Chapter 119 - 118: Out of Control
In her groggy state, Joanna Kennedy seemed to hear voices. The smell of disinfectant was pungent, her eyelids heavy. She felt like her whole body was burning up.
A cool liquid was delivered into her body through the back of her hand, and her tightly furrowed brow relaxed slightly.
"Mr. Lockwood, Miss Kennedy is in poor health. You can’t be so selfish."
The doctor packed up the medical waste from the IV drip, her tone stern. She was over forty and had seen a lot.
Situations like this were all too common in the circles of the wealthy.
The girl on the bed had a pale face, and there wasn’t an unblemished patch of skin on her entire body. While setting up the IV, she had seen a stark red mark circling the girl’s wrist, and her heart had clenched.
’A girl this beautiful should be treasured beyond measure. How could anyone bear to do this to her?’
"Mm." Simon Lockwood’s gaze remained fixed on the girl’s pale face. "Thank you, Dr. Pemberton. I’ll have someone see you home."
The man’s tone was polite but distant. The doctor couldn’t detect much regret or heartache in his voice and sighed silently.
She wanted to say more, but she knew she was an insignificant person and could only leave.
A light, drizzling rain began to fall outside the window. Perhaps last night’s strong winds were a precursor.
Simon Lockwood made a call, briefly gave some instructions, and hung up.
He stared as the raindrops sliding down the glass seemed to merge with the liquid dripping inside the transparent IV tube.
Drip... Drip...
After an unknown amount of time, he slowly raised his hand to his chest. Through his clothes, he could feel the strong, mechanical, and steady beat of his heart.
’Should it hurt? Why doesn’t it?’ Simon Lockwood asked himself silently, a trace of confusion in his eyes.
On the bed, the girl lay with her eyes quietly closed. Her long eyelashes were still damp, her thin eyelids red and swollen, and her lips were bitten and bruised.
On her fair, slender neck was a bite mark so deep it had drawn blood. The delicate skin of her wrists was broken and streaked with red...
’Without love, there’s no heartache. Desire took over, overpowering reason. I just did what I wanted to do.’
’Perhaps I’ve wanted to do this for a long time—this brutal, pathological, intolerably manic possessiveness...’
’Back then, "heartache" and "love" suppressed my true nature. I constantly warned myself—don’t, you can’t, don’t lose control. My Joanie wouldn’t like it.’
’Now, with that love "extinguished," I thought I could control myself, pretend everything was as it was. But it turns out—I can’t.’
’Last night was the perfect example. I went too far.’
’I hated Joanna Kennedy’s struggling. I didn’t want to hear her crying, didn’t want to see her eyes, didn’t want to see her wounds. They made me... agitated.’
’So, I covered her eyes and tied her wrists. Perfect. I could finally act without restraint.’
His heart was still beating mechanically, as if it would never stop.
Simon Lockwood sluggishly processed something and walked over to get the disinfectant and ointment the doctor had left.
He rolled a cotton swab in the disinfectant and lightly touched the wound on her neck. The girl flinched in pain, and Simon Lockwood made his movements even gentler.
He’d often gotten injured in his youth. At the end of an old alley, there was a small clinic. The owner was a somewhat fiery middle-aged woman, but her movements when applying medicine were always very gentle.
’You roll the cotton swab gently forward over the wound, only in one direction, never back and forth. That’s how you lessen the pain,’ the owner had said.
Simon Lockwood imitated the owner’s technique, rolling the cotton swab gently and slowly. He struggled with the motion, taking nearly ten minutes to treat a single bite mark.
Next were the swollen red marks circling both wrists. Half an hour passed before he had finished treating all the wounds.
Simon Lockwood still held the girl’s hand, his eyelids lowered, silently staring as the cool liquid slid through the IV tube into the back of her hand. He didn’t move for a long time.
His phone screen lit up with an incoming message. Only then did he slowly move his eyes.
*
Serena Sutton had a nightmare. In the dream, at that wedding of the century, the person thrown into the sea was her. Not far away, the man’s eyes were icy, devoid of any emotion—a single glance was enough to inspire terror.
The sensation of drowning felt too real. The briny, cold seawater poured into her mouth, nose, and ears. The world lost its color...
Serena Sutton was scared awake. She sat up, gasping for breath. The sudden movement made her ears ring and her vision swim, and she almost fell right off the bed.
’Where am I?’
Her last memory was of injecting Simon Lockwood with the drug Charles Jennings had given her. After that, she remembered nothing.
Charles Jennings said it was a newly developed drug that could reverse a person’s emotions. The deeper the love, the more estranged they become.
’So, did I succeed?’
A trace of excitement flashed in Serena Sutton’s eyes, and she couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Then another thought struck her, and she hurried out of bed, calling out, "Charles, I—"
The house was empty. Serena Sutton stopped speaking, a little puzzled. Seeing the clock on the wall, she realized she had been unconscious for a whole night.
’Charles must have gone to the office,’ she thought, but at the same time, she felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
’I was in this state, and Charles didn’t even stay by my side to keep me company.’
Accustomed to Charles Jennings’s gentle and attentive care, Serena Sutton found it momentarily hard to accept. But this discomfort was quickly dispelled by the thought that Simon Lockwood would now forget Joanna Kennedy.
Serena Sutton desperately wanted to see Simon Lockwood right then, but her reflection in the mirror was haggard. Her face, which was merely delicate to begin with, looked even more washed out.
The image of Joanna Kennedy’s beautiful, charming, and exquisite face flashed through her mind, and the jealousy in her eyes grew wildly.
’Just a pretty vase, a malicious and stupid bimbo, and yet Simon Lockwood was hung up on her for so many years.’
’But, no matter.’ Serena Sutton’s lips curled into a smile. ’I’ll set everything back on the right track...’
The two bags of IV fluid quickly finished dripping. Simon Lockwood disinfected his own hands before gently removing the needle. He pressed down on the medical tape and swiftly pulled it out, a technique that minimizes pain.
He glanced at the time: ten in the morning. After a moment’s thought, he pushed open the bedroom door. As he left, he subconsciously glanced back at the girl on the bed. Her eyes were still quietly closed.
He closed the door gently. In that instant, a white ’shadow’ darted past his feet and into the room.
Simon Lockwood frowned, and with quick reflexes, bent down and scooped up the agile little kitten in one hand. His voice was cold. "Don’t bother her."
"MEOW MEOW MEOW! MEOW MEOW MEOW!" ’You stupid human! Who said I was going to bother her!’
The little cat, 166, meowed indignantly. Then, it suddenly caught a scent on the man and its body went stiff. ’...’
Its big cat eyes went wide, as if it had received a terrible shock. The man’s brow furrowed even more deeply. He put it on the floor and went downstairs indifferently.
Only when the man’s figure was out of sight did 166 snap back to its senses, its fur standing on end all over its body.