Chapter 7
696words
Benedict looked at Serena and let out a harsh, humorless laugh.
"Funny how people suddenly remember what love is after someone's dead," he said. "What's the point? You don't deserve to see Myles one last time. Seeing you would only make his skin crawl."
Serena's body swayed. She was barely holding herself upright, yet she still forced herself to stand there.
She had spent half her life carrying herself as if she never had to bow to anyone. Now, she finally did.
"Benedict, I know I was wrong in a way that can't be excused. I don't deserve Myles' forgiveness, and I don't deserve yours either. If I can't even see where he's buried, I won't be able to die in peace."
"That's not my problem," he said, and reached for the door.
Serena quickly blocked his path, and she hauled Casper with her.
"Benedict, I've never begged anyone in my life. I'm begging you now."
Casper and Benedict both stared, stunned, at the sight of Serena bowing deeply.
Serena looked up at Benedict as if she could will him into giving her an answer. At that moment, every last scrap of pride she used to cling to was gone.
She finally understood that without me, nothing she did mattered.
Casper's composure cracked.
"What are you doing?" he shouted at her. "Serena, get up. I'm not letting you do this. Myles wasn't even worth it. He should've died earlier so he wouldn't waste all those years tying you down!"
The bodyguard behind Serena didn't wait for her to speak. He stepped forward and kicked Casper hard enough to send him flying.
A chilling sadness washed over Benedict as he watched the scene. If Serena could admit she was wrong now, then what had the ten years I endured been?
"Fine," Benedict said at last. "If you've really come to your senses, then prove it. Show me you're serious."
He looked at Serena coldly. She deserved to suffer. Even if she tasted every hardship this world had to offer, it still wouldn't balance what I went through.
Serena's eyes lit up with hope, as if she had grabbed onto a lifeline.
"Really? If you see I mean it, you'll let me see Myles?"
Benedict simply shut the door without another word.
A vicious gleam flickered in Serena's eyes. She ordered her bodyguards to grab Casper.
Casper looked at her like he didn't recognize her anymore.
"Every bit of suffering Myles went through, you're going to feel it, too!"
With that, she ignored Casper's screams and struggle and had him shoved into a car and taken back to the mansion's basement.
Casper was trembling uncontrollably.
Serena had stopped behaving like herself. She was a lunatic. She had Casper thrown into the basement, hanged, and personally whipped him.
"When Myles was coughing up blood, did it hurt like this?"
She whipped him again and again, completely out of control. Casper's screams tore through the room.
"Does it hurt? Because even this doesn't come close to what he went through for me!"
She shoved an entire bottle of liquor to Casper's mouth, her gaze vicious.
Casper, bruised and pale, begged her frantically. "Serena, I'm allergic to alcohol. Did you forget? Please, you can't do this. I'm going to die if you do!"
Her eyes narrowed at the word "die".
"You don't get to talk to me about lives," she said and forced it down his throat anyway.
Casper choked and couldn't catch his breath. His face flushed, his eyes unfocused, and he grew dizzy fast.
Serena didn't seem to care. If anything, she poured even faster.
Casper really was allergic to alcohol. Because of that, he had Serena torment me more than once.
Every time, I hadn't softened.
Every time, those banquets became a stage for the two of them to flaunt their so-called love.
The memory of that made Serena's movements grow even more frantic.
"Drink it! You should've been the one to die!"
Perhaps he couldn't take it anymore, as Casper finally shoved her away with a sudden burst of desperation.
"No, you're the one who should be dead!"
