Chapter 247 Heart Lock
William did not like the new mornings at all.
After Isabella died, every single morning, he had to see that cold corpse on the bed.
Every time his hand touched that lifeless skin, he was reminded again that Isabella was truly dead.
But at night, he kept dreaming.
Ever since the day Isabella jumped from upstairs, he would dream of her alive, over and over again.
Those dreams grew longer and longer.
Every dark night, Isabella was always far away from him in his dreams.
William would chase that figure every time.
But even in his dreams, he could not catch up with her.
He watched his past self again and again, pushing Isabella into the flames.
He could not change anything, could only watch Isabella walk step by step toward the abyss.
He could not change the ending, and he could not escape these dreams either.
The nights were too long, and the dreams lasted too long.
He watched helplessly as Isabella's husband, in the role of an abuser, personally destroyed every moment of Isabella's hope.
The smile on William's face could last for a very long time and would not disappear even when his muscles went stiff.
He was amazed that he not only had a talent for torturing people, but was also a master of fake smiles.
His heart was getting harder and harder.
Today, the overpass was more chaotic than ever.
In all the noise, people's hunger for money and flesh was barely hidden.
Their sour-smelling clothes and filthy skin were completely worthless in this world.
Wherever they went, they were met with eye-rolls and disgust.
Only here did William give them a reason to exist.
To stir up their excitement, William even had someone change Isla into a set of revealing lingerie.
Thin silk that barely covered anything, heavy makeup, fishnet stockings on her legs, and gold high heels she was not used to wearing.
After they were done dressing her up, she really did look more like a high-priced prostitute than before.
From any angle, there was no way for these homeless men to be picky.
The current Isla was no longer a cheap hooker from the alley.
She had been upgraded. William decided she was worth a hundred dollars.
Even though the perfume he had Dylan prepare for her already cost more than that.
The moment the train's metal container was opened, this godmother and goddaughter inside had already been dressed up, ready to welcome their breeding ritual.
Isla still had a trace of shame left.
Back at the Spencer family's house, her heart had already gone numb and forgotten what shame meant.
But this outfit, this makeup, still sent ripples through her heart that had been like dead water.
William was turning her into a prostitute.
What he wanted to destroy was not only her body, but also her mind.
Before the last bit of resistance in her heart was shattered, William would not stop.
Isla could not help thinking about those days at the Spencers' villa.
She wondered how her last surviving daughter had made it through all of that.
If, back then, she had not interfered with Benjamin and had given Isabella even a little bit of a mother's care,
would the ending have been different?
Maybe they could have become the only family that truly relied on each other.
Isla's hands covered her private parts. She did not dare get out of the car.
Her reaction was exactly what William wanted to see.
He wanted to break everyone in the same way he had broken Isabella.
If Isla gave in or died too quickly, he would actually feel disappointed.
William watched everyone closely, carving their expressions into his heart.
This was a private ledger that Isabella would never see.
It recorded every detail of how the guilty paid for their sins.
Compared with Isla, Juniper was much more bold.
She had once needed someone to drag her forward.
But this time, Juniper actually jumped down from the truck on her own.
She knew she could not escape, and she knew that begging was useless.
So she would not have any foolish fantasies like Isla anymore.
She began to look away from the details that caused her pain and instead, in that pain, tried to find things that could make her happy.
At last, she understood that since she could not escape or hide, she might as well enjoy it openly.
Resisting would only bring her more physical torment.
When those iron whips landed on her body, she had truly worried she would bleed to death.
Juniper touched the scabs on her back.
Dozens of dense scars that she could not see, only her hands could feel them.
If this had been before, she would never have dared wear backless clothes again.
That would have exposed her imperfections.
Now she no longer cared.
Because on the yacht, she had already lost the last of her dignity.
She had no bottom line left.
Now she was Rusty, William's Rusty.
Although there was still a trace of stubbornness in her heart, unwilling to be a pet at Isabella's feet,
Juniper could feel that day was not far away.
Even so, her smile still froze for a moment when she saw another version of herself.
In that instant, countless indescribable thoughts flooded her heart.
That was Lester. Following the doctor's instructions, in order to maintain the result of the sex reassignment surgery,
after the operation, Lester's genitals needed a long cylindrical object to keep the opening from closing.
So he had to come to the overpass every day to enjoy the thoughtful post-surgery service William had prepared for him.
Although he rejected this surgery from head to toe,
that very rejection gave William a powerful sense of satisfaction.
He drew an unprecedented sense of achievement from Lester's pain.
William felt that all his past business successes were nothing compared to Lester's suffering.
The more Lester fought against it, the more motivated William became.
Today was the first time Lester and Juniper had met after returning to the country.
When she saw that bald head and those two ugly ears, she could not help laughing out loud.
As if that laughter could wipe away the depression and pain of recent days.
She had long known that William would not let her go. After all, during those days, she and he had been a pair of inseparable accomplices.
He knew all her plans and knew that behind that harmless face, she hid a vicious heart.
"You stand out even more than before."
"Those two ears really suit you."
That rough, familiar voice almost made Juniper lose her balance.
That was her face, the face she had when she was still beautiful.
And those ears that had not been cut off.
They had all belonged to her, her flawless past.
With this face, she had deceived William and had almost become Mrs. Spencer.
But every time she was about to succeed, there was always someone blocking her way,
making it impossible for her to cross that wall.
Juniper stared blankly at the drastically changed Lester. Once, she had been so beautiful and dazzling. Now, even Isla called her a monster, an ugly monster.
The hatred buried deep in Juniper's heart, her jealousy of Isabella, had been hidden so well.
Even she had thought she had let go of everything and accepted her fate calmly.
But this face broke that lock, took out her heart again, and held it up for her to examine.
She could not deceive herself anymore.
She was still jealous of Isabella. She still resented Isabella for turning her into what she was now.