Chapter 6
The door closed behind the bodyguards as they dragged Ruby up and forced her down on her knees.
Ian had only just woken up a short while ago. He glanced at her coldly and said in a frosty voice, “Get down on your knees and grovel at Cecelia’s feet for an hour, and admit that you had done her wrong. I’ll then let this pass.”
Ruby found it ridiculous. She laughed bitterly and said, “I did nothing. Why should I apologize?”
Ian’s face turned grim at once.
“If you hadn’t insisted on marrying Henry, he would never have separated from Cecelia! And she would never have cried every single day ever since or run out in the middle of the road that caused this accident to happen in the first place!
“If I hadn’t pushed her away, she would have been the one lying in this hospital bed now instead of me. It’s all your fault! You took away everything that was hers! And you still dare say you did nothing and shouldn’t apologize?”
Hearing this, Ruby kept glancing between Christopher, Anna, Henry, and Ian. She then started laughing until tears ran down her face.
“Isn’t she just an adopted kid? Why are you all treating a random kid as if she was your own family? Aren’t you afraid that your real daughter would return one day and feel dejected when she sees this?”
Cecelia’s face turned ashen at once. Her lips started trembling. Then, she burst into loud sobs and began to cry hysterically.
Christopher’s face turned red with anger. He went up to Ruby and delivered a tight slap to her face.
The slap was loud and echoed around the vast ward. Ruby’s cheek swelled at once, and some blood even trickled down from the corner of her mouth.
Anna
Anna was angry as well. She got the bodyguards to grab Ruby by the neck and throw her to the ground, holding her there so she couldn’t get up.
Anna’s voice was wrought with hatred as she said, “You have no rights to gossip about Cecelia! Yes, she is just our adopted daughter, but we’ve been treating her like she was our own daughter for many years now! An outsider like you has absolutely no right to speak about her like this!”
Ian then grabbed the stainless steel mug from his bedside table and threw it at Ruby with all of his might.
“Nobody on earth can ever talk about my sister like that! Ruby Lynch, you’d better know your place. How dare you speak ill of our family just because you have a contract marriage with the Spencer family! Who the hell do you think you are?”
Henry held Cecelia in his arms and tried his best to console her. His eyes were filled with disgust when he looked back down at Ruby.
“Life had been fucking terrible for me ever since I was forced into the contract marriage with you! I feel appalled and disgusted by the thought of having to see your face every day and call you my wife after the marriage!
“Let me tell you that you can do whatever you want to try and marry into my family, but I will never, ever like you or fall in love with you! My heart only belongs to one person, and that person is Cecelia!”
The bodyguards then started banging Ruby’s forehead heavily against the floor until it was a bloodied mess.
Blood poured from the cuts on Ruby’s face, blurring her vision and tinting everything red.
She could only listen to the rest of the family berate and humiliate her, feeling as though she was getting squashed under a huge mountain so badly that she couldn’t even catch her breath.
As the guards continued smashing her head into the floor, she suddenly recalled a few scenes in her head, albeit blurry and fuzzy.
Those were the memories from before she contracted the high fever that wiped away most of her childhood memories.
She couldn’t have been older than six or seven years old as she wore a beautiful princess gown and twirled among the flowers in the garden without a single care in the world. Henry then held her hand and led her over to the swings. He then spoke to her in a way that made hex feel at ease at once.
“Don’t be afraid. I’ll always hold on to you tightly and never let you go.”
Christopher and Anna smiled happily as they patted Ruby and Henry on their heads before starting to push them on the swings.
“You’ve always wanted to catch a star in the sky, haven’t you?” they asked. “Here, Mommy and Daddy are going to bring you all the way up there. Hold on
Meanwhile, lan held a camera as he stood in the front, snapping a photo nearly every other second.
“Smile, Sissy! I’m going to record down every happy moment that we spend together! We’re going to cherish these photos forever!”
Their laughter rang out, gradually disappearing into the darkness as the wind carried them away.
Now, four disgusted, disdainful faces appeared in Ruby’s sight instead.
Ruby’s tears began to stream down her face. The salty tears stung when they fell into her open wounds and scrapes.
Still, Ruby gritted her teeth and didn’t let out a single peep from the start until the end. She didn’t beg for mercy or cry aloud at all,
