Chapter 284: APOLOGY LOCATION
"Well well well, isn’t this the most amazing person in the world who has finally decided to come see us? After a whole week of asking for you to see us, you just decided to play the role of the important character and made us wait as you’d intended to do," a mocking tone greeted them as soon as they stepped inside the room.
Erika looked at Juliet whose cuffed hands were kept in front of her. Her face was so pale and her eyes were red while eye bags settled underneath, making her look like a clown that was managing its makeup.
In the room, Erika sighted two other military men inside and could only wonder how criminals were going to escape from there since there were men in military uniform, holding huge guns that she was very sure weighed more than her two legs put together, while walking about. The criminals would be too scared to even make a sound, she thought to herself.
Erika’s eyes finally settled on Juliet as she watched the latter look at her with calm eyes. That stare made her feel uncomfortable. She was already used to Juliet glaring at her nonstop so seeing her look at her with no intent to kill her bothered her.
Edward signaled his two men to leave the room and give them privacy and as he was also about to leave, Erika stopped him.
"Please stay here. She might try to do something stupid," Erik voiced out without any restraint and immediately, she heard Juliet scoff.
"I’m not the one that wants to talk to you. It’s my mother," she clarified and that was only when Erika was able to recognize Mary, who seemed to have aged more in the past few days. Her skin seemed to have more lines of wrinkles and her face was so dull that one would think she wasn’t alive if she hadn’t opened her eyes. Just like Juliet, eye bags also settled underneath her lashes and Erika didn’t need to ask why because it was obvious that they weren’t getting enough sleep.
They weren’t supposed to. They were criminals, especially Mary who was a murderer.
"What was it that you wanted to talk about?" Erika asked, and this question was directed towards Mary. Staying in the same closed space as them made her skin crawl and she wished she could just go back and never return but she was already there.
Mary raised her head to look at Erika. It took her some seconds before she smiled at her while Erika returned the gesture by frowning. This was the first time that Mary had ever stretched her cheeks for her and that creeped her out. It only made her skin crawl even more.
"My dear," Mary voiced out and at that moment, Erika immediately paused her hand that reached for the chair that was in front of them and looked at Edward.
He wasn’t as surprised as she thought he would be, probably because he didn’t know her full story yet.
Mary raised her hands and expected Erika to hold hers with it but the latter only stared at her with a frown etched on her face. They weren’t here to kiss and makeup, she was only here to know if they had a clue about where Adrian could be.
"Stop this nonsense," Erika demanded as she swatted Mary’s old, wrinkled hands away. "I thought you had something important to tell me. I think it’s better you just tell me what it is and stop this drama of yours,"
She added.
Erika glanced at Juliet and expected her to bark at her as she’d always done but the girl only listened silently before lowering her head while Mary’s eyes widened a bit before they went back to their normal sizes.
"Please, can you take a seat?" Mary requested with a lowered voice.
Erika stared at the chair and quickly shook her head. She wasn’t comfortable with how Mary was talking to her, so gently and softly. Those weren’t Mary’s way of talking to her. It made her feel uncomfortable and the thought that they had probably put something on the chair arose in her mind.
"I’m not sitting down. Just tell me what you wanted to tell me so that I can leave," she demanded. Mary stared at her before her eyes went to Edward, who was also ready to listen to them. "He’s staying," she added, knowing that Mary would request to talk to her alone.
Mary nodded in understanding. It took her some more seconds before she was able to part her lips and utter what she wanted to say.
"I’m sorry, Erika," she apologized as she teared up at that moment. "I’m so sorry for everything that I’ve done to you, please forgive me," she said as hot tears continued to flow down from her eyes.
Erika stared at her for a few seconds before she chuckled. "You really shouldn’t be wasting my time like this Mary. If this is one of your plans then you’d better just quit because I’m not going to believe a single thing that came out of your mouth," she said. Her voice was so firm and it made chills run down from Mary’s back.
Mary’s mouth quivered, unable to utter anything else but she wasn’t going to give up. "I know that you wouldn’t be able to believe me so easily but I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done to you ever since we met and married into my family. I never knew that a day like this would come but I’m glad that I will be able to apologize before my time comes and death will take me away," she said.
Mary raised her head to look at Erika and the latter’s solemn expression wasn’t something that she was the least surprised about.
She was very much aware that her apology wouldn’t easily be accepted because it was coming out of nowhere and she never dreamed of doing one in the first place. But now that her eyes were opened, she didn’t want to waste any time.
