Chapter 422
422
Henry scoffed coldly when he saw me.
“Do you know why I don’t like you and instead like Lianne so much? It’s because you’re so cold and heartless ! ” he spat. “William and Noah Ashford have treated you so well. Yet, you can just stand by and watch Ava die.”
He added, “ It’s no wonder your mother and I don’t even love you. Someone like you deserves to die alone!”
His current behavior only made me feel even more certain that I ll been giving him too much credit. He probably wasn’t the kind of person I had been imagining. But then, I recalled how Julianne had faked her death, and suddenly , I wasn’t so sure.
Irvin hadn’t helped Julianne with it, and she wasn’t capable of pulling off something like this on her own. That meant someone must have helped her.
If it wasn’t Irvin , then my parents were the next most likely people And if Henry was as he appeared to be now, he definitely didn’t have the skills to help Julianne fake her death.
Upon meeting my scrutinizing gaze , Henry didn’t say anything else. He merely opened the door to his room , stepped inside, and slammed it shut.
After our call, William immediately ordered his people to find out my whereabouts. When he learned that I had likely been taken away by the military, he exhaled in relief.
Just then, his butler reported Ava had coughed up blood again. Upon hearing this, William rushed out. By the time he arrived, she had already lost consciousness from blood loss.
I had told William she wouldn’t live to see next summer if she wasn’t cured soon. When this came to his mind, his already cold gaze became terrifyingly frigid.
William immediately barked orders. “Bring Julianne here now! And…”
Once his trusted aide had left to carry out his orders, he turned his gaze back to the unconscious Ava.
William’s icy gaze softened, turning into one filled with aching tenderness. The aching in his gaze intensified as he gently brushed his hand over her pale face that had been worn thin from being chronically ill.
Due to Ava’s worsening condition, Julianne had been kept in Redwood and was always on standby to donate blood.
When the Ashford family’s staff came to get Julianne , she had been in the midst of a shopping spree , so she had been in high spirits. But when she saw them, her mood instantly plummeted. She couldn’t keep herself from resenting Ava for being so sickly, and the fact that Ava was still alive.
But then, if Ava did die, Julianne might go down with her. Remembering this, she couldn’t stop herself from kicking over a nearby stool in agitation.
Ava couldn’t die. However, Julianne was fed up with having to donate her blood whenever the Ashfords called for it. She really…
Suddenly, Julianne remembered what the mysterious man had told her. If she helped the man and killed William , she would be completely free. The memory of this stirred something in her.
When that mysterious man first approached her, he had asked Julianne to help kill William using poison. Julianne had instinctively refused his request because she genuinely liked William. And even though she knew she could never have him , she still wanted him to live.
Naturally, it was also because she didn’t have the guts to go through with it. Julianne was afraid that William would have her killed first before she could successfully poison him. That was why she had refused the mysterious man outright then.
However, his words lingered in Julianne’s mind. They had been stuck in her head ever since the mysterious man had said them and would surface randomly. When they did, she couldn’t help longing for true freedom.
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+25 BONUS
Additionally , Julianne also couldn’t stop herself from wondering why she would keep William alive when he was a man she could never have . Not only would his continued existence bring he pain , but it also didn’t benefit her at all. So , she shouldn’t be letting her infatuation cloud her judgment.
Julianne also couldn’t keep from thinking that she didn’t actually need to be so scared . Right now, William wasn’t as guarded around her as he used to be. If she were super careful , he might not even notice she wanted to poison him.
If she took the risk , she would be free . She would no longer need to worry about William handing her over to me once she became useless . She also wouldn’t need to be concerned about being sent to prison.
And now that she was being called to donate blood again, Julianne couldn’t help wishing even more to be free . She craved a truly free life so strongly that she couldn’t resist being swayed.
As she was taken away to donate blood for Ava , Julianne couldn’t stop herself from plotting how she could poison William without giving anything away .
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