“Ruthless? Me?” Hadley let out a cold, sharp laugh, as if she’d just heard the most absurd joke.
“Is that what you think this is?”
She blinked, and her expression shifted into mock confusion.
“You’re clinging to life by a thread, and I pull you back from the edge. You call that ruthless? Let me ask you something…”
Her eyes burned with a blood-red hatred as she continued, “You hid everything from Nyla and from the entire Flynn family. You cut off my only source of income for four years. My daughter and I were left to starve on the streets in a foreign country. Tell me, what would you call that?”
Hadley’s lips quivered, and her blood boiled in her veins.
“And you didn’t stop there. You went even further. You killed Elissa when she was pregnant!” She shook her head, eyes glistening with rage.
“You’re the one who’s ruthless. No, you’re a monster. Do you really think you can run off to Ontmond and pretend none of this ever happened?”
Linda’s body shook more violently. Then, in a voice barely above a whisper, she asked, “What… what do you want?”
“What do I want?” Hadley dropped her gaze and stared intently at Linda.
“Listen closely. I want you to live sick, broken, and tormented. And don’t forget, what happened to Elissa is far from over. You’d better hang on to life, because any day now, the police might come knocking with an extradition notice.”
Her lips curled slowly, and a chilling smile lit up her eyes.
“Death would be a mercy. What I want is worse. I want you to live in constant fear and wake up every morning dreading what’s coming next.”
Linda gasped, her voice caught in her throat.
“Ah… ah… You’re… so cruel. So cruel…”
“Cruel?” Hadley scoffed.
“When you left Srixby, you weren’t crying like this.”
Your next adventure is at g al n ovels . con
Linda’s eyes widened in disbelief, then darkened with fury. She shot daggers at Hadley and bellowed, “I won’t let you have your way! I refuse to believe I can’t even control my own life!”
She threw the covers back and tried to sit up.
“I’ll just… Argh—”
But before she could lift herself, Hadley shoved her back down and held her firmly in place.
“What are you doing?” Hadley gripped her shoulder with a disdainful smile.
“What can you possibly do?”
First of all, Linda was far too weak. Second, she was missing a leg.
“Listen,” Hadley said, her voice as cold as ice.
“As long as I decide you live, you will live. This isn’t like before, when you could twist me around however you pleased. Don’t you get it?”
She turned her head sharply and shouted toward the door, “Someone, get in here!”
The hospital room door swung open. Several people rushed inside.
At the front was Eric. He had just ended a phone call when he heard Hadley’s voice. Without wasting a second, he pushed ahead of the caregivers and stepped into the room.
What he saw made him freeze. Hadley stood at Linda’s bedside, her hand pressing down on the other woman’s shoulder. Linda was clutching Hadley’s arm with all the strength she had left.
.
.
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