Chapter 858 I Will Never Hurt Her, I Swear
Sean loosened his grip and muttered, "Stella, yes, there's still Stella."
Eli was still watching television when he left the room in a hurry. He did not know what she was watching, but she was laughing excitedly.
Yet, the more she laughed, the tighter his heart felt. It was as though thorny vines were snaking around his chest, suffocating him.
Taking a step forward, he lumbered toward her. Eli was still laughing, and she did not seem to have noticed him.
He looked at the television and noticed that she was watching Mr. Bean. Then, he looked at her arm. If this were Eli in the past, she would have already been wailing if she had lost a finger, let alone an arm. How could she not seem sad at all after losing her arm?
She was not well, as a matter of fact, she was very ill.
He turned around and headed straight out of the door.
Eli saw him going out from the corner of her eyes. She stopped smiling and lay on the sofa in a daze. The television program seemed dull and meaningless now. She felt that Mr. Bean was very pretentious and she did not understand why he was doing all these. Was there even a point?
She closed her eyes but could not fall asleep. She did not want to do anything but to just lay down like that.
Walking out from the door, Sean pondered under the old locust tree for a long time. He was deep in thought, slowly recalling his memories and plotting his schemes.
He then made a phone call.
"Hello, who is this?" Stella asked.
"Stella, it's Sean."
On the other end of the line, Stella fell silent. It was so quiet that Sean thought that she was about to hang up the call.
"Are you still there?" Sean asked.
"What's the matter?" Stella asked coldly. She did not hide her displeasure of receiving a call from him.
"Eli isn't dead, I hid the news. We are married now, though she has been diagnosed with severe depression. Only you can save her now," Sean said.
Stella was so furious that she wanted to hang up the phone. "Sean, what on earth are you doing? Have you forgotten what you have promised me? I asked you to let her go, but you refused to. You imprisoned her and forced her to jump off a building. Do you know how much she has sacrificed for your sake?"
"What do you mean? Sacrifice? What does that even mean?"
"It seems that you have been blinded by hatred. I told you that Eli had her difficulties. Did you ever listen to me? No, you didn't. You have been plotting and lying low for three years just to take revenge on her, forcing her to live a life worse than death," Stella snapped, venting all her anger in those words.
"What sacrifice you're talking about?" Sean continued asking.
"You ordered your men to take care of Eli after losing your Presidency. Did you think that your men will let her off easy? No, they could easily assassinate Eli even you were still in power, not to mention when you lost the position three years ago.
Eli was tortured after your men took her. They even took your son away, threatening her to stay away from you. Eli had been struggling to stay alive just to see you. But your men had used your child's life to force Eli into marrying Haward because they were worried that she would return to you."
Sean felt as though he had been struck by lightning. His head went numb and his soul seemed to have left his body. He only managed to pull himself together after a short while. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
"Told you earlier? I just found out. After you released Haward, I used all sorts of ways to get him to tell the truth. But what's the use of him telling the truth now? Eli is already dead. Her death was meant to protect you and your child. What else could I have said?! Should I have told you all this and put you in danger? Eli might not be able to die peacefully if she knew that you would be in danger. You hide the fact that she was alive then locked her up and tortured her. You even locked her up in a cave for three whole days without food and water because you were afraid that I would come and rescue her. Who would've thought you'll be so cold-hearted," Stella said agitatedly.
"You knew about this all along?"
"Of course I know. My men just happened to see you when you took her to the research center. Otherwise, I wouldn't know that Eli is still alive and she is even missing an arm. Even if you hadn't looked for me today, I would've had a way to save her," Stella said and hung up the phone right after that.
Sean's heart was aching as if thousands of ants were gnawing at his heart at that moment.
He knew nothing. He thought that Eli had betrayed him and lived a happy life when none of that was true. She had been tortured by his men all this while in order to protect him. Even now, she still did not tell him anything and simply let him continue torturing her.
He would have believed it if she had told her all these. She had countless opportunities to let him know. She could've told him when she wanted to save Haward when she was been tortured, or before he locked her up in the cave, but she never did.
Instead, she jumped off the building and lost an arm. Her whole body was full of wounds. He thought that he had injured herself by jumping off the building. He realized now that the wounds were already there.
She was afraid of pain and she could not stand any of it. She also cared about her appearance very much. Even a small scar would make her feel sad for a few days. Now, there was not a single piece of her skin that was intact. She was as thin as a rake and without her arm.
He did not know. He really did not know any of this. Self-blame, guilt, distress, regret, anger, all sorts of emotions were intertwined together. His heart hurt so much that he could not breathe. He threw a heavy punch at the old locust tree, but it still couldn't calm him down. He threw a few more punches until the back of his hand was badly mutilated.
He wanted to go see Eli. He wanted to see the delicate yet stubborn Eli, who he had once protected.
He walked into the room and noticed that Eli had fallen asleep again. She curled up quietly in bed, not moving at all.
She had always been an energetic person, and she could not sit still at all. Even when she fell asleep on the sofa, one of her feet would rest on the back of the sofa, and she would shake her leg from time to time.
Sean walked towards her, his whole body trembling. He had never calmed down since he walked out of the study room. His eyes reddened.
He stood in front of Eli, squatted down, and held her hand.
She used to have hands that were tender and soft to the touch. Right now, they were bony, like chicken claws. Looking closely at each finger, there seemed to be a white line on every single one of them. That was traces of being pierced by a needle. Sean cursed just at the thought of it.
He lowered his head and kissed her palm gently. Tears started streaming down his cheeks.
Eli opened her eyes but did not look at Sean. "What time is it? Are we going to have dinner?" she asked in a hoarse voice.
"Eli, could we please start over? Let's go back in time, alright? To when we were still little," Sean said, choking in between sobs.
"When we were still little?" Eli muttered. Staring into a blank space, she thought of something and raised a smile. "I should be very anxious if I had looked like this when I was younger."
She looked at Sean, his eyes were very red. She frowned and said, "What's wrong with your eyes? Did your eyes get infected? Go see the doctor now. Our eyes are important to us."
Sean was extremely grief-stricken. He hugged Eli tightly.
Eli did not understand. Sean was behaving strangely. "Are you the real Sean?"
Sean took a deep breath, looked at Eli, and promised her, "I will never hurt Stella as long as you are alive. I will take you to see her."
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