When she found him still laying there in the morning, she thought that he must be tired since he always woke earlier than she did.
She gingerly got out of bed to not wake him, scrunching up her hair nonchalantly and went to brush her teeth.
Suddenly, she noticed Diarmuid standing by the door, staring straight at her.
Abigail turned and saw the dark circles under his eyes, seemingly due to not sleeping the entire night.
“Couldn’t sleep?” she mumbled, bubbles foaming out of her mouth.
Diarmuid was left thinking who else in the world could sleep so soundly and heartlessly like her.
Still, he suddenly snorted coldly and turned to leave.
Abigail was actually stunned.
Did he just snort at her?
Abigail asked, ‘Did I upset you, Diarmuid?”
She was certainly mystified. What was he getting upset about out of the blue?
Meanwhile, Diarmuid had returned to bed and pulled his blanket over himself.
Abigail raised a brow when she saw that after she was done washing up.
Did he get up on the wrong side of the bed, or develop some sort of mental disorder?
“Aren’t you going to have breakfast?”
Diarmuid pulled the blanket over himself, ignoring her!
His childlike behavior amused her, but she said, “I have to go-I’m meeting someone today, and I’m leaving soon after breakfast.”
Diarmuid sat up right then, glaring straight at her. “Who are you meeting?”
‘A plastic surgeon for my scars,” Abigail replied.
‘Fine. Go,” Diarmuid said, clearly heaving a sigh in relief before lying down again.
He did not sleep last night at all, and certainly needed the sleep now.
Abigail walked up to the bed and pulled his blanket over his shoulders. ‘ Sweet dreams.”
As she turned and headed downstairs, however, Diarmuid suddenly could not sleep again.
He washed up and went downstairs too, and Abigail was left staring at him, puzzled. “Not going to sleep in?”
Sheryl was putting breakfast on the table when she saw the dark circles under his eyes. “Had a long night?”
Diarmuid eyed Abigail. “There’s a tough nut that needs cracking.”
‘Work is important, but your health is too,” Sheryl said in concern. “Why don’t you come home earlier tonight? I’ll make you something good-get your body replenished.”
‘Thank you.” Diarmuid smiled.
Sheryl grinned broadly.
Abigail and Diarmuid left in the same car after breakfast, with Abigail saying, “You didn’t have to. Our chauffeur can take me.”
“I’ll drive you,” Diarmuid said with an enigmatic look, and Abigail left it at that.
She did not dare to upset him since he had been behaving weirdly since last night, and she sat quietly in the car without a word. Soon, the car arrived at the hospital and Abigail alighted.
“See you.”
Diarmuid then remembered the diary and he felt a stuffy sensation over his chest.
He drove out without a word, leaving the stinking fumes in his wake.
Abigail did a double take, and creased her brow.
“What’s gotten into you, Diarmuid Althoff?”
Why was he being so volatile?
As Diarmuid arrived at his office, James Cross followed him and briefed him about the latest developments.
Once he was done with work, he asked, “What do we do with lan Althoff now?”
They could not keep holding him at Blue Hill Asylum now that the location was compromised.
“I thought he’s already gone nuts?” Diarmuid asked in amusement.
‘That’s what your grandfather said, and he looks that way to me as well,” James replied. “I’ve even asked the asylum director, and he’s saying that being exposed for nutjobs over such a long time left him the same.”
Diarmuid, however, did not think it would happen that soon.
“Let’s pay him a visit.”
James had yet to find a place to keep lan after recapturing him at the airport, and he had simply locked lan in a storeroom at the basement of Twinrise’s office building.
They took an elevator downstairs, opening the door to the windowless room, stacked with old, unusable office furniture and out- of-fashion equipment.
The only light was a little white light bulb dangling from the room.
lan had become skinny and his cheeks sunken. His hair was unusually tidy since Henry had someone trim it along with his beard after he got him out of the asylum.
In fact, he looked homeless when the old man got him out, and he only looked less haggard after they cleaned him up.
However, he was behaving like he had really lost his marbles, tugging at a rope as he sat on the floor, biting it from time to time and giggling crazily.
Diarmuid had James bring a chair to sit before Abigail, crossing his legs elegantly as he did.
‘Did you think I’d release you if you kept feigning insanity, lan Althoff? No. I won’t give you your freedom even if you’re really crazy.”
lan simply laughed stupidly as he kept chewing at the rope, though there was a brief flash in his eyes as he lowered his head!
At the same time, Diarmuid continued, “You will only ever lose to me, lan Althoff! Don’t think pretending to be insane will get you past me.”
Pausing, he then added with dripping contempt, “Do you know why you’ve lost? Because you’re a fucking idiot!”
lan’s eyes welled with test then, his crazed laughter turning shriller in turn from obvious restraint.
Diarmuid simply leaned forward and kept trampling over his dignity. “Look at you, can’t even protect your own woman and have her suffer with you.
Could you even call yourself a man? Even tramps can beat you now.”
“Hehe, you want a bite too?” lan held the rope at Diarmuid’s face, true to the fashion of a nutcase.
Diarmuid narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think you’re crazy.”
lan guffawed. “You’re crazy. You’re crazy.”
“This isn’t going to work in the long run,” James told Diarmuid quietly then. “We need a better place to keep him.”
Diarmuid inhaled deeply then, and thought that lan really had a high tolerance that he would not flip out even after all that.
It seemed that being locked up did him some good, as he honed his patience!
‘It’s fine. The old man wants me to free him, doesn’t he? He can have his wish.”
James’s eyes darted between them in uncertainty, but quickly caught Diarmuid’s intention and said, “Of course, sir. Locking him up will be a waste of human resource and money, so we should just cripple his limbs and cut off his tongue instead. He can’t do a thing if he can’t speak or write, and we won’t have to worry about our backs leaving what’s left of him with your grandfather.’
“Well put.” Diarmuid grinned. “Let’s go with that.”
lan was willing to endure for the sake of survival and freedom-but not as a cripple!
Was there even a point living like that?!
“Diarmuid Althoff! I’ll kill you!”
His eyes bulged so widely in an angry glare they could pop out right then, and he lunged forward, intent on bringing Diarmuid down with him!
Diarmuid, however, knew that he was faking it all along, and was just saying all that just so that lan would blow his own cover.
Naturally, it also meant he was prepared since he entered the room.
The instant lan darted forward, he kicked at lan in return, sending him flying through the air and slamming into the foot of a table so violently the chairs on top tipped over, crashing down on him.
Floored right then, he curled into a ball from agony!
“Weren’t you supposed to be crazy?” Diarmuid laughed coolly. “Revealed your true colors, haven’t you?”
lan glared at him with bloodshot eyes and inconsolable hatred. “Diarmuid…!!!”
Diarmuid simply looked down upon him in disdain as if he were an ant.
James actually sighed in relief, and quietly said, “I almost bought it… He really can put up an act. Once our guard slipped and we allowed him to flee, who knows what sinister things he would get up to.’
Meanwhile, Abigail was meeting the doctor Jeff Cartman-her colleague at Mead Clinic-introduced her to.
The doctor was actually quite famous and known for his exceptional ability, and Abigail actually had to make an appointment.
Arriving outside the doctor’s office, she knocked on the door.
‘Come in,” a deep voice called out.
Abigail did so and the doctor looked up from his monitor to look at her. “Jeff introduced you, right?”
As Abigail nodded, the doctor did a double take when he saw her face.
Familiarity appeared in his usual calmness, which he usually kept for patients.
Pulling off his mask, he asked, “Jane Tanner?”
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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