Chapter 151 Heart-Piercing Pain
"Leave?"
Rufus's deep voice chewed on those words, and the air pressure around him suddenly plummeted.
"Amelia, you're really delusional."
His gloomy eyes locked onto Cecilia, churning with thick possessiveness and the fury of betrayal.
That sentence "we settled things long ago" didn't make him let go—instead, it ignited an even deeper flame of obsession in his heart.
"Or is it that you think with Stefan backing you up, you can do whatever you want?"
"You really think he can protect you?"
Rufus practically squeezed these words through his teeth, carrying a viciousness that wanted to tear her apart.
Cecilia was so angry at his self-righteous crazy talk that she almost laughed.
"Rufus, is there something wrong with your brain?" She fearlessly met his angry gaze.
"This is a hospital—I suggest you go straight to the psychiatric department and get yourself checked out."
Her words completely tore away Rufus's last pretense.
"Amelia!"
He roared, no longer able to maintain his calm, and grabbed her wrist.
"I'm asking you one last time—are you coming with me or not?"
"Let go!" Cecilia struggled hard, the sharp pain from her wrist making her frown. "You're hurting me!"
"Hurt?" Rufus's thin lips curved into a cruel arc. "You'll soon find out what real pain feels like!"
His threat was naked and direct.
Cecilia's heart sank.
She knew Rufus too well—when he went crazy, he was capable of anything.
She couldn't let him lose control here, and she couldn't let Robert and Mabel in the hospital room see any of this.
"Fine." Cecilia suddenly stopped struggling, took a deep breath, and forced herself to calm down. "I'll go with you."
Rufus hadn't expected her to suddenly give in, and his grip on her wrist unconsciously loosened a bit.
He narrowed his eyes and studied her, judging whether her words were true or false.
"But you have to promise me—from now on, you can't appear in front of my parents anymore, and you can't harass them in any way." Cecilia lowered her eyelids, hiding the disgust and calculation within.
"What? Are you scared?" Rufus mocked.
"I just don't want them to worry."
"What you want is just me. As long as I go with you, their lives won't be disturbed anymore, right?"
These words perfectly aligned with Rufus's logic.
What he wanted was her submission, proof that she belonged completely to him.
"Come with me?" Rufus laughed lowly, his laughter carrying a victor's arrogance. "Amelia, you've got one thing wrong."
"You never left me—you were always mine!"
He stared at her intently, that face overlapping countless times with his memories, weaving his obsession and regret into an airtight net in his heart.
Watching the change in his expression, Cecilia instantly understood.
He was looking through Amelia at that Cecilia who died in the fire again.
"I've said it before—I have nothing to do with that woman called 'Cecilia.'"
Cecilia raised her head, looked straight into his eyes, and clearly punctured the lies he'd woven with his obsession, word by word.
"You're the one who insists on treating me as her substitute."
"Rufus, dare you say that when you look at my face, you're not seeing someone else?"
"You're looking at that woman you killed with your own hands!"
Substitute.
This was the truth Rufus was most unwilling to admit, yet unable to refute.
All his approaches, all his compensation, all his madness—it all stemmed from that face Amelia shared with Cecilia.
"Shut up!"
Rufus was finally completely enraged, the string of his rationality snapping.
He didn't want to hear another word from her, didn't want to hear that name that made him wish he were dead come from her mouth.
He just wanted to take her away, hide her, make it so she could only look at him and no one else!
"Come with me!"
Rufus grabbed her arm without caring about anything else and forcibly dragged her toward the elevator.
His strength was alarmingly great—she couldn't resist at all and could only be passively pulled along, stumbling forward.
"Stefan!"
In desperation, Cecilia instinctively shouted out that name.
He was the only person she could think of right now who could check Rufus.
Her cry echoed through the empty corridor, carrying a painful and urgent reverberation.
However, there was no response.
Stefan had already gone downstairs and was waiting by a limited-edition car at the roadside—he had no idea what was happening upstairs.
Suddenly, the elevator doors opened in front of Rufus.
Without a moment's hesitation, he pushed her inside and quickly stepped in after her.
In the cramped space, the intense, aggressive aura from his body instantly enveloped her.
He pressed her firmly against the cold elevator wall, leaving her unable to move.
"Let me go! Rufus, you lunatic!"
Cecilia struggled violently, but her strength was negligible compared to the furious Rufus.
The elevator doors slowly closed, cutting off her last hope for rescue.
The elevator descended smoothly.
Rufus said nothing, just stared at her with those bloodshot eyes, as if wanting to devour her whole.
Until the elevator reached the underground parking garage and the doors opened again.
He dragged her out and strode toward his car.
He pulled open the car door and roughly shoved her into the passenger seat, then walked around to the other side, quickly got in, and locked the doors.
The entire process was seamless—he gave her no chance to escape.
The engine let out a low roar, and the car carved out a sharp arc, decisively driving out of the underground parking garage and merging into the city traffic.
The atmosphere inside the car was suffocatingly oppressive.
She leaned against the car window, watching the rapidly retreating streetscape outside, her heart sinking bit by bit.
She didn't ask Rufus where he was taking her.
Because she had already guessed.
Rufus drove like a maniac all the way, the car leaving the city center, the surrounding scenery becoming increasingly desolate.
Finally, the car stopped at the entrance of a private cemetery.
On the cemetery gate, a sentence was carved in flowing script.
Eternal Cecilia.
Rufus turned off the engine and unbuckled his seatbelt but didn't immediately get out.
He turned his head to look at Amelia beside him, who had remained silent the entire time.
She just quietly looked out the window, the lines of her profile appearing especially stubborn and cold in the dim light.
She didn't cry, didn't curse, didn't even show a trace of fear.
This extreme calm made Rufus feel more panicked than any fierce resistance could.
He finally spoke, his voice hoarse beyond recognition.
"Didn't you say I treat you as a substitute?"
"Didn't you want to know who I'm looking at through you?"
"I'm taking you to see now."
He opened the car door, walked around, opened the passenger door, and pulled her out without giving her a choice.
The cemetery was empty, with only the sound of wind blowing through the pines and cypresses.
Rufus pulled her along, walking step by step toward the deepest part of the cemetery.
There stood a pristine white tombstone.
There was no photo on it, only some engraved text.
Tomb of Beloved Wife Cecilia.
The moment she saw that tombstone, even though Cecilia had prepared herself mentally countless times, telling herself to stay calm and controlled, her eyes still uncontrollably welled up with moisture.
This was the ending he had personally prepared for her, and also the cage she had desperately tried to escape.
She desperately told herself to hold it in.
Amelia shouldn't shed a single tear for Cecilia.
But that bone-piercing pain still uncontrollably spread from the depths of her soul, almost tearing her entire being apart.