Chapter 254 Why Did You Do This?

Chapter 254 Why Did You Do This?

She stumbled out of the room and ran straight to Matthew's door, pounding on it hard.

When Matthew opened the door and saw her pale face and shaking body, he rolled his wheelchair out right away. "What happened?"

"There's something outside the window... a face..." Emily's voice was trembling.

Matthew had people check it out. The guards searched the whole villa inside and out, but found nothing.

Emily's window faced a tall plane tree. Its branches swayed in the night wind, casting moving shadows on the glass.

"Miss Johnson probably had a nightmare and mistook the tree shadows for a ghost face," the security captain said, wiping sweat from his forehead.

Matthew sent everyone away and took Emily back to her room himself.

"I'll stay with you tonight," he parked his wheelchair by the bed. "Go to sleep. I'll watch over you."

Emily lay back down, but her eyes stayed wide open. She couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard she tried.

She couldn't figure out what that face was.

She knew she hadn't imagined it. That face had really been pressed against the window, its features twisted in a way that made her skin crawl.

But everyone said they saw nothing, and the cameras caught nothing either.

Was it really just a nightmare and hallucination?

The same thing happened the next night.

When Emily turned off the lights and got ready for bed, she glanced at the window out of habit.

That ghost face appeared again, even closer this time, almost pressed flat against the glass. Its pale skin glowed eerily in the moonlight.

Emily didn't scream this time.

She stared at the face and reached for her phone on the nightstand.

But the moment she looked away, the face vanished. Only the swaying tree shadows remained.

This went on for a whole week. Every night, the same thing.

Emily lost a lot of weight. The dark circles under her eyes got worse, and she couldn't focus at work during the day.

Matthew stayed in her room every night, but the face never showed up when he was there. As soon as he left, it appeared right on time.

Matthew's patience ran out.

On the seventh night, he stayed in Emily's room for a while, then pretended to leave.

After rolling his wheelchair around the corner, he stopped in the dark hallway and waited, holding his breath.

About twenty minutes later, he heard very light footsteps at the end of the hall.

A figure crept up to the window outside Emily's room, crouched down, and pulled a small projector and remote from a backpack.

The projector pointed at the window glass. A pale ghost face appeared on the curtain, looking just like a real face pressed against the window from inside the room.

Matthew suddenly lunged from his wheelchair. His legs were useless, but his arms were still strong. He grabbed the figure's wrist.

"Got you!"

The guards rushed over at the noise. Their flashlights all landed on the person's face.

Grace's face looked deathly pale under the lights, but she still had a careless smile on her lips.

"So it was you." Matthew's voice was ice cold.

The guards pinned Grace to the ground. From her backpack they pulled out the projector, remote, and a stack of printed ghost face pictures.

Grace was taken to the living room. Two guards held her arms, but she didn't struggle. She just tilted her head and looked at Matthew.

"You did this?" Matthew asked.

"So what if I did?" Grace laughed. "I was just scaring her. I didn't hurt her. Are you feeling sorry for her now?"

"Why did you do it?"

"Why?" Grace's voice rose. "If it weren't for her, I would've been Mrs. Baker by now. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have gotten beaten so badly or gone through that painful surgery to change my face."

"Don't forget how you ended up in that wheelchair. You kidnapped someone and kept her well fed and comfortable. You can let that go, but I can't!"

"You said if I saved you, you'd work like a slave for me. Now I'm telling you to get out and never show your face in front of me or her again."

Grace sneered. "What right do you have to make deals with me? Matthew, don't forget—I know all your dirty secrets."

Matthew's fingers tightened hard on the wheelchair armrests.

"If you tell anyone, I'll go to the police and report you. You'll rot in jail," Grace said quietly, but every word hit Matthew like a nail. "I've got nothing left to lose. What do I have to be afraid of? You still have Moore Corp. Want to bet on it?"

The living room went completely silent.

Matthew stared at her for a long time, then waved his hand. "Fine. I can't believe I saved a snake."

"Let her go."

The guards released her. Grace rubbed her sore arms and gave Matthew a smug smile. "That's more like it. We've both come this far—let's not pretend to be good people."

She picked up her backpack from the floor, stuffed the projector and pictures back inside, brushed off the dust, and hummed as she walked back to her room.

Matthew sat in his wheelchair, staring at his legs in silence for a long time.

After Grace got back to her room, the more she thought about it, the angrier she got.

She thought a week of scaring Emily would break her, but the woman only lost some weight and seemed even more energetic than before.

Matthew was still protecting her, even staying up all night in her room.

Why?

Why did everyone protect Emily?

Grace paced her room, teeth clenched, anger burning hotter.

She wasn't going to let this go.

The next afternoon, when Emily came home from work, she ran into Grace at the stair landing.

Grace stood on the stairs, looking down at her.

"Grace?" Emily frowned. "What are you doing here?"

After the ghost face incident, Matthew had told Emily who Grace really was. Emily now knew "Betty" was Grace.

She'd wanted to kick Grace out right away, but Matthew said he'd handle it and told her to stay out of it.

Now this crazy woman was standing right in front of her. Emily instinctively took a half step back.

"Why can't I be here?" Grace tilted her head with a small smile. "This house isn't yours. I can stay as long as I want."

"I haven't settled the score with you for what you did before. You'd better stay away from me."

"Settle the score with me?" Grace's voice sharpened. She walked down the stairs toward Emily. "You ruined my whole life, and you still want to settle the score?"

"Where were you when Tyler beat my face to pieces? What were you doing while I was suffering in that hellhole?"

Looking at Grace's twisted face, Emily felt alarm bells going off in her head.

This woman had completely lost it. A crazy person could do anything.

Emily tried to turn and go downstairs, but Grace was already right in front of her.