Chapter 272 Confession

Chapter 272 Confession

Less than five minutes later, the doorbell rang.

Jessica walked to the door and opened it.

Joseph stood outside, wearing a dark loungewear set, his hair slightly tousled by the night wind, his face showing worry and helplessness. He looked exactly like someone who'd been called up in the middle of the night.

He held a cup of hot milk in his hand, tiny water droplets clinging to the side of the glass, as if it had just been heated.

"What's wrong?" He walked into the living room and set the milk on the coffee table.

Jessica closed the door and leaned back against it, looking at him. "Benjamin called me. He said in the past life, you never showed up."

If Joseph had nothing to hide, he should be confused right now.

What past life?

He might worry that something was wrong with Jessica.

But Joseph's hand still paused for a moment. It was very brief, brief enough to be almost negligible, but Jessica saw it.

"He's right." Joseph's voice was calm, calm like he was talking about something ordinary. "In the past life, I was locked up in the fighting arena. I never escaped. When you died, I was still in an iron cage, being injected with drugs, being used as a test subject."

Jessica felt her mind suddenly shake.

She looked at him, looked at his calm face that even carried a faint smile, and a kind of shock and bitterness she'd never experienced before surged up in her heart, like a huge wave crashing down all at once.

So he, like her, was also reborn.

He'd been locked up for so long. In the past life, she'd been tortured by Benjamin for so many years and died on the operating table, while he was locked in an iron cage in the fighting arena, being injected with drugs, being used as a test subject.

They were both trapped in hell, just locked in different rooms.

"How did you escape?" Her voice was a bit hoarse.

"I didn't escape." Joseph sat down on the sofa, hands clasped together, resting on his knees. "I was let out. Coincidentally, the person who let me out was Benjamin."

"In the past life, when you died, I was locked in the innermost cage of the fighting arena." Joseph's voice was soft, like he was recalling something that had been sealed away for years. "I didn't know you had died, didn't know what was happening outside. I only knew that one day, suddenly no one came to feed us anymore, no one came to give injections, no one came to record data. The arena emptied out—everyone had run away. When I walked out, the sky outside was gray, couldn't see the sun."

Jessica's tears fell.

She walked over, sat down beside him, and reached out to hold his hand. His hand was very cold, as cold as hers, like two stones thrown in the cold wind leaning against each other.

Joseph kept his voice very low. "Benjamin's mind had already broken down by then. He thought I was smart, so he kept me by his side."

"At first I was really grateful to him. But one day, I saw your body, kept in a frozen coffin in his bedroom."

"Jessica, from that moment on, I started to hate him. So in the end, I killed him with my own hands."

"Later I found my parents." Joseph's tone was still calm. "They were still alive. They'd waited for me for twenty years. I spent a few years taking over the Williams family business, and you finally had a place where you could be buried."

What Joseph didn't say was that in the past life, he'd insisted on marrying her even though she was already dead, and even his parents couldn't change his mind about this.

Jessica's tears kept flowing.

She didn't know who exactly she was crying for—was she crying for her past life self, for the past life Joseph, or for the person who'd been locked in an iron cage for over ten years and then lived in hatred for so many more years after getting out.

She didn't know.

Joseph didn't speak again.

He just sat there, letting Jessica hold his hand, letting her tears fall drop by drop onto the back of his hand, that warmth carrying a kind of silent promise.

The living room was very quiet, so quiet you could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall, the occasional car passing by outside, and the two people's intertwined, not-quite-steady breathing.

After a long time, long enough for the night outside the window to change from deep blue to an even deeper black, Jessica's tears finally dried up.

Joseph gently pulled his hand back, stood up, walked in front of her, and looked down at her.

In his eyes was a light she'd never seen before—tenderness and heartache, like he wanted to catch her entire being.

"Come on." He held out his hand.

"Where to?"

"I'll take you somewhere."

Jessica placed her hand in his palm and stood up.

Her legs were a bit numb, whether from sitting too long or crying too long, she didn't know.

Joseph steadied her, waited for her to stand firm, then led her outside.

They walked through the living room, through the hallway, all the way to his place.

Jessica really enjoyed this feeling of the two of them walking slowly, as if time had slowed down around them.

Finally, she followed Joseph to the rooftop.

She pushed open the door to the terrace, walked out, looked up, and froze in place.

The entire terrace was covered by a transparent glass dome, the frame supporting the glass was black metal, with clean, sharp lines, like the frame of a painting.

Jessica had occasionally seen it from home and knew this was one-way glass.

In the center of the terrace stood a telescope, made of copper, with a tripod, a very long barrel that gleamed with a dark golden light in the moonlight.

Next to the telescope was a dark blue blanket, thick and soft, with two cushions and a thin quilt on top.

"There were no stars in the sky above the fighting arena." Joseph's voice came from behind her, very soft, as if afraid of waking the night sky outside. "When I was locked inside, I often wondered, what does the sky outside really look like? Is there a moon? Are there stars? Is it the same as what I saw through that skylight above the cage—always gray and hazy, never seeing any light?"

Jessica turned around and looked at him.

He stood at the edge of the glass dome, moonlight falling on him, illuminating his outline very softly, like a painting that had been wiped clean over and over.

"Later I got out and saw the sky outside." He looked up at the deep blue, star-filled night sky beyond the glass. "There was a moon, there were stars, clouds, wind—it really was beautiful. But I realized that every time I looked up at them, the same thought kept coming to mind—did you see it too?"

Jessica's tears almost welled up again, but this time she didn't cry.

She just walked over, stood in front of him, reached out her hand, and gently touched his face.

His skin was cool, as if the moonlight were still clinging to him.

"Joseph." She called his name.

"Mm?"

"When did you finish building this place?"

Joseph thought for a moment. "The first day I moved in. You didn't know me yet then. I didn't know how to approach you, didn't know if you liked me, didn't know if you'd be willing to talk to me. So I thought, I'll get this place ready first. In case one day you're willing to come, at least I won't disappoint you."

Jessica looked at him, silent for a long time.

Her fingers slid down from his cheek, landing on his shoulder, then on the back of his hand, finally stopping at his fingertips.

They interlaced their fingers, palm pressed against palm, feeling each other's warmth, feeling each other's heartbeat, and also feeling those things that had been suppressed for so long, never spoken aloud, slowly churning inside both their bodies.

After a long time, Jessica pulled her hand away, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed his lips.