Upon hearing the voice, the previously frantic Leticia felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her, instantly calming her down.
She saw Deanna, whose face had turned purple-red from being strangled, and in shock, she quickly let go and stepped back, horrified.
She had almost killed Deanna!
However, even though Deanna was released, she was in bad shape, feeling dizzy with a burning pain in her neck.
She tried to stand up by holding onto the wooden railing of the balcony. Unfortunately, the railing suddenly broke, and unprepared, she fell off the balcony along with the broken railing.
Lance came out just in time to see this scene, his eyes filled with rage.
"No-"
He rushed to the balcony as fast as he could but was still too late, kneeling down and grabbing at empty air.
With a splash, Deanna fell into the garden pool, sending up a spray of water. Some of it splashed onto Lance's face.
The October pool water was freezing cold.
Lance shivered and finally snapped out of his earlier grief. He saw Deanna struggling in the pool and without thinking, jumped in after her.
Leticia screamed in fear, "Lance."
She hurried to the edge of the balcony and saw Lance in the garden pool, holding Deanna and swimming towards the shore.
Seeing this, she breathed a sigh of relief but also felt a surge of anger. Why didn't that wretched Deanna die? She always seemed to have such good luck!
After Lance jumped in, he quickly reached Deanna. He found that Deanna was not fully conscious, only struggling instinctively to survive, which broke his heart.
"Deanna..."
Lance held her close and called her name while swimming towards the shore.
Unfortunately, Deanna was too disoriented to respond. Although she heard his voice, she couldn't reply.
But somehow, knowing who was beside her, Deanna stopped struggling in Lance's arms.
Once on shore, Lance checked on Deanna and found she had fallen into a deep coma. He immediately carried her towards the living room without delay.
In the living room, the butler and servants were alarmed by the earlier screams and came out to check what was happening.
They were surprised to see Lance and Deanna, who should have been upstairs, soaking wet and coming in from outside.
"Mr. Mercer, Dr. Deanna, why are you both soaking wet?"
The butler approached with concern and noticed something was wrong with Deanna. He asked worriedly, "What's wrong with Dr. Deanna?"
Lance didn't answer immediately. His eyes were cold as he ordered, "Notify Old Hughes to come and check on Dr. Deanna."
Leaving those words behind, he carried Deanna upstairs to their room.
Worried that the wet clothes would make Deanna catch a cold, he quickly changed her clothes.
It was then that he noticed the strangulation marks on Deanna's neck, hidden by her dark hair. His breath caught, and it felt like a knife had been plunged into his heart, making it hard to breathe.
Immediately, a violent aura emanated from him.
"Leticia!" Lance gritted his teeth and stood up abruptly, turning to leave.
As he opened the door, he bumped into Old Hughes who was about to knock.
Old Hughes immediately noticed something was wrong with Lance's expression and quickly asked, "How is Anna? I heard you both fell into the water. What happened?"
Lance didn't answer right away. He looked down at the old man before him and said in a cold voice, "Please take care of Deanna for me. I have some matters to attend to."
With that, he didn't give Old Hughes a chance to speak and left the room.
At the same time, Xavier came up from downstairs.
Before changing Deanna's clothes, Lance had contacted him and asked him to come over.
The two men went directly to the third floor and stood at Leticia's door.
Lance ordered coldly, "Kick the door open!"
Xavier nodded and forcefully kicked the door. The previously closed door flew open instantly, and Leticia's panicked scream echoed from inside.
The commotion also alarmed other members of the Walsh family.
Mr. and Mrs. Walsh came out of their room immediately and saw Lance standing at their daughter's door with a murderous aura.
Before they could question him, they saw Lance walk into their daughter's room with an icy demeanor.
Soon after, they heard their daughter's terrified voice coming from inside.
"Lance, this is my room. What are you doing here?"
Leticia looked at the cold-faced man in front of her in panic.
For some reason, facing Lance like this made her feel like she was facing the Grim Reaper.
It felt as if she would be killed by this man in front of her any second now.
And indeed, that was exactly what might happen.