6
What…?!
Elara Vance was dead? How could she be dead?
Mrs. Vance sent several photos. Elara Vance was shattered, unrecognizable.
Caleb Thorne scoffed, “These photos are clearly doctored.”
Mrs. Vance coldly retorted, “You say genuine photos are doctored, but you believed Seraphina Hayes’ fake photos as real. How ridiculous is that?”
“What fake photos?”
Mrs. Vance sent several more photos, all of which Seraphina Hayes had claimed were
scars from being bullied by Elara Vance. After forensics, they were all proven fake.
“Elara never harmed your Seraphina Hayes, yet you forced her to her death, you sinner!”
Caleb Thorne was instantly overwhelmed by guilt, nearly losing his footing.
“I didn’t know, I really didn’t know…”
The call disconnected. Just then, Seraphina Hayes emerged, surrounded by people. Caleb Thorne, in a fit of rage, grabbed Seraphina Hayes’ shoulder and showed her the fake
photos.
“Still saying you never harmed Elara? Then what are these?”
“Do you know she’s dead?”
Seraphina Hayes looked utterly bewildered, her eyes welling with tears. “Caleb, who are you talking about? I truly don’t know her…”
“Still acting?”
“No, Caleb, I really don’t know her…”
Her expression didn’t seem fake, but Caleb Thorne couldn’t believe it.
If Elara Vance’s parents remembered her, then they must be lying.
He locked Seraphina Hayes in a room.
“Reflect in there until you learn to admit your mistakes.”
Caleb Thorne turned and called his men.
“Long time no see, let’s catch up.”
His men were excited, each bringing a gift for Seraphina Hayes.
“Seraphina said she liked this gem a while ago, so I stole it from a castle for her.”
“And this painting, Seraphina said she wanted to see the original, so I swapped it out with
a fake.”
Caleb Thorne’s face gradually darkened. “What about Elara Vance’s? She’s my wife, at
least in name.”
His men exchanged bewildered glances.
“What wife, Caleb? Didn’t you swear you’d only marry Seraphina?”
“The wedding’s next month, we’ve already prepared our gifts.”
Caleb Thorne tightly gripped his wine glass. “Even if she was the human shield I picked for Seraphina, I specifically told you to keep her alive.”
His men still looked puzzled. “Caleb, was it because Seraphina almost got kidnapped last time, and you were so worried you decided to pick a human shield?”
“That’s easy enough. I’ll go find one for you, guaranteed to satisfy.”
Watching them continue to feign ignorance, Caleb Thorne’s face suddenly turned grim.
He slammed the wine glass hard on the table.
“Since you won’t admit it, don’t blame me for getting rough.”
The next moment, his men clutched their throats, unable to stop white foam from
bubbling from their mouths.
“Caleb, what are you doing?”
Caleb Thorne was utterly cold. “It’s a high-priced poison, excruciatingly painful, like a
thousand insects gnawing at your insides. Still not confessing?”
“Confess what, Caleb? We really don’t know who that person is!”
Soon, the poison made them writhe on the ground in agony, begging like dogs.
One of them finally couldn’t take it, crying out in anguish.
“I remember now! Elara Vance… Seraphina Hayes always made us go shopping with her
whenever Elara Vance got kidnapped, and that’s how we accidentally caused her death!
Caleb, we really didn’t mean to!”
Caleb Thorne’s vision went black. “Elara… she really died?”
“Yes, Caleb, anyway, Elara Vance only existed to protect Seraphina. If she died, she died…
Ah!”
Caleb Thorne’s shoe savagely ground against his man’s hand. “What else? Speak.”
His men trembled in fear.
“Once, Elara Vance went for days without water and developed a stomach illness. Since then, her stomach always hurt when she was hungry.”
Caleb Thorne remembered blaming Elara Vance for not letting Seraphina Hayes drink the nourishing broth, and a pang went through his heart.
“Another time, Elara Vance suffered comminuted fractures in her ribs…”
Caleb Thorne recalled the kick he gave Elara Vance, and his head swam.
“And last time, Elara Vance had her limbs broken by the kidnappers, leaving her paralyzed in bed. Her shoulder blade was also pierced…”
So, that time Elara Vance was in a wheelchair at the hospital, she wasn’t faking it. She really couldn’t stand.
Caleb Thorne went insane, breaking the limbs of his men one by one.
“This is what you deserve.”
Amidst his men’s agonizing screams, Caleb Thorne arrived at Seraphina Hayes’ door and
heard her on the phone, furious.
“Investigate for me! Find that woman named Elara Vance! She made Caleb lock me in my room! Scar her face, see how she tries to seduce Caleb then!”
Before she finished speaking, Caleb Thorne kicked open Seraphina Hayes’ door and
grabbed her hair.
“I never knew you were so malicious! That was Elara’s *life*!”
