Chapter 309 Sleepless Long Night
William couldn't remember how he had gotten back to his room.
Ever since he had decided to go through with his plan, he hadn't hurt himself in a long time.
His physical condition was improving day by day, along with his judgment and memory. Even his talent for tormenting people seemed to be growing sharper with each passing day.
But there were still some things that existed only as a blur in his mind.
He could clearly remember things from long ago, as if they had been carved into his memory.
Even the words Isabella had said to him at the funeral.
He still remembered them now.
He could clearly recall how everyone had reacted at the funeral.
And he couldn't forget how he himself had responded.
But when it came to yesterday, or even this morning, he often couldn't remember.
It was as if he had some kind of short-term memory loss.
William sat in his room, leaning his body against the coffin.
Whenever Isabella was with him, he always had endless things to say, as if he wanted to tell her everything.
He vividly described to her how he had thrown Juniper off the rooftop, dragged her back up, and thrown her down again.
He had done it three times, until Juniper's body was thoroughly mangled.
William wrapped his arms around the coffin. "Isabella, it's such a shame you didn't see it."
"Didn't you always want to kill her?"
"Isabella, I did it."
He closed his eyes, as if the coffin in his arms, that ice-cold lid, were as soft as Isabella's skin.
William gently rubbed his face against the coffin lid.
As if Isabella were still alive.
As if he were holding Isabella's hand and using it to touch his face.
"Your hand is so soft, so warm."
"I was so foolish. I already had the most beautiful thing in the world."
"How did I never notice before?"
William murmured.
"But it's not too late now, because you'll never leave again."
"I won't let you go, Isabella."
"We're made for each other. No one can tear us apart."
William's lips curved as he pressed his face even closer to the coffin lid.
Sometimes he felt he'd lost all ordinary human desire.
Or perhaps he simply wasn't interested in other women.
Even if they stood naked in front of him, William wouldn't react at all.
No matter how beautiful a woman was, in William's eyes, now she wasn't worth as much as a tree by the side of the road.
At least he'd be willing to look at a roadside tree a few more times.
But in this special room, when he faced Isabella, the desire that never stirred for other women would surge up and multiply.
Like a raging fire, burning him from the inside out.
Yet every time he tried to open the crystal coffin, fragments of the past would come back to him.
He would never forget.
The agony on Isabella's face as she lay beneath him, forced and broken, on the verge of death.
Whenever those memories surfaced, whatever desire had risen in him would vanish in an instant.
Aside from letting him relieve himself, his body no longer felt capable of giving life.
William was destined to have no children.
He slowly lifted his head, his gaze fixed on Isabella's face in the coffin, on her closed eyes.
With a faint smile on his lips, he made a completely sincere promise.
"Isabella, in this life, you'll be my only woman."
"I swear I'll never touch anyone else again."
"None of them can compare to you. None of them is as good as you."
William talked to himself in front of the coffin.
He stared at that face, unable to look away. Even when he stood up, his eyes stayed locked on her.
He only stood up because the alarm clock by the bed had gone off.
William had set an alarm for 6 p.m. every evening.
Because the sunset at that hour was the most beautiful.
Especially in this special room, which had already been renovated once.
Through the huge floor-to-ceiling window, he could see the sunset in all its glory.
He turned off the alarm, then put on a piece of classical music.
After that, he carefully smoothed his hair and checked his buttons and even his shoelaces.
He checked every detail of his appearance, making sure nothing was out of place.
Then he began to dance a waltz by himself with the empty air.
The sunset shone on him, stretching his shadow long, and the coffin's shadow too.
William closed his eyes. His left hand was held up in the air.
He knew Isabella was dead.
He had always understood the difference between the dead and the living.
In the past, he had acted insane and pretended Isabella was still alive.
But that had only been him lying to himself.
He had always known very clearly that Isabella had died long ago.
He just didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to believe it.
Every morning when he woke up alone and looked at that gleaming coffin, only he understood.
He had lost her, and he'd lost her forever.
Fortunately, he had enough money and power, and enough obsession.
So he kept Isabella's body by his side and treated her as if she were still alive.
Downstairs.
Isla, locked in the dog cage, waited alone for night to fall.
This was already the third night since Juniper had died.
On the previous two nights, once all the lights in the living room were turned off and only the dim moonlight shone in through the window,
Isla would curl up in the corner of the cage, looking toward Juniper opposite her, still staring at her with open eyes. Under the moonlight, the dead Juniper's eyes reflected two points of light.
Isla knew perfectly well that Juniper was dead, that it was only a corpse, nothing to be afraid of.
She repeated this to herself, but still didn't dare raise her head.
Even without looking up, she felt the whole room was eerie, with a chilling dampness in the air.
She could feel Juniper watching her. She cursed her silently in her mind.
"When you were alive, you were already so clingy."
"Why are you still haunting me even after you're dead?"
"Why are you so hateful?"
Suddenly, a cat meowed outside the window.
The meow was thin and drawn-out, and when it stretched, it sounded a bit like a baby crying.
When that sound reached her ears, Isla felt the living room grow even darker.
Her whole body began to tremble uncontrollably.
She felt like she was going crazy. All she could do was bury her head lower and press her hands hard over her ears.
But the cat's meow still slipped through the gaps between her fingers and kept drilling into her ears.
For some reason, she felt there was more than just her inside the cage.
Besides her, there was someone else squatting right in front of her, a pair of glowing eyes fixed on her in the dark.
Isla told herself over and over that she was imagining things, that she was the only one in the cage.
"There aren't any ghosts in this world, right?"
Isla's throat worked as she forced herself to speak.
Then she suddenly heard footsteps outside the window.
Isla listened as the footsteps came closer and closer, and then someone knocked on the glass. The sound was especially clear in the dark.
She covered her ears, not daring to move or make a sound, only praying silently in her heart.
"God, protect me."
She was actually reaching out to the divine for help.
Her prayers grew louder and more desperate, making Dylan, who'd been pretending to be a ghost outside the window, cover his mouth and laugh quietly.