Chapter 165: Chapter 165: I’ve Seen a Ghost
His gaze was like that of a husband who had just caught his wife cheating, and it infuriated Yvonne.
"Boss, I’ll be honest with you. My ex-girlfriend is getting married, and she invited me to her wedding. Do you know how infuriating she is? She told me I’d never find a wife in this lifetime and would be stuck going to other people’s weddings."
"When we were dating, she was always putting me down. You have no idea how vicious she could be."
"You’re probably thinking I should just not go, but I can’t. She’s a high school classmate. If I don’t show up, she’ll definitely tell all our old classmates something about me, and I’ll never be able to show my face in front of them again."
Stewart hugged her tightly, pleading and shaking her gently.
"You’re already pretending to be my girlfriend, so you might as well go all the way and keep up the act today. I’ll tell them we’re engaged. Oh, right, I even bought an engagement ring."
With that, Stewart took Yvonne’s hand and slipped a gold ring onto her ring finger.
"It’s pretty light, isn’t it? That’s because it’s plastic. I bought it at a toy store. But you have to admit, the style is pretty nice."
Yvonne hadn’t actually heard a word Stewart said. Her entire attention was fixed on Wyatt Shaw. She saw his expression grow even colder, as if he were about to start a fight with someone. Then, he suddenly shot up and bolted down the stairs.
Yvonne frowned and gave Stewart a push. "Get in the car."
Stewart’s face lit up. "You agreed?"
"Get in the car, now!"
Stewart quickly complied, scrambling into the passenger seat.
Yvonne slid into the driver’s seat. Glancing to the side, she saw Wyatt had already run out of the building. She immediately started the engine and pulled onto the road. In the rearview mirror, she could see Wyatt chasing after them. She accelerated, trying to shake him, but he didn’t give up, continuing to run desperately after them.
’Why is he chasing me?’
’And even if he caught up, then what?’
’What does he want from me? What does he want for us?’
He was like a greedy child who already had his favorite strawberry candy in hand but still coveted the apple-flavored one, simply because he’d had it once and the taste was pretty good.
But you could eat both strawberry and apple candies. With Hannah Abbott and her, he could only choose one.
After turning a corner, she finally lost Wyatt. When he didn’t reappear in her rearview mirror for a long time, she let out a sigh of relief, though she wasn’t sure if it was for his sake or her own.
"Turn left at the next intersection. Keep going straight, and we’ll be in town," Stewart instructed from the passenger seat.
"Why are we going to town?" Yvonne was a bit bewildered.
"Her husband is from Aethelgard, and they already had a banquet there. This time, they’re having a banquet back in the bride’s hometown, and they picked a hotel in town."
"Wait, what are you talking about? I don’t understand." As she said this, Yvonne noticed the ring on her finger. "Hey, what’s with this ring?"
After Stewart finished explaining, Yvonne immediately tried to turn the car around.
"Boss, look at me."
Yvonne glanced at Stewart. "Look at what?"
"Don’t I look pitiful?"
Yvonne’s mouth twitched. "Not really."
"I still have bandages wrapped around my head."
"..."
"Even though you said you were the one who got me into this, Boss, I don’t see it that way. As an employee, it’s my duty to risk life and limb for my boss. It’s my honor."
Yvonne was speechless for a long moment. "Stewart, why are you so damn manipulative!"
From the terrace, Wyatt Shaw watched as another man held Yvonne, whispered in her ear, and put a ring on her finger. He watched them get into a car together...
’She’s my wife! That man is provoking me!’
The thought was wrong, but he surrendered to it, rushing down the steps to give chase. But the car just got faster and faster, and he couldn’t catch it no matter how hard he ran.
Then the car turned a corner and vanished. He gritted his teeth and refused to give up, but a motorcycle suddenly shot out from another intersection. It grazed him, sending him stumbling backward, and the back of his head slammed against a wall.
His vision went black in flashes. The motorcyclist cursed at him, then sped off.
Wyatt clutched the back of his head, leaning against the wall for a long while before he felt better. When he turned the corner to look, Yvonne’s car was completely gone.
He kicked the corner of the wall in frustration, then began the walk back, a disheveled mess. As he neared the compound, he saw a figure standing on the hillside beside the road.
She wore low-rise leather pants, a cropped white sweatshirt, and her hair in two braids. The lip stud she wore glinted coldly in the early morning sun. Her arms were crossed as she looked down at him, her face a mask of blatant mockery.
Wyatt’s pupils contracted. He shook his head, but she was still there. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. She was still there, the mocking smile on her face seeming to deepen.
Wyatt laughed, too. He took a heavy breath and calmly pulled out his phone to dial a number.
The call connected quickly. "Wyatt, where’d you go? I was looking all over for you."
It was Candice Yates’s voice. The figure on the hill remained motionless. Clearly, it wasn’t Candice.
Wyatt hung up. Leaning against the wall, he fished a bottle of pills out of his pocket, shook one out, and popped it into his mouth. He chewed it like a piece of candy and swallowed, not tasting the bitterness at all.
’She’s still there. A ghost that won’t leave me alone.’
Wyatt let out a laugh through gritted teeth. It seemed his madness was getting worse. He was starting to think she wasn’t a ghost, that she was real, alive.
In defiance, he shook out another pill and ate it.
But she was still there! She was still there!
Wyatt knew he was on the verge of breaking down. With a low growl, he charged toward her.
"Hannah Abbott, it’s you, isn’t it? You’re still alive!"
"You didn’t die! You’ve been watching me this whole time!"
"Good. You’re not dead. I’ll kill you with my own two hands!"
He roared as he rushed forward, but he ran off the edge of the road and tumbled into a ditch.
HISS. ’I think I twisted my ankle.’
A passing villager spotted him and pulled him up.
Wyatt was trembling, his gaze fixed on her, his breathing heavy and ragged.
He grabbed the villager’s arm, pointing at the figure on the hillside.
"Her! She’s over there! Can you see her?"
At first, the villager didn’t understand him. He had to ask again before he caught the words, and then he looked, squinting left and right before letting out a confused sound.
"Who? There’s no one there."
"You can’t see her?" Wyatt gripped the villager’s arm tighter.
Seeing how serious he was, the villager took another long look. "Really, there’s nobody there."
"She’s right there."
"Yikes, did you see a ghost or something?" The villager shivered. "You should probably go to a temple and pray. I gotta go."
Terrified, the villager hurried away.
Wyatt pushed himself off the ground. He limped to the base of the wall and slid to the ground. The sun had risen, its light falling on him, but he couldn’t stop shivering from a deep, internal cold.
He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag.
"Are you laughing at me?" he asked.
His only response was her deeper, more profound mockery.
"Hannah Abbott, you destroyed yourself, and now you want to destroy me, too. You’re terrifying."
He took another deep drag from his cigarette and lowered his head. "You win. The truth is, you destroyed me a long time ago."
