She’s obviously in shock. That’s why she’s overthinking things.
Before I could take a step, she grabbed me and shook her head vehemently. “You can’t go, Sienna. Marcus wants to kill me. You can’t leave me!”
With my brows still furrowed, I reasoned, “If Marcus really wanted to kill you, there are a million other ways to do it. Why would he choose this method? What happened just now was just an accident. Don’t think too much. I’ll go get you some water now.”
I pried her fingers off my arm and went to the supermarket. My chest tightened uncomfortably at Sally’s claims. Indeed, there seemed to be a cloud hanging over Marcus lately, but this didn’t mean that he hated Sally to the point of wanting to kill her.
After buying a bottle of water, I was about to go back when I spotted a black Maybach speeding toward the place where Sally was seated.
Everything happened so quickly that I couldn’t react fast enough. All of a sudden, Anthony came out of nowhere to protect Sally.
My breath caught in my throat and I dropped the bottle of water before running toward Anthony, instinctively shielding him.
Glimpsing the person at the driver’s seat, my eyes widened in terror. Marcus? Why is he…
Perhaps he didn’t expect that I would rush over at the very last second, he abruptly spun the steering wheel and swerved sharply to avoid me, ramming his car directly into the traffic light at a junction.
Seeing the car coming to a halt, I released a sigh of relief and turned back to look at Sally who was paralyzed with fear.
“I told you he wants to kill me-”
Bang! A loud crash assaulted my ears, interrupting Sally’s quaking voice.
My entire body froze and devastation tore through my chest.
Somehow, I managed to muster the courage to look back at Marcus who had supposedly stopped his car safely.
At that moment, he was lying on the ground drenched in blood that was quickly pooling all around him.
Why did he come out of the car?
My knees buckled and my body was drained of all strength. I fell to my knees and stared at him, I wanted to crawl over to him but I don’t have the strength to do so.
How could this happen?
He was clearly safe just now. Why did he get down? Why did he cross the road? Why… Why is this happening?
“Ahhh…” With tears welling in her eyes, Sally shrieked in horror when she saw Marcus lying on the ground.
Anthony picked me up from the ground, but I tugged on his shirt, using every fiber in my body to force words through the lump in my throat. “Send him to the hospital!”
Anthony placed me on the bench while a crowd surrounded Marcus whose blood had already stained a large section of the ground.
As I stared at him, I noticed he was looking at me while moving his mouth, but I didn’t know what he was saying. All I could feel was the stabbing pain in my chest that was so palpable I could barely breathe through it.
Anthony approached him and reached out to check his breathing, then turned to look at me with a grave expression.
I got up and walked toward him with what remaining strength I possessed. Marcus lifted his hand weakly to grab mine. The moment he opened his mouth, blood poured out from the corners of his lips.
I shook my head and looked at him through my tears. “Don’t talk, Marcus. You’ll be fine. Help is on the way.”
He struggled to force a smile onto his lips that had turned bloodless along with his face. “Sienna, everything’s over now. In our next lives, I’ll meet you first, and you’ll… fall in love with me first.”
I couldn’t seem to find my voice. My chest felt congested and there was a buzzing sound in my ears. I forced myself to choke out, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so selfish. I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have…”
I shouldn’t have set him aside when he lost both his parents almost at the same time. I shouldn’t have disregarded his feelings and deliberately kept a distance from him. I shouldn’t have ignored his emotions and the faith that kept him going. I was wrong.
He smiled again as more blood trickled down the sides of his mouth. “It’s okay. I know things have been tough on you, so live… well.”
Watching his eyes flutter shut, despair crashed into me. I had already lost count of how many times I watched my loved ones leave my side one by one.
And I was always the culprit who either directly or indirectly caused their deaths. I was clearly the one who deserved to get hurt, who deserved to be punished, and who deserved to die. But in the end, it was always someone else who took my place.
I stared at Marcus’ lifeless body, then turned to see Anthony’s impassive expression before glancing at Sally who had a disdainful look on her face. Lastly, I swept my gaze over the passersby that had gathered around and were engaged in heated discussions.
