Chapter 285: HOPELESS
"Where is Adrian?" Erika questioned Mary, ignoring the old woman’s apology. Although she was shocked by the latter’s actions, she didn’t want to believe it so easily. Mary would never ask her for an apology just like it. It was completely absurd.
Slightly taken aback when Erika changed the topic, Mary reached for her face with her wrinkled hand and wiped away the tears that glistened on her cheeks and sniffed them back in.
"I have no idea where he is," she confessed but Erika was having a hard time believing her and so was Edward. "He must be hiding somewhere and waiting to recover before he attacks so be careful out there, Erika," she looked up at Erika as she requested for the woman to be safe.
Shocked again, Erika didn’t know what to make of Mary’s attitude towards her. She had always been bitter with her, always after her throat and her life to the extent that she killed Iza, who risked her own life just so she could save Erika but now, the old woman was asking for her apology. ’What could she be up to,’ Erