Chapter 77 Holding His Neck with Both Hands
In the children's room, Jessica curled up in bed without moving.
If it wasn't for her uncomfortable stomach caused by her period, she would probably have locked herself in the bathroom for a day and night.
Images of what happened in the bathroom just now were playing vividly in her mind. The more she thought about it, the more ashamed she felt. She vented her frustration by clutching the pillow for a long time before eventually falling asleep unknowingly while still hugging the pillow tightly.
She slept until late at night, unaware that Danielle had gone to sleep in the master bedroom.
As autumn arrived in Xyleria, there was a slight chill in the late night, and the room was also filled with a hint of coolness.
Danielle slept soundly on the bed in the master bedroom. She said she wanted to tell Uncle Spencer a story, but before she even finished a few sentences, her big eyes gradually closed, her voice getting softer and softer, until she fell asleep. However, her small hand continued to hold his hand.
It wasn't until midnight, when Danielle turned over in her sleep, that she finally let go of his hand.
Gabriel got up from the bed and went out. Outside the window, it was already a dark night. There weren't many lights in the old neighborhood, only a faint yellow glow from the streetlights outside the gated community in the distance.
Gabriel straightened the TV remote control and the cups that Danielle had messed up on the coffee table. He picked up the box of ointment he had used before and went into the children's room to apply it to Jessica.
Jessica had extremely fair skin, and even a light pinch would leave marks. It had been a day, but the bruises on her arms and legs were still very visible.
But Gabriel was not proficient enough in applying medicine, so he tried to be gentle to avoid waking her up. However, Jessica wrinkled her brows uncomfortably in her sleep and even unconsciously kicked him.
He dodged her first kick by moving his arm to the side and ignored her second kick that was aimed at him. He applied ointment to her arm, exerting a bit more force because she resisted in her sleep.
After applying the medicine, he glanced at the clock and was about to get up when he suddenly heard Jessica murmuring very softly.
"It's hot."
In the darkness, his gaze turned back to her.
"Hot." Jessica began trembling all over as if the ointment, which improved her blood circulation, caused a faint, burning sensation on her wound. She didn't know what she was dreaming about, but her hands suddenly clenched the bedsheet tightly, and her neck stiffened, unable to move. Nonetheless, she remained tense, as if facing an unbearable agony.
Gabriel didn't realize how high her body temperature was earlier, so he decided to find a thermometer and check if she had a fever.
When he returned with the thermometer, he noticed that Jessica had turned onto her side and curled up tightly.
In her dream.
In a dark room, she grabbed something unknown, whether it was an aromatherapy bottle or a wine bottle. At the moment when the person, whose body was filled with the scent of alcohol, lunged at her, she fiercely smashed the bottle on their head. The shattered glass fragments pierced her palm as she desperately struggled to move backward.
The abnormally intense heat rendered her almost powerless, but the faint red light flickering in the corner of the dark room proved that everything currently happening was being recorded by a surveillance camera.
In order to stay alert, she even grabbed the broken glass pieces on the ground, allowing the pain in her palm to remind her of the situation she was facing. Then, slowly and painstakingly, she crawled out from under the person who had been knocked unconscious. The scorching heat throughout her body almost overshadowed the pain in her palm, and blood dripped down her fingers.
She staggered to the door, only to find it locked from the outside. Overwhelming despair enveloped her, but she struggled to calm herself down. Then, she turned and ran towards the tightly closed window.
She forcefully opened it and looked down at the grassy ground below. She didn't know which hotel this was, but it was on the third floor.
Jumping from this height would undoubtedly leave her crippled, and escape was simply impossible.
However, there was an air conditioning unit's bracket between the second and third floors, with a tree right next to it. She heard the person who had been knocked unconscious behind her showing signs of regaining consciousness and approaching this direction. She quickly climbed out of the window, following the path of the air conditioning unit's bracket and falling onto a tree branch. Then, she struggled to crawl down until she finally reached the ground. Flashlights from various directions were shining towards her, and she hurriedly staggered to find a way out.
Her hands were covered in blood, and her body was in a terrible mess. She staggered, not knowing how far she had run, until she finally collapsed from exhaustion on a street filled with lampposts. She looked around dazedly, her vision blurring, and the intense heat inside her body almost consumed her consciousness.
She didn't know which street she was on, and the effects of the drugs tortured her to the point where she couldn't even remember who she was. She couldn't tell if it was just an illusion or if someone was actually chasing her, but she always felt like there was someone behind her, their flashlight beams relentlessly pursuing her.
In her panic, a black Bentley parked not far from the roadside crashed into her almost blurred vision.
Jessica became increasingly restless in her sleep, her hands tightly creasing the bedsheet. The blurry images in her dream were stimulating her nerves.
"Don't kick me out."
"Somebody is trying to harm me."
As Jessica's hair stuck to her neck due to sweat, it seemed as if she was suffering, resisting something, yet clinging tightly.
Gabriel reached out to touch her forehead, but it wasn't warm. It couldn't be a fever causing this much sweat.
He put down the thermometer, about to wake up Jessica who was trapped in her nightmare.
Suddenly, Jessica opened her eyes, half-awake and half-asleep, still with much of her consciousness submerged in her dream. She lay there motionless, locking eyes with him in the darkness.
"Awake?" Gabriel stared at her with his dark eyes, leaning down to help her sit up.
But Jessica was clearly not fully awake, just looking at the familiar figure by her bedside. Her lips moved, her voice faint and low, barely audible.
"Help me."
Very faint, very vague murmuring.
Gabriel leaned down again, his body even lower, trying to hear more clearly.
"Please."
"You help me."
Still a very soft voice.
Gabriel probably only heard the word "help" clearly. He looked down at her face, damp with sweat, and reached out to sweep the wet hair on her cheek aside. "Jessica?"
Jessica's eyes didn't close, her thoughts still immersed in her dream. But her gaze remained fixed on the figure in front of her, and his presence seemed to merge with the breath of the man in her dream, equally clean and refreshing.
She didn't know why she suddenly felt so aggrieved, her hands instinctively reaching up to hold his neck, her voice choked with tears and helplessness. "Don't go."