Never before had I felt that the world was such an unsympathetic and cruel place. My heart felt like it had been stabbed by a hundred knives and it hurt to even breathe.
Why do people die so quickly? I haven’t even digested his last words or recalled what happened just before this, and he’s already gone?
When the medical staff carried Marcus’ body from the ground, I abruptly shoved Anthony away and held tightly onto Marcus’ hand, preventing them from taking him away. However, Anthony easily overpowered me and enveloped me in his arms before saying in a crisp voice, “Calm down, Sienna. He’s already dead.”
As I stared at the pool of blood on the ground, heavy resentment grew in my heart. I looked at an ashen-faced Sally and articulated my words, “The person who should’ve died is you, isn’t it, Sally?”
She was so shocked she staggered backward. With a pale complexion, she looked at me in disbelief. “What did you say, Sienna?”
“The person who should’ve died is you, isn’t it? But why are you still alive? You’re the one who pushed Sharon to her death. You’re the one who used Benjamin and Sharon’s deaths to kill Marcus. It’s all you, from the beginning until the end. You’re the real murderer and the one who deserves to die the most.”
“What nonsense are you spouting, Sienna?” Sally widened her eyes and shot me an incredulous stare before exclaiming, “You’re crazy. You’re absolutely crazy!”
I felt rancor toward this woman and couldn’t help but find her laughable. “You personally sent the White family to their death—three lives in total. Aren’t you afraid of retribution? You were the one who forced them to their deaths!”
“I didn’t!” Sally roared. “Sienna, I won’t pursue this matter since you’re Anthony’s wife, so you’d better stop running your mouth or I’ll exercise my right to sue you for slander and false accusations.”
My lips curled into a sneer. “Sure, go ahead. As long as you can sleep peacefully at night instead of being haunted by your conscience; as long as you can let go of those three lives, go ahead and sue me!”
Sally’s chest heaved from so much anger that she couldn’t speak for a long time as she glared at me. Finally, she sneered. “Why are you so sad that Marcus is dead, Sienna? Are you in love with him? Are you heartbroken? Are you reluctant to part with him? Don’t forget whose wife you are and what you should and should not say.”
Hah!
It’s so crazy how people can be so shameless.
It started snowing heavily just then. Large snowflakes fell from the gloomy sky and onto the glaring pool of crimson blood on the ground. Before long, it was covered with a layer of white snow so thick that I could barely make out the blood beneath it, as though everything that happened earlier was only a bad dream.
Anthony brought me back to the villa and never once spoke during the whole journey. Neither did I have the urge to talk as the image of the pool of blood Marcus left behind weighed on my heart and mind along with self-blame and guilt.
If only I had noticed the changes in him sooner and realized that he had lost faith, I could’ve ignored the gossips and Anthony’s jealousy to accompany him through this period of time. If I did, perhaps things wouldn’t have turned out this way for him.
It’s because of me. I was selfish and too guarded. It’s all my fault!
The night sky darkened to an inky black and the snow outside was getting heavier. My mind kept replaying the scene of Marcus closing his eyes for the last time.
It was so maddening that I went downstairs and out to the yard, wanting to use the cold winter to drive away the resentment and pain overwhelming my heart.
But there was no way to erase the guilt buried deep within me. The harder I tried, the more violently the memories of Marcus’ kindness flooded my mind, like raging torrents threatening to pull me under.
The guilt in my heart grew as though in correspondence with the falling snow. Molly came out with an umbrella. Seeing me covered in so much snow, she persuaded in a gentle tone, “Madam, let’s go inside. The weather’s too cold. You might get frostbite like this.”
I looked at her in a daze and broke into a peculiar smile. Shaking my head at her, I murmured feebly, “Molly, I’m so tired of living.”
She was taken aback for a moment, then quickly draped a coat she had brought out for me over my shoulders before reaching out to tug on my hand. “Don’t say such things, child!”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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