room for future trouble.”

No! This was worse than four years ago. He was like a malicious devil who had crawled out from the depths of hell. He was here for vengeance. Her tears flowed uncontrollably, and her body trembled. However, she was not a woman who only knew to cry and plead. She stared at him. Although her voice was still quivering, her heart was steadying by the minute. “What do you want? Are you going to kill me?”

“Kill you?” He chuckled and shook his head slowly. “If I wanted to kill you, why would I have gone through all this trouble?”

Since he was not here to kill her, he must have been here to torture her. Crying and pleading would get her nowhere; it might even make things worse. She suppressed her fear and did some quick calculations. She willed herself to think of another way out. “Sean, let’s all calm down for a bit and have a rational conversation, shall we?”

He narrowed his eyes and gave her an appraising look. He was starkly different from the person she encountered four years ago. This woman always managed to surprise him. “What do you want to talk about?” he asked, slightly intrigued. “Are we going to talk about why I should be letting you go, and how you won’t report this to the police, and how we’ll both forget what happened in the past and begin a new life?”

Indeed, that was what she wanted to say. Vivian pursed her lips. Then, she said, “No, I was wondering how you escaped from the detention center.”

He was slightly taken aback by her statement. He raised his brows slightly. “Miss Carraway, you never fail to surprise me. I’m now more convinced that our upcoming game will be even more interesting.”

Vivian could not understand what he meant by that. She proceeded cautiously, “What game?”

He was sitting on the couch with his legs crossed in a relaxed and casual manner. “I want to groom a virtuous lady from a pristine background to become a licentious slut.”

She could not help but shudder.

Her reaction amused him, so his lips curled upward. “Miss Carraway, you come from a pure background, you’re highly educated, and you work in this stellar profession. For such a bright and beautiful woman to be tainted, little by little, until she’s as filthy as can be, don’t you think that would be interesting?”