Chapter 217 - 216
Liam Valentine looked up and froze for a moment.
The man was still wearing the same clothes from three days ago. His white shirt was rumpled and creased. The cold indifference on his face was long gone, replaced by a dark gloom. His eyes were bloodshot from a lack of rest, and dark circles were clearly visible beneath them.
In just three short days, he seemed like a different person—haggard and morose, radiating an oppressive aura that warned others to stay away. He looked nothing like the spirited President of Southland.
Liam Valentine sighed and stopped beating around the bush. He directly told Simon Lockwood what he had found.
Sometime ago, after the Jennings family went bankrupt, Charles Jennings had gotten engaged to the daughter of the Pemberton Family. By some unknown means, he had absconded with a large sum of money, hired a group of bodyguards, and orchestrated the kidnapping.
"Owen Jennings has confessed quite a bit," Liam Valentine said.
But Simon Lockwood didn’t want to hear any more. "Where is Charles Jennings?"
Liam Valentine was silent for a moment. "We haven’t found him yet."
...
"Fine. I understand." Simon Lockwood stood up, his calmness almost eerie. "Thank you."
Seeing that he was about to go back into the hospital room, Jack Warren, who was standing nearby, couldn’t help but speak up. "Mr. Lockwood, please eat something first."
No one is made of iron. If he kept this up, Joanna Kennedy would probably wake up just to see Simon Lockwood collapse.
Jack Warren knew this was Simon Lockwood’s way of punishing himself. He blamed himself for Joanna Kennedy’s kidnapping.
He believed that if he hadn’t moved against the Jennings family, Charles Jennings would never have kidnapped Joanna, and she wouldn’t be lying here in a coma.
Simon Lockwood was blaming himself.
Jack Warren knew his words were probably useless, but he couldn’t resist trying to persuade him. He then watched as the man, seemingly deaf to his plea, continued toward the hospital room.
Just then, Liam Valentine spoke slowly, "Mr. Lockwood, you should clean yourself up."
Liam Valentine sized him up and down before adding, "Miss Kennedy probably wouldn’t like the way you look right now. It’s... not very handsome."
"..."
In the silence, Simon Lockwood’s steps suddenly faltered.
Julie received her assignment and rushed to the hospital. When she saw the unconscious girl in the hospital bed, her eyes stung, and she almost burst into tears.
These past two days had felt harder to endure than the last two years. She knew that if anything happened to Joanna Kennedy, that man from Southland wouldn’t let her off the hook.
The IV drip was almost empty. She pressed the call button for a nurse, not noticing that the girl in the bed’s finger had twitched.
Joanna Kennedy was having a dream. It was a vast expanse of white with no end in sight. There was only the continuous sound of a mechanical voice, cold and urgent.
"Warning! Warning! Danger! Danger!"
The voice grew louder. She covered her ears in pain as numerous green sources of light suddenly appeared around her, gradually filling the entire space.
At a certain moment, the cold mechanical voice stopped abruptly. She stared blankly as the green lights in the air vied to pour into her body.
’Joanna Kennedy, this is my gift to you. It’s one of a kind...’
The man’s excited voice seemed to echo in her ears again. Joanna Kennedy staggered to her feet.
’I don’t want it! I don’t want it at all...’
Burning. Pain. It felt as if her organs and every bone in her body were being reforged. She tried desperately to escape, but it was useless.
All the green light sources flooded into her body. The air grew still.
"Theft successful."
The mechanical voice sounded again, accompanied by a constant roaring in her ears. A bright light stabbed down from nowhere. Joanna Kennedy instinctively squeezed her eyes shut. When the light vanished, the first thing she saw was a white ceiling.
"DRIP... DRIP..."
The sound of the IV fluid dripping.
Julie’s joyful, tear-filled voice pulled her from her daze.
"Sere... COUGH, COUGH..." Joanna Kennedy had barely gotten a word out when her throat felt unbearably dry, as if it had been scraped by a razor blade.
Julie immediately brought her a glass of warm water and frantically pressed the call button.
Joanna Kennedy took a few sips and felt a little better. She immediately asked, "Where’s Serena Sutton?"
"Serena Sutton?" Julie’s tone was laced with confusion.
Just then, the door opened, and several doctors walked in. "Miss Kennedy, you’ve just woken up. Are you feeling any discomfort?"
A doctor was holding his equipment, preparing for an examination, but before he could get close, the girl in the bed grabbed his white coat.
Joanna Kennedy asked urgently, "Doctor, was I the only one brought to the hospital?"
...
A hospital room downstairs was quiet, save for the sound of machines. A pale figure was propped up in bed, holding a thermos and taking small sips of something.
Joanna Kennedy remembered that the last time she had seen Serena Sutton, it had also been in a hospital.
Serena Sutton was still drinking her soup. She caught sight of someone standing at the door out of the corner of her eye and assumed it was the young nurse who had bought the chicken soup for her. She was just about to say "Thank you"—
—when she saw who it was. The words caught in her throat. She pressed her lips together lightly and placed the thermos on the nearby table.
After a long moment, Joanna Kennedy walked in, stopping about a meter away from the bed.
The air was silent for a moment before Serena Sutton spoke slowly. "I’m no threat to you now. What are you doing here?"
After speaking, she let out a small laugh, her eyes full of bitterness.
’Lying in this hospital bed for the past two days, I’ve thought about a lot. Why did I end up like this? I was clearly the destined winner from the very beginning...’
’Was it because Simon Lockwood likes Joanna Kennedy? Or because Charles Jennings was lying to me from the start?’
Serena Sutton couldn’t figure it out. But the moment she saw Joanna Kennedy, she understood. It was because of her.
Everything was because of Joanna Kennedy.
"I didn’t expect him to do this." Joanna Kennedy looked at her, her tone earnest. "This isn’t what I wanted."
"It may not be what you wanted, but you still got it, didn’t you?" Serena Sutton’s eyes held a hint of mockery. "What’s the point of the beneficiary saying things like that?"
"..."
Serena Sutton’s face was filled with unconcealed contempt, as if she were looking at a shameless thief.
Joanna Kennedy suddenly didn’t know what to say. It was true. She had indeed stolen Serena Sutton’s "protagonist energy," even if it wasn’t her intention, and even if she was a victim herself.
"...I’ll give it back to you." After a long pause, Joanna Kennedy could only manage to force out that one sentence.
But Serena Sutton just sneered. "Give it back? Can you give Simon Lockwood back to me, too?"
"Joanna Kennedy, you can’t. You’re just a hypocritical, posturing villain."
Serena Sutton said through gritted teeth, the hatred in her eyes nearly spilling over.
She was like an innocent person standing on a moral high ground, condescendingly judging others, believing they had committed an unforgivable mistake.
Joanna Kennedy’s proactive visit, in particular, was a sign of a guilty conscience in her eyes. It only strengthened her conviction that she was the most innocent and pure person in the world, and that all her suffering was caused by Joanna Kennedy.
Joanna Kennedy suddenly felt a bit puzzled. "You know perfectly well that Charles Jennings did all of this. Why are you blaming it all on me?"
"If you hadn’t seduced him, would he have hurt me for you?!" Serena Sutton’s words were sharp and forceful.