Chapter 114 These Four Years, It Must Have Been Hard
Daniel's words made Scarlett's eyes instantly well up with tears. She stared at him.
"What do you mean? Do you think the same as Juno—that I drugged your drink to avoid marrying Ramon?"
Daniel fell silent, his brow furrowing slightly.
His attitude confirmed that he really did think of her that way.
Scarlett knew she couldn't explain clearly what happened that night four years ago when he was drugged, and he had been misunderstanding her all this time.
But she never expected he would think of her as even more despicable and shameless.
Her eyes turned red, but she refused to let the tears fall. She could only bite her lip hard, leaving a bloody mark on it.
Daniel noticed and reached up to touch her cheek, saying in a low voice.
"Let go."
Scarlett didn't release her lip, stubbornly and angrily glaring at Daniel.
Seeing she was about to break her tender lip, Daniel's eyes flashed with severity. He pulled her into his arms and lowered his head, trying to use his lips and tongue to pry open her teeth.
But at that moment, Scarlett released her tightly clenched teeth and bit down hard on Daniel's firm jawline.
She bit viciously. Daniel let out a muffled grunt and tried to break free.
Sensing his resistance, Scarlett raised her hands and wrapped them around Daniel's neck, kneeling up from his embrace to bite even harder.
Daniel gripped the back of her neck and applied slight pressure before she finally let go.
By then, there was already a deep teeth mark on Daniel's jaw, with traces of blood seeping through.
Daniel touched it with his hand—his fingertips came away red. His head began to throb.
"Scarlett! Go ahead and act crazy!"
He wouldn't have been angry if she had bitten anywhere else.
But she just had to bite his face, leaving such a large teeth mark on his jaw that clearly looked like a woman had bitten him. How was he supposed to face people now?
His expression turned cold, but Scarlett looked at him with red eyes and laughed mockingly.
"Mr. Wilson is afraid of embarrassment? Well, you being drugged and schemed against by someone like me four years ago was already a scandal in Shadow City—you've been embarrassed for a long time!"
After saying this, Scarlett turned and reached for the car door, wanting to get out.
Daniel's arm reached over from behind, wrapping around Scarlett's waist. With a pull, he brought her back to sit on his lap.
"Let me go, I want to get out!"
"Let's clear things up first," Daniel said in a low voice.
Hearing his deep voice, Scarlett's tears finally fell uncontrollably.
She choked up, "What's there to say? You've already decided I'm that kind of person. I've explained more than once, but no matter what I say, you won't believe me! Would you believe me now if I said it again?"
She had told him more than once that she wasn't the one who drugged him, but he never believed her.
Daniel's body stiffened for a moment. His voice was low and slow: "This time if you tell me, I'll believe you."
He hadn't believed her before because he thought she really wanted to escape the engagement with the Meza family and was afraid of leaving the Wilson family, so she drugged him.
But if four years ago Scarlett didn't even know about the Meza family coming to propose the engagement, then that didn't make sense.
Hearing Daniel's promise, Scarlett looked up.
Through her teary eyes, she looked at him, as if trying to confirm whether he was telling the truth.
Daniel sighed, leaned down and kissed her reddened eyes. "Let's both calm down and talk this through clearly."
Scarlett was soothed by his gentle voice. She nodded and asked, "When did the Meza family propose? Who did they propose to? I really didn't know anything about it."
"Mrs. Meza came to see Grandma, a week before your eighteenth birthday. Ramon had been in a car accident and was very depressed. She came asking for the engagement, saying Ramon was your classmate and had always liked you. Now that Ramon was so down, she wanted to arrange an engagement between you two. The families would get engaged first, and you could go to The Meza Mansion to take care of Ramon, then marry after you came of age. She said she knew it was selfish, but asked Grandma to understand a mother's heart, and promised many wedding gifts."
"But Grandma never mentioned this to me. She really never even asked me!" Scarlett clutched at Daniel's sleeve.
Hoping that this time, he would believe her.
Daniel nodded slightly. "Grandma turned down the Meza family."
Scarlett thought about it—that made sense. Magnolia truly loved Scarlett. At the time, Scarlett was only eighteen, and Ramon was disabled from the accident.
It was understandable that Magnolia, feeling protective of Scarlett, would refuse Ramon's mother Cecilia without telling Scarlett about it.
"If Grandma refused, why would you still think I was worried about this and drugged you?"
"Because after Grandma refused, within two days Ramon's father Lonnie went to my dad. The Meza family offered more incentives, and my father agreed. My mother said she had asked for your opinion."
Thinking back to what happened four years ago, Daniel remembered that Scarlett was about to turn eighteen, and he was twenty-four.
He had started taking over the Wilson family at twenty, and in his first year created the Star Group. Only he knew how much effort it took for the Star Group to grow into such a giant in just a few years.
Back then he was busy with his career, spending most of his time on business trips. He didn't have the energy to pay attention to many things at home, and didn't always find out about them right away.
He remembered that before Scarlett's eighteenth birthday, he had worked overtime for half a month straight before managing to fly back home the day before her birthday.
That night, it was Blair who told him about the Meza family's marriage proposal.
She said Andrew had already agreed, and she had already told Scarlett about it. Scarlett said she would think about it.
Daniel was very angry at the time. He lost his temper with Blair and had an unpleasant argument with Andrew, but firmly refused the marriage.
Daniel had planned to tell Scarlett about it the next day, to let her know she didn't need to worry—he wouldn't let her marry just anyone or be bullied.
But the next day something happened at the company and he rushed to deal with it, not returning home until very late that night.
Before he could tell Scarlett, that incident happened that evening.
Later, he investigated and found that all the drinks he had that night were given to him by Scarlett, and only Scarlett could enter his room.
Plus, they later found torn paper packets in the trash from Scarlett's room, which also tested positive for drug residue.
Daniel felt an unprecedented sense of betrayal and sadness. He thought Scarlett was too afraid, and to escape the Meza family's proposal and avoid marrying the disabled Ramon, she had drugged and used Daniel.
Now it seemed Blair had lied.
Blair actually never mentioned this to Scarlett at all.
"No one, whoever it was, ever asked me about this," Scarlett said coldly, wiping away her tears.
She stared at Daniel and continued.
"Whether you believe it or not, I only heard about this today! And I'll say it one last time—I absolutely did not drug you that night."
Daniel gazed at her reddened eyes and reached out to ruffle her hair.
"I'll investigate what happened that day again."
Scarlett responded quietly and lowered her head without saying more.
Just then, Daniel suddenly gripped her chin and lifted her small face.
Scarlett was forced to look at him. In his deep eyes was emotion so thick it couldn't dissolve.
He gazed at her and asked in a hoarse voice, "These four years have been hard on you, haven't they?"
Hearing him ask this, the tears Scarlett had just stopped threatened to burst forth again.
Different from the angry and sad tears just now, this time there was more heartache, as if all her grievances and pain were being gently drawn out by his single sentence.