Chapter 228 Do You Like Me?
Cecilia leaned back in her chair, watching with interest as he made a complete fool of himself.
"Mr. Ember, take a good look. I'm Amelia Martinez." She opened her passport and pressed it against the thick glass, waving it at him. "You must have mistaken me for someone else."
Brad stared at her intently, his cloudy eyeballs rolling around several times before he finally exhausted himself confirming that the person in front of him was actually alive.
Trembling, he crawled back onto his chair, gripping the phone receiver with both hands so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"Ms. Martinez." He swallowed with difficulty, his voice shaking uncontrollably. "What are you doing here? Did Rufus send you? Is he... is he finally going to kill me?"
"Mr. Chapman doesn't have time to deal with your petty affairs." A cold smile curved Cecilia's lips.
She took out her phone, pulled up the photo she'd just taken, and pressed the lit screen against the glass.
"I just wanted to show you something."
Brad instinctively squinted and leaned in closer.
The next second, a piercing, distorted scream echoed throughout the entire visiting room, filled with the desperation of a dying animal.
"Blair! My daughter!"
Brad threw himself against the glass like a madman, his hands clawing wildly, his nails scraping against the glass with an ear-piercing noise.
He tried to touch the withered corpse on the screen, but it was all in vain.
That was his beloved Blair, the pride he'd spent half his lifetime cultivating.
Now, Blair had died miserably in a dark mental hospital, becoming an unclaimed pile of bones.
"Rufus! I'll kill you! Rufus—!"
Brad's tears and snot ran down his face as he frantically banged his head against the bulletproof glass over and over, the dull thuds continuous. His forehead quickly split open, blood mixing with tears sliding down, a pathetic sight.
"Stop banging. The glass is bulletproof, you can't break through it."
Cecilia put away her phone and calmly placed it back in her bag, watching his agonized display without a trace of warmth in her voice.
"Rufus had someone give her the maximum dose of CPH4. I heard she died in great pain—almost every bone in her body fractured on its own, and her organs failed and rotted."
"It was you... you damn bitch!" Brad whipped his head around, his bloodshot eyes viciously boring into her. "You and Rufus worked together to kill her! Amelia, you're just like that bastard Cecilia—you'll both die horrible deaths!"
"Can't handle it already?"
Cecilia leaned forward slightly, moving closer to the cold glass, her beautiful eyes now churning with deep, chilling coldness.
"That summer when I was seven, on a stormy day."
Brad's crazed cursing was instantly cut off by that sentence.
He froze, staring blankly at Cecilia.
"I had a high fever, was soaking wet, kneeling outside the ornate iron gate of The Ember Mansion, begging you to let me come in to shelter from the rain."
Cecilia's gaze locked onto Brad's eyes, speaking word by word, recounting a buried past.
"You were holding Blair, who just had a slight cough, and through the gate, you kicked me down the steps."
"You also said: 'You damn girl should rot outside. Don't bring your germs into the house and infect my Blair.'"
Brad's pupils contracted violently, his breathing stopped.
In this world, the people who knew about this incident, who knew these words, besides himself, there was only... that dead person who'd been burned to ashes!
"You..."
His lips quickly turned purple-blue, his hand instinctively clutching his chest, severe pain in his chest cavity, unable to breathe.
"Who are you, who the hell are you? How could you know this?"
Cecilia gave him no chance to catch his breath. Her voice remained soft, yet carried a bone-cutting cruelty.
"Brad." She gently spoke these words.
Across the insurmountable layer of glass, Cecilia showed Brad, who was on the verge of collapse, a faint smile.
"Tell me, could there be such a thing as resurrection in this world?"
The last thread of sanity in Brad's mind completely snapped.
He widened his bloodshot eyes, pointing his finger at Cecilia, making strange sounds from his mouth.
It's you!
It really is you!
It's Cecilia! She crawled back from hell! She came back for revenge!
Extreme terror mixed with the heart-piercing pain of losing Blair turned into a violent electric current, instantly breaking through his already fragile heart.
Brad's eyes rolled back, and his body fell straight backward.
A loud crash!
The back of his head slammed hard against the concrete floor. His body convulsed violently twice, then went completely still.
Sharp alarm sounds suddenly rang throughout the entire building.
The iron door behind burst open, and several men in white coats rushed in—complete chaos.
"Oh no! The prisoner's heart stopped!"
"Quick! Prepare adrenaline!"
"Where's the defibrillator! Why isn't it here yet?"
They sounded extremely anxious, but their movements were ridiculously slow.
The doctor holding the defibrillator hadn't even plugged in the power cord properly, and the person doing CPR was pressing on the chest so lightly it was laughable, having no effect whatsoever.
It seemed that neither Rufus nor Stefan had any intention of letting this scum Brad walk out of here alive.
Cecilia took one last look at Brad on the floor, his face turning purple, being "resuscitated."
Then she lowered her head, her fingers sliding lightly across her phone screen. The photo documenting Blair's ugly death was dragged into the trash and permanently deleted.
Dirty things don't need to remain in this world.
Cecilia pushed open the door of the visiting room. The corridor outside was cold and long, but the door at the end was wide open.
Large patches of golden sunlight were pouring in unreservedly, so bright it was almost blinding.
It was over.
The Ember family that had entangled her in her past life was finally finished today.
She started walking, step by step, toward that dazzling light.
This time, there were no shadows behind her.
Walking out of the detention center, the midday sun was scorching hot on her skin.
But Cecilia didn't immediately hail a cab to leave. Instead, she walked aimlessly along the sidewalk.
The Ember family's revenge—Cecilia had completed it.
But the wild joy and relief she'd imagined didn't come.
Her heart felt empty, as if someone had forcibly carved out a large piece, leaving only the howling cold wind.
The street was bustling with people and traffic, everyone hurrying along, rushing toward their own lives.
All that noise, all that bustle, had nothing to do with her.
She looked at her reflection in a shop window—a young and beautiful face.
Amelia.
From now on, she was just Amelia.
But where should Amelia's life go?
A black car slowly stopped beside her.
The window rolled down, revealing Stefan's chiseled profile.
He didn't ask why she was here or what she'd just done. He simply unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.
"Want something to drink?" He walked to her side and asked naturally.
Cecilia shook her head.
Stefan said nothing more, just quietly accompanied her, walking step by step along the sidewalk.
He said nothing, but gave her the silent companionship she needed most.
They walked for a long time, so long that the sun began to set, stretching their shadows long and longer.
Cecilia finally stopped.
She turned around, looked up, and gazed seriously at Stefan beside her.
"Stefan."
"What is it?"
"Do you like me?"