Chapter 129
Author’s pov
Slowly, Nicole’s face transformed into a smile.
The expression only made her scars look more grotesque in the fading light.
She took a step closer to Cici. “You promised you’d grant any request if I delivered them to you p>
Cici looked at the scars with disgust and stepped back. “What do you want? Money p>
Nicole shook her head. “I don’t want money. I want you to give him back to me p>
Cici reacted as if she’d just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.
Her disgusted expression shifted to contempt, mockery, and pity. “He’s nothing but bones now, because of you. He’s been lying in this cold pond for years. How dare you even ask for him p>
Nicole’s face turned ashen gray, like a corpse.
She gripped the knife hidden in her purse, her eyes red with fury and grief. “It wasn’t me… it wasn’t me p>
“How was it not you? Have you forgotten? Do you need me to help you remember p>
Cici reached out to trace Nicole’s scars with her fingertips, feeling satisfied at how the former beauty had become the hideous creature before her.
She moved behind Nicole, leaning intimately against her shoulder. “That day, you came to me begging me to spare your pathetic, poor father. I said I wanted to see Mason, so you called him. You knew I had feelings for him. You knew why I wanted him there, but you selfishly betrayed him anyway p>
“Later, when I made you choose between stripping naked or breaking up with him, you chose to break up. You betrayed him again. You even yelled at him, blaming him for your troubles p>
“You didn’t just betray him. You abandoned him p>
“Unfortunately, Mason was too stubborn.” At this, Cici’s expression turned wistful. “Being chosen by me should have been his blessing, but he insisted on loving a poor, selfish little bitch like you. I tried everything to win his affection, but he refused p>
“I had no choice but to show him your true nature. Remember? I made you choose… his death or yours. You were so terrified, crying that you didn’t want to die, that you wanted him to die instead p>
“Mason’s death is entirely your fault. You’re the real murderer p>
“Nicole, don’t you feel any guilt? He was such a fool. Remember? Your face was slashed, and he watched you being violated by a group of men like some bitch in heat, but he didn’t abandon you. He cried and begged me to spare you. But you? You were too busy enjoying yourself to care whether he lived or died p>
“Even with his dying breath, he was calling your name p>
Cici’s words cut deeper than any blade, each syllable a fresh torture.
Nicole’s palm was bleeding from gripping the knife so tightly, the blade cutting through flesh until it touched bone.
Yet her face remained utterly expressionless.
After a moment, she looked at Cici with a calm, pleading expression. “Just let me see him one last time. Take me to him p>
“You’re not even angry? How pathetic p>
Cici, disappointed by Nicole’s lack of tears and anguish, lost interest. “Fine, you want to see him? Come on, I’ll take you p>
She walked a few steps, then looked back at the unconscious figures on the ground. She called her bodyguard back. “Tie them up. They tried to trap me, so I’ll make them all fertilizer for this orchard. Especially Cecilia – I want her cut into pieces and ground into meat paste p>
The bodyguard felt a chill run down his spine.
He’d taken too much money from the White family, always helping with cleanup. Though he’d never killed directly, he’d become an accomplice.
“Yes, miss Cici p>
Mrs. White sat exhausted in front of the small house, listening to her daughter’s horrifying words with fear and helplessness.
Seeing Cici leading Nicole toward the wooden plank, she quickly said to the bodyguard, “Don’t let her kill anyone else p>
“But they already know about what happened back then p>
“We still can’t kill more people p>
“True, that’s too many lives p>
“Let me think… just tie them up for now.” Mrs. White waved her hand dismissively.
The bodyguard went behind the house to bind the unconscious group while she desperately tried to think of a solution.
If Cecilia died, it would cause an uproar. Alpha Xavier would never forgive the White family, and Alpha Sebastian clearly had feelings for the woman. If they got involved, there’d be no way to cover this up p>
As she worried, she suddenly heard the bodyguard’s voice from behind. “Mrs. White, how would you like them tied up p>
“Oh, just however – “
Wait.
That wasn’t her bodyguard’s voice.
Mrs. White turned around in panic to see a tall, handsome young man standing behind her, holding duct tape and rope, smiling brightly.
“Hel – “
Before she could finish calling for help, her mouth was covered and she was dragged behind the house.
There, she saw her bodyguard already unconscious and bound. The people who had appeared unconscious earlier were all standing there, perfectly alert.
They had never been unconscious at all!
Mrs. White’s face turned deathly pale.
Cecilia and her friends smirked. The trap had been too obvious to miss.
They had only pretended to put the mints in their mouths, discreetly spitting them out when they could.
Harper took out her phone and continued recording what was happening by the pond. “This isn’t developing quite how I expected p>
When they’d noticed Nicole acting strangely, they suspected she was working with Cici.
So they had played along with the scheme.
Cecilia whispered, “I thought Nicole’s emotions seemed off p>
Harper nodded. “She’s too calm. No normal person would stay so composed hearing those things p>
“Something’s definitely wrong. A boning knife was missing from her kitchen,” Tang added in a hushed voice while tying up Mrs. White.
Cecilia and Harper stared at him.
Why mention such an important detail only now p>
Mrs. White stopped struggling.
The suspicion that had been lurking in Cecilia’s mind now fully emerged. “Is it possible that she’s doing all this because… she actually wants to kill Cici p>
Mrs. White’s eyes widened in shock.
“Mmph! Mmph!” She looked pleadingly at Cecilia, clearly begging for help.
Cecilia responded with disbelief. “Are you serious, Mrs. White? Your daughter just said she wants to cut me into pieces and grind me into meat paste. Why would I save her? Someone like her deserves whatever terrible fate awaits her. She is a monster p>
Harper and the others shared her contempt.
When they’d heard Cici’s vile words earlier, they had barely contained their urge to attack her.
How could anyone be so purely evil?
Cecilia thought for a moment, then pulled Tang aside and whispered something to him before patting his shoulder. “Go p>
Tang nodded and slipped away quietly.
He smiled to himself, thinking that Cecilia could be quite ruthless herself when needed.
At the center of the pond, Cici and Nicole stood shoulder to shoulder, backs turned to the weathered little house behind them.
They stood next to a half-dug hole beneath the old peach tree.
Nicole stared into the loose, dark earth. Her eyes were fixed – unblinking.
“I can hear him,” she whispered. “He’s saying… ’It’s cold. So cold down here.’ Over and over p>
Cici raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Seriously? Are we doing ghost stories now p>
She took a step forward and plucked a peach from a low-hanging branch. The fruit looked unnaturally ripe – too perfect. She turned, holding it out to Nicole.
“Want one? It’s sweet p>
Nicole reached for it slowly.
But just before her fingers touched the fruit, her hand snapped forward – grabbing Cici’s wrist in a vice grip.
In the same breath, she yanked a knife from her pocket and lunged.
“Let’s go join him,” she hissed, eyes wide, blade flashing toward Cici’s throat.
Across the field, at the edge of the property, Alpha Xavier and Luna Dora had just arrived.
They froze as the scene unfolded before them.
For a split second, no one moved.
Then Luna Dora screamed – raw and guttural.
“No p>