Chapter 12 : You Belong To Her
Ronan looked toward the stairs and let out a short scoff. “I used to go into your room all the time. And we’re engaged.”
“Childhood engagements are outdated and don’t mean anything. And I have a mental illness. It might even be hereditary. I’ll talk to your parents soon and end our engagement,” Allison said.
Ronan was stunned.
Allison wanted to break off our engagement?
What?!! I got rejected by her?
Allison's remark bruised Ronan’s ego. I had wanted to end our engagement long ago, but it had to be me who said it first.
Just as he was about to speak, Allison closed the door right in front of him.
Ronan stood there, rejected again.
At that moment, Nigel came downstairs and saw him by Allison’s door.
Ronan, feeling awkward, quickly changed the topic. “Did you find the bracelet?”
Nigel didn’t fall for it. He looked at Ronan suspiciously. “What are you doing outside Allison’s room?”
Nigel looked at Ronan and said, “Don’t forget, you’re the one who wanted to break off the engagement so you could marry Sherrie. If you hesitate now, how is Sherrie supposed to face everyone in the future?”
Ronan replied, “Yes, I want to end the engagement. But that doesn’t mean Allison and I have to cut each other off completely. We’ll still see each other often…”
Before he could finish, Nigel interrupted him. “You and Ally have to cut all ties. You know better than anyone that Ally is possessive and holds grudges. In her mind, you belong to her. If you marry Sherrie, she’ll put all of her resentment on her.”
Nigel let out a heavy breath. “I just want you and Sherrie to get married quickly. Once she moves into your family, I won’t have to worry every day.”
But Ronan didn’t hear anything after that.
His mind was stuck on one sentence.
You belong to her.
That was what I used to believe, too. But now Allison wanted to end the engagement herself…
After talking for a while, Nigel noticed Ronan wasn’t reacting. He raised a hand and gave him a light punch. “You’re still thinking about Ally, aren’t you!”
I had already noticed it earlier. Back in the living room, Ronan sat beside Sherrie, but his eyes were on Ally the whole time.
This idiot, does he think he’s some tragic love hero?
Ronan, annoyed, rubbed his shoulder and shot back, “I just think you’re all being too cruel to Allison. Don’t forget, she’s a Rogers too. Yet you can’t even give her a proper room in her own house, and a housekeeper can accuse her of stealing without any evidence.”
The Rogers mansion was a standalone villa with plenty of rooms. Even Toby’s room on the second floor was empty. So why couldn’t they give Allison a proper room?
Nigel’s face flushed furiously as he shot back, “And are you any better? You rejected Ally because you thought her illness would embarrass you if people found out. That’s why you chose Sherrie instead, isn’t it?”
Ronan was speechless. Annoyed, he left for home.
That night, Nigel lay in bed, unable to sleep. Ronan’s words kept circling in his mind.
Staring at the ceiling, he thought, this was the home Allison had lived in for eighteen years.
Before Dad passed away, he held my hand and Toby’s, telling us to take good care of our little sister.
But now, not only had I failed to protect her, I had treated her worse and worse. To the point where even Ronan, who never cared about anything, had the right to criticize me.
Nigel quickly mapped out the mansion’s layout in his head. There were four rooms with good lighting: mine, Toby’s, Allison’s, and Dad’s master bedroom.
After Dad died, Sherrie and Mom used the master bedroom for two years. It wasn’t until Allison was sent to the psychiatric hospital that Sherrie finally got her own room.
So who should give up their room for Allison?
Sherrie had asthma and was the youngest, so she couldn’t be the one to suffer.
Mom was an elder, so it wasn’t possible for someone younger to take her room.
Toby was the eldest son, so it wasn’t right to make him move into a smaller room.
And I had too many work materials. A small room wouldn’t be enough for them.
He kept turning from side to side, still unable to sleep.
Finally, he got up and turned on his computer.
After searching for a while, he found a death certificate from a year ago.
Lauren Drake, female, 19. Admitted to Kansas Psychiatric Hospital. Cause of death: mechanical asphyxiation due to an accident.
His hand holding the mouse trembled slightly. Nigel’s eyes darkened.
Allison hadn’t lied. The psychiatric hospital was a place where lives could be lost.
The thought of Allison, weak and unable to fight back, having her hair pulled, her back forced down under someone’s knee, her thin fingers clawing at the floor in pain, made Nigel feel like he couldn’t breathe.
He felt devastated. He grabbed the kettle to pour some water to calm himself, but the boiling water splashed onto his hand. The sudden sting made his scalp go numb, and he couldn’t help but let out a sound of pain.
As he looked at his reddened skin in irritation, a scene suddenly flashed in his mind of Allison plunging her hand into the burning coals that day.
He stared at his own hand, eyes filled with shock.
So this is how much a burn hurts.
My skin was only reddened, yet the pain was already unbearable. But Allison’s palms had been burned until they were raw and bleeding. Even though her whole body had trembled and she had broken out in a cold sweat, she hadn’t made a single sound.
Nigel’s lips trembled slightly. It was only now that he realized what it meant to live with pain.
She must have suffered so much in the psychiatric hospital, so much that she eventually stopped reacting.
His eyes reddened with sorrow, but in the seconds, anger rushed up and drowned everything else. He wiped his tears away roughly, blaming Allison for being so stubborn.
Why didn’t she call for the nurses when she was being bullied?
Why didn’t she call her family to help her?
She was just holding a grudge, refusing to lower her head to the people closest to her. That was why she had endured all that pain alone.
He really couldn’t understand. What had the family done to her that she couldn’t forgive them, and instead resented them so deeply?