Deadly Vortex: Love, Secrets, and Murder

Mrs.'s Garden（4）

11

The next day, I left home.

I told them I was going on a business trip out of town and wouldn't be back for a week.

In fact, I flew to the seaside for a vacation.

I was giving her time, making it more convenient for her to pack up and run away from home.

After years of marriage, I didn't want to witness her stepping into the fire pit with my own eyes.

I knew her too well, even better than she knew herself.

Once she took this step, she would inevitably destroy herself.

She loved me the same way years ago.

That passion and madness, capable of destroying heaven and earth, made her do things like "willing to cut ties with her parents just to be with me."

At that time, saying she would cut ties with her parents might have really meant it.

But she wasn't in a bargaining mood; she was with me with a reckless attitude of "it doesn't matter even if we really cut ties."

It was only because her parents later softened and compromised that we had our subsequent marriage.

Before, it was her parents who pampered her, then it was me who pampered her, with a completely seamless transition in between.

We shielded her from all the pain and harm in this world.

It's precisely because of this that she could live so willfully until today, that she never had to grow up for a single day.

So, even though she's already in her forties now, she still thinks of herself as a passionate young girl.

Before her parents passed away, they asked me to take good care of her, and I thought I would take good care of her until she died or I died.

But I never imagined she would step by step go to such an excessive extent, trampling all love, dignity, and loyalty underfoot, to the point where I had no choice but to get rid of her.

She wanted excitement, she wanted freshness, she wanted young love, so I gave it to her.

I allowed "Madame's Salon" to exist, just to let her fall into another crazy love affair.

I tried one by one, giving her all types of young men.

In the end, she fell in love with Jack, this young upgraded version of me.

She used the same method she used to love me years ago to love Jack.

But she didn't realize that she herself was no longer that youthful Rose in her prime.

And the young boys who could come to "Madame's Salon" were not naive and innocent.

Every one of them was like a wolf.

12

They were either attracted to her hint of mature woman charm out of curiosity, or had ulterior motives towards the Ma family's wealth and status, or wanted to build connections.

But in any case, they weren't looking for love, let alone looking for love with her.

They would never want to be entangled with Rose for long.

But Rose, under the protection of her parents and me, was still as passionately intense as a young girl.

Once she fell in love with someone, under the control of her crazy possessiveness, she was capable of doing anything extreme.

She wouldn't divorce me because she knew very well that I was aware of the existence of "Madame's Salon."

So, she also knew very clearly that I had plenty of evidence of her affairs and illegal activities, which would be very unfavorable for her in a divorce lawsuit.

More importantly, when blinded by love, she wouldn't even think of spending time and energy on such things.

So, she only had two paths to take.

Either she would strike a fatal blow against me, in which case I would send her to prison.

Or, she would give up everything, taking only her love, and run away with her young boy.

If it was the former, prison would be her fate.

If it was the latter, love would be her hell.

A woman nearing fifty and a boy just over twenty, at first they might be able to maintain their relationship on hormonal impulses.

But before long, they would fall into mutual disgust, even hatred.

A boy in his early twenties wouldn't pamper her, spoil her, and protect her everywhere like Rose's parents or I did.

At that time, anything crazy and bloody could happen between them.

Moreover, I heard that there was a third person between them, a third person whom Jack always protected and Rose always hated.

I was really looking forward to seeing what would happen between them.

What kind of revenge is it to use every means to make your wife leave with nothing? That would only make one person suffer, but wouldn't completely destroy a person from body to soul.

And it might dirty your own hands.

I wanted to let her take each step voluntarily into the trap destined for her.

That trap, which was once blocked by her parents, then blocked by me, now had no one to block it for her.

Dying at the hands of the person she thought she loved most, that is true despair.

On the fourth day of my seaside vacation, I received a call from the police.

The police said Rose was dead.

This was not unexpected.

But then the police said Anna was also dead.

My daughter, the only person I cared about, the last bit of light in my life.

She was dead.

13

I rushed back home overnight, and what greeted me was a blood-stained living room.

The police told me what had happened.

It turned out that the third person between Rose and Jack, the "that woman" Rose kept mentioning, was my daughter Anna.

Never mentioning Anna's name, only referring to her as "that woman," this was probably Rose's last bit of shame.

It was also because of this that I didn't discover in my eavesdropping that Anna had already been involved.

Jack originally came to Dan's party with admiration for Anna.

He had been secretly in love with Anna for many years but never dared to pursue her openly.

That day, he finally gathered the courage to come to the party at our house, only to find that Anna didn't appear at the party at all.

Just as he was about to leave, Rose appeared.

He was just a young man in his early twenties, and he had had a few drinks at the party.

How could he resist Rose's various temptations?

So, they had a relationship.

Jack thought it was just a one-night stand, just like the rumors about "Madame's Salon." Jack thought Rose would soon tire of him.

Unexpectedly, Rose fell in love with him, like a madwoman.

What's worse, he only then learned that Anna had also always liked him, and they had been secretly in love with each other for many years.

So, they quickly got together.

This should have been a sweet and beautiful thing, but it put Jack in a painful dilemma.

Jack didn't dare to refuse Rose because he was really afraid Rose would tell Anna about their affair.

He also couldn't tell Anna about this because he was really afraid of losing Anna.

So he could only keep it from Anna and satisfy all of Rose's demands time and time again.

He didn't know how to solve this problem, so he instinctively dragged it on like this.

Until Rose said she wanted to run away with him, to a place where no one knew them and start a new life.

Only then did he realize he couldn't keep compromising like this.

He had to resolve this matter.

So, he pretended to agree with Rose, but secretly planned to leave with Anna.

Anna didn't know why he suddenly wanted to run away and wasn't willing to give up her original life just like that.

He naturally couldn't tell the truth, as that would mean losing Anna.

But if he didn't tell the truth, Anna wouldn't go with him.

When the two were arguing in the living room, Rose came back.

She had already prepared to give up everything and run away with Jack, but she didn't expect Jack had deceived her and didn't show up at their meeting place at all.

She waited in vain at the agreed place, then returned home dejected and lonely, only to stumble upon Anna and Jack in the middle of their argument.

She immediately understood everything.

Rose, in a fit of rage, wanted to tell Anna everything.

If she couldn't have it, no one else could either.

Jack, in an attempt to stop Rose from blurting everything out like a demon, in his panic, grabbed a fruit knife from the coffee table and stabbed her.

Then, another stab.

Until Rose fell to the ground, dead.

Until the carpet in the living room was dyed red with blood.