The servants think he sounds like an insane man; he whirls on them and screams, “What the hell are you all doing standing there? Call a doctor. Now!”
Leilani slowly pulls herself from her trance.
“It’s okay. He didn’t hurt me,” she whispers.
Lucky didn’t attack her; he came for the beef. Afterward, he backed away from her. Shaken by his attack, she grabbed a lighter from her pocket and waved the flame in his face to discourage him from approaching her again. She knows that animals fear fire, but she had no idea Waylen’s lighter would save her life.
“You’re not hurt?” Waylen asks again.
“You sound disappointed,” she murmurs.
“Don’t even joke about that,” he growls.
Dr. Walters appears by the door, carrying his kit. Several trained nurses follow him. David knows that Waylen doesn’t want him touching Leilani, so he orders a nurse to examine her for injuries. The nurse checks Leilani quickly and thoroughly and whispers something in David’s ear.
David heaves a sigh of relief. Though Leilani is covered in blood, she’s mostly unharmed.
David turns to Waylen, “She wasn’t seriously hurt. She has some scr.a.p.es, I’ll see that they’re attended to and I’ll give her a rabies vaccination just in case.”
“Are you sure?” Waylen asks, still worried, “She’s covered in blood.”
“Mrs. Bamford doesn’t have any serious visible wounds,” the nurse reassures Waylen, “I believe it’s cow’s blood.”
Waylen is puzzled, “How did you get covered in cow’s blood?”
Leilani tightens her hand around the metal lighter. The metallic stench of blood fills her nose and makes her feel faint.
She turns and points at Leonie, “I think we’ll have to ask Miss Summers.”
Leonie freezes for a second but she quickly regains her composure, “How should I know? I’m not holding the tray.”
Leonie glances meaningfully at the maid who was carrying the tray. The maid is shocked and confused. She has no idea why she fell so suddenly, but she has the distinct impression that she tripped on something.
“Did Leonie trip me?” the maid wonders, “But who would believe my word against hers? Leonie is a beloved guest invited by Waylen’s grandmother, and I don’t have a shred of evidence against her.”
The maid drops to her knees before Waylen and Leilani, “I’m so so sorry Mr. and Mrs. Bamford, please forgive me.”
Leilani closes her eyes.
She looks at Leonie who stares back as if she’s challenging her. Leilani recognizes Leonie’s gloating smirk, but she knows there’s no evidence against the other woman. The maid will take the blame for Leonie’s actions.
“Get her out of here. You know what to do,” Waylen orders ruthlessly.
The bodyguards drag the maid from the room.
The smell of blood is making Leilani feel ill, and she isn’t interested in accusing Leonie of harming her. She just wants to take a long, hot shower.
Waylen addresses the other maids severely, “Haven’t I told you that no one is allowed in this room?”
The maids pale and lower their heads.
“We couldn’t stop her,” they whisper.
“They had nothing to do with it,” Leilani says, “I insisted.”
“Lucky wasn’t hostile to Mrs. Bamford,” one maid explains, “Actually, it seemed like he liked her. It’s just—well, I don’t know if I should say.”
The maid hesitates. She doesn’t want to betray Leilani, but she knows Waylen will have her punished severely if he thinks she’s withholding information.
“Just say it,” Waylen orders.
The maid glances at Leilani guiltily, then says, “We saw Mrs. Bamford burning Lucky’s hair when we ran in. Lucky was sitting on the ground and he wasn’t attacking her.”
“What?” Waylen roars.
He kneels to check Lucky and finds a small singed patch of fur under the dog’s neck. The patch is only visible when Lucky lifts his head.
Waylen feels himself slipping into a rage, “Were you burning my dog?”
“Yes,” Leilani admits, “And the maid was right. He wasn’t attacking me while I did it.”
“Is this about the divorce again?” Waylen asks, furious.
Leilani has already threatened to cheat on him with every man she can find and irritate his family until he allowed the divorce. Now she’s torturing his dog?
Waylen’s expression turns frightfully icy. He admits that he’d felt the urge to kill Lucky when he saw Leilani covered in blood. He immediately felt guilty for thinking that way when she told him she was okay. Now he feels ready to kill her. He’s never felt so unstable in his life.
“It seems like Leilani will go to any lengths to get away from me,” he thinks sourly.
Leilani remains quiet. She didn’t burn Lucky to upset Waylen, but if he believes she did it might help her get the divorce.
Her silence incites his anger, “I think you need discipline badly.”
A chill seems to enter the room. The servants feel terrified for Leilani. Usually, Waylen can control his feelings, but he feels dangerously out of control. He’s afraid he might hurt her if she stays near him a second longer.
He lowers his voice, “Don’t ever come to this place again. Now get lost.”
Leilani wouldn’t dream to stay after being ordered not to. She walks past Leonie and fights the urge to smack the gloating look off her face.
“Waylen is really mad at me—it’s the first time he’s ordered me away like this in days,” Leilani thinks, “But this is a wake-up call. I’ve been getting careless and I’ve almost let myself believed that he genuinely cares for me. That’s dangerous.”
She tries to strengthen the iron wall she put around her heart, but she finds that it’s still rather weak. Waylen’s eyes darken as she walks away.
Lucky slowly trots up to Waylen and rubs against his leg. Waylen orders the vet to carefully inspect the wound, and with his master present, the dog allows the vet to approach him.
“Aside from the slight burn around the neck, he’s totally fine,” the vet says, “He’s caught a virus and we’ve given him a shot, but it seems his appetite has already returned.”
Waylen orders the vet and servants to leave the room and kneels to rub the dog’s head.
“Why wouldn’t you let the vet take a look at you before, boy?” he asks the dog.
“Sir, I have the video ready,” Robert says.
Robert finds it odd that the dog would behave so gently around Leilani.
“Is this the same dog that growls and snaps at everyone but Waylen?” Robert thinks, “He doesn’t even allow me to get close to him.”
Waylen opens an app on his phone and plays the surveillance footage. He watches Lucky spring at Leilani, but he doesn’t seem to hurt her. He only wants the meat off her body. Lucky presses her to the ground and seems to inadvertently scratch her arms in his frenzy for the meat. After he finishes snapping up the slices of beef, he gets off and licks his chops.
It’s the first time that Lucky hasn’t been hostile to a stranger. Then Leilani gets up, picks up the lighter, and burns Lucky.
Waylen doesn’t want to watch the video any longer. He doesn’t care what Leilani did or said after burning the dog. The point is, she cruelly burnt his beloved pet.
“Maybe Mrs. Bamford has her reasons,” Robert suggests.
He has never seen Waylen so agitated, but he knows how much the dog means to Waylen. Waylen has had the dog for ten years, and he raised him as a puppy.
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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