Chapter 303 I Really Look Forward to It
Isla couldn’t get a word out.
Staring at Benjamin lying in the hospital bed with his eyes closed, Isla’s heart twisted in conflict.
The caregiver stood nearby, already stripped down, looking at Isla helplessly, not knowing what to do.
Dylan leaned against the doorway, glancing at the security guards outside.
The bodyguards had already blocked the entrance. No outsider would be allowed in to disturb William or ruin his mood.
William turned on the camcorder himself. He toyed with it in his hands, waiting quietly.
He wasn't in any hurry, because he was sure Isla would go through with it.
If she refused, he had other ways to force her.
When it came to making people suffer, he was always this confident.
So much so that every single day Isabella spent by his side wore her down and broke her.
Isla kept staring at Benjamin without moving.
Her mind kept drifting back to how they had first met.
She thought of the proud smile on Benjamin's face when she gave birth to Beatrice, and then to Isabella.
She still remembered his hesitation whenever she treated Isabella badly.
He had tried to talk her out of it. She just never listened.
By then, she had already fallen under Juniper's spell.
Isla shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut.
Her eyelashes grew wet. Her shoulders trembled slightly.
She kept shaking her head, biting down hard on her lower lip.
She bit through her lip, but still couldn't bring herself to move.
Even though she had already betrayed this broken family.
Under that overpass, those homeless men had violated her.
That was the debt she had to pay.
William was a monster. He knew every shameful detail of her past.
He was punishing her for the mistakes she had made, in the most evil way possible.
Those mistakes could never be undone.
Because both of her daughters were dead.
And even Benjamin had been put in this hospital bed by the people Juniper had sent, in a staged car accident.
Now she was the only one left in this family still alive and healthy.
Isla shook her head over and over. She should have died long ago.
She had no right to be alive.
Why, why was she the one still living?
She wished with all her heart she could trade places with Benjamin.
She wished she had been the one in that accident.
Then she wouldn't have to face the truth. She wouldn't have to face William's punishment.
William stood there with a smile on his lips, turning the camcorder over in his hands like it was some kind of toy, running his fingers over every button.
He didn't push Isla. He just waited.
He had all the time in the world.
Isla finally raised her head, her eyes wet with tears, looking at William.
"I'll do it."
William's lips curled up. He steadied the camcorder and pointed the lens at Isla.
Isla's raspy voice broke the silence in the hospital room.
"You have to keep your word."
William said lightly, "A game this fun? Of course I'll want to play it again."
What he meant was clear — she would see Benjamin tomorrow.
But the price was that this game of betrayal would keep repeating itself.
Isla said nothing. She took off her long trench coat.
She was actually embarrassed, covering her chest and the space between her legs with her hands.
She stood there, glancing over at Benjamin every now and then.
She was afraid he might wake up at any moment. She didn't know how she would ever explain this to him.
How had she become this person?
But thankfully, Benjamin's eyes stayed closed.
There was no sign he was waking up.
Isla wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
William's voice, smooth and dark as the devil's, drifted over to her.
"Still embarrassed?"
"Can someone like you actually feel shame?"
"Under that overpass, with all those men—didn't you enjoy it?"
"Stop it!" Isla squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head.
That helpless feeling hit her like suddenly finding herself naked in the middle of a busy street, with people walking past and staring.
They pointed. They whispered.
"I never enjoyed any of it. You forced me to do that."
"I'm not — I'm not that kind of woman."
Isla's reaction excited William.
He held up the camcorder, zooming in on her face, catching every expression.
After Juniper died, he had thought the game was over.
But he never expected that after Juniper was gone, Isla would start fighting back.
Again and again, she had clawed her way up from the bottom of that pit, trying to escape the hell William had built for her.
William didn't like that. He would not allow Isla to live happily and in peace.
That would be his failure.
William no longer had any intention of dying.
He was going to drag Isla's soul back into that pit and seal off every way out of it.
Block every path she might use to climb back up.
The harder she fought, the more resistance she showed, the more fired up he became.
Even he hadn't expected it—Isla's spirit was stronger than Juniper's.
That was a good thing.
It meant he could break her more completely.
William kept his tone light and easy.
"You are exactly that kind of woman."
"You're selfish. You abandoned your own daughter to save yourself."
"You betrayed your family, sleeping with other men behind your husband's back. You're nothing but a dirty woman."
"Your face is just as ugly as your heart."
"Stop pretending."
"I figured out exactly who you are a long time ago."
William spoke slowly. His words were like arrows, hitting Isla in the heart one after another.
Isla's hands still covered herself. She kept shaking her head, denying it, pushing back with words that had no strength behind them.
"No. I'm not that kind of woman."
"You forced me into all of this."
"This isn't who I really am."
William let out a short, cold laugh.
"The year Beatrice turned five, when you left your own daughter behind—did I force you to do that too?"
Isla's heart stopped cold.
She felt like an invisible hand had clamped around her throat. Breathing became harder and harder.
That hand gave her nowhere to run.
It ripped off the scab she had grown over the wound and ground salt and pepper into the raw flesh underneath.
Isla had nothing left to say. She just kept shaking her head.
William's gaze moved slowly to the caregiver.
He looked at the man, saw him staring down at his own feet with his head lowered.
William shook his head slightly. Whatever he had been about to say, he swallowed it back.
He turned to Isla again. "Go ahead. No rush. I'm not in a hurry either."
"I can wait all day, until you let your hands drop on your own."
"I'm just not sure you can wait that long."
William's low, smooth voice worked its way into Isla's ears, patient and coaxing.
"It would be very interesting if the patient in that bed woke up right now."
"I'd love to see his face when he sees you like this."
"I'm really looking forward to it."
Isla's head snapped up, her eyes full of fear.
William's words jolted her back to her situation.
She checked again — Benjamin was still lying there, eyes closed.
At last, her hands dropped helplessly to her sides.
She had nothing left to hide behind.