"Aurelia, someone is here to see you."
The heavy iron door creaked open, spilling light into the room.
Aurelia lay on her side on a half-meter wide single cot, her eye sockets sunk deeply with sickness, her complexion pale, her breathing so light it seemed it could vanish at any moment. As the light suddenly appeared, she squinted her eyes, long adjusted to the dark, her brow furrowed with a hint of irritation from the disturbance.
"Look at you, somewhere between life and death!"
Eleanor looked at her with gloating satisfaction, caressing her seven-month pregnant belly. Though her face was gentle, an intense and malicious expression crossed it.
"The doctor says I'm having a boy, and Mason loves boys. Does it remind you of your miscarried child?"
Aurelia stared at her coldly, saying nothing.
Eleanor was accustomed to her silence, continuing to speak smugly, "Mason married you just to get the Shaw Family. Did you think he truly loved you? You lost because you were too naive, too trusting."
"Do you know what happened to your first child?"
Aurelia suddenly turned, her eyes widening as she stared at Eleanor in disbelief, bloodshot and furious.
Eleanor's mood lifted, and she sneered, "I laced the milk you drank daily with musk. I laughed behind your back as you drank it without suspicion, foolishly."
"And the way you became addicted was also my design. I got you drunk, paid a gang to inject drugs into you, making sure you became hooked. Though I didn't expect you to successfully kick the addiction, what does it matter? I just made sure you got hooked again, unable to stop even if you wanted!"
"Why are you doing this?" Aurelia screamed, lunging at Eleanor, her withered hands reaching for her throat, "What have I ever done to you to deserve having my family destroyed, my reputation ruined!"
"Slap!" A crisp smack sounded.
Aurelia's frail, corroded body fell to the ground, her eyes filled with hateful tears.
Eleanor pulled out a handkerchief, meticulously wiping her fingers, looking down disdainfully at the woman groveling at her feet like a worthless ant.
"Is this all you can take?"
She sneered, casually tossing the handkerchief aside, "There's something even more hateful. Do you know how your father died? Did you really think it was a brake failure accident?"
The handkerchief landed on Aurelia's face, her expression contorted instantly as a dreadful possibility rose in her mind. Struggling to rise from the ground, she tried to spring at Eleanor, intent on killing her. But before she could, a bodyguard pinned her down, rendering her immobile.
Eleanor laughed, delighted, "If we don't kill them, how will we get the Shaw Family's estate?
You will never know how much Mason hates the Shaw Family, how he wishes for their complete demise!
He will never love you, because your surname is Shaw!
You're Balthazar Shaw's daughter!
Do you know what your father did to Mason? He..."
Suddenly, Eleanor stopped, laughing ambiguously.
"No, I won't tell you. Even if you die, I want you to die in ignorance, unable to rest in peace."
"Eleanor, you won't die peacefully! Neither of you will!"
Aurelia glared at her with bloodshot eyes, her throat growling in hateful rage. Her body shook with anger, her fingers clawing at the floor, leaving ten deep, bloody streaks.
She had never imagined that the ones who killed her father, ruined her, and imprisoned her in a rehab center, tortured day and night, were her husband and best friend!
Aurelia longed to slap Eleanor, and equally to slap herself.
For being unable to recognize people, for her stupidity, causing the Shaw family to crumble, her unborn child to die, and herself to be locked away in a rehab center, subject to endless torment.
She hated! Hated Eleanor, hated Mason, and hated her own naivety even more.
Looking at the tiny window, a sliver of light slanted in, a glimmer of hope and deep despair flickered in Aurelia's eyes.
If she ever had the chance to get out, she would make everyone who harmed her and her family pay dearly!
Eleanor approached her with a syringe in hand, squeezed out the air, tapped it, smiling softly yet chillingly.
"What are you doing!" Aurelia fixed a cautious gaze on the syringe reflecting cold light.
To prevent her from overcoming the addiction, Eleanor personally injected her every day.
Yet today, Aurelia felt a chill creep up from her spine to her scalp.
"Only the dead can keep secrets. In the rehab center, overdosing is a common cause of death." Eleanor explained patiently for once.
"Rest assured, Aurelia. I'll spend your money, sleep with your man, and live well, as for you? Head to the underworld!"
The sharp needle pierced the skin, the body itching unbearably as if thousands of insects were gnawing at the flesh.
Aurelia's limbs convulsed uncontrollably, sour white foam burning her throat as she vomited, the darkness in her vision becoming increasingly blurred, she could faintly feel life slipping away.
Why?
Why do this to her?
Why was it her most trusted people?
So unwilling.
...to just leave like this!
Dad...
Aurelia's body gradually lost its warmth, endless darkness surged in, finally devouring even the last bit of consciousness...