Chapter 6
804 Words
Late at night, the cold wind blowing off the coast grew fiercer and fiercer, and the ropes binding Vivian were stretched almost to breaking...
After a whole night, Roman finally ordered his men to pull her back up.
She was thrown at his feet. The man stood with his back to the light, his face dark and gloomy. "Anyone who betrays the Lindsay family deserves to die. You're dead certain I won't have the heart to kill you, aren't you? In that case, there's no need to keep your brother alive either."
Vivian's lips, parched and cracked from lack of water, parted with difficulty, "It really... wasn't me..."
"If you want to kill someone, kill me!" she pleaded for her brother. She pulled herself to her feet with great effort, her hoarse voice trembling.
Roman gave a cold sneer and ordered his men to take her back to the Lindsay Mansion.
In front of the computer screen, he forced Vivian to lift her head.
She saw Aaron lying weakly on a bed, his eyes closed tight.
Simon adjusted the camera to point at himself, and spoke with a grin. "Vivian, I heard you betrayed Roman? Then your brother's going to have a bad time!"
The next second, he lifted the barbed whip in his hand and lashed it hard against Aaron's back.
Vivian's pupils blew wide with shock, and a deafening roar rang in her ears.
She knelt at Roman's feet, pleading abjectly, "I really didn't betray you! Someone must have set me up on purpose... And you can check the hospital security footage! I was the one who donated blood for you... Please, let my brother go!"
Her face was as pale as paper, and the low, pained grunts of her brother echoed in her ears.
Roman stared at her, his gaze as cold as ice. "When I woke up in the hospital, only Charlotte was by my side. The doctor and my bodyguards both said she was the one who saved me. You went begging the Shepherd family for Aaron's sake—what is that if not betrayal?"
He tossed down a photograph; in the photo, Vivian was kneeling in front of the Shepherd Mansion gate.
"No! I didn't! I fainted right after they drew my blood. I don't know what happened after that..." Vivian hoped he'd listen to her.
Roman laughed out of sheer rage, "You think I'm going to believe you?" He ordered his men to hold Vivian down by force, forcing her to watch as Aaron was tortured.
Smack!
Every snap of the whip felt as if it were lashing straight at Vivian's heart.
"Roman! You might as well just kill me!"
"Just kill me!"
Vivian's eyes were practically bursting from her eye sockets with rage, her whole body shaking violently.
"Vivian, I told you before—you will never be allowed to leave me..."
On the screen, while Simon was not paying attention, Aaron gathered every last bit of his strength and smashed a porcelain vessel beside him, then used a sharp shard to slit his own throat.
His ragged, muffled whimpers were drowned out by blood, and the light in his eyes slowly snuffed out...
*****
Simon's cruel voice rang out, "We haven't even had enough fun yet ,and he's already dead — how boring."
As the screen went black, all the blood in Vivian's body seemed to rush to her head, her chest heaving sharply up and down.
"Brother!" She broke free from the bodyguards' hold, lunged at the screen, and shrieked at the top of her lungs, her voice raw.
Standing off to the side, Charlotte said airily, "He died so quickly— that was way too good a deal for you. Vivian, you betrayed Roman, your worthless brother traded his life to save yours. You ought to be down on your knees thanking us."
Vivian smashed a nearby vase in the blink of an eye, grabbed a shard, and charged straight at Charlotte.
Her eyes were blood-red, brimming with icy killing intent.
She would make them pay for his life with their own!
But Roman blocked every deadly strike she threw.
Seeing Charlotte tucked safely in his protective embrace, Vivian drove the shard deep into his arm without the slightest hesitation. The moment blood burst out, she clutched viciously at Charlotte's throat.
Roman released his hold from the jolt of pain, and when he saw Vivian's wild, crazed expression, his heart gave a sharp sudden lurch.
This was the first time she had ever hurt him.
He froze rigid on the spot, unable to move a muscle.
Charlotte's face had turned deep purple from being choked, her features twisted with terror. "H-Help..."
Only when she was on the brink of death did Roman snap back to his senses, and knocked her unconscious from behind.
- Writer
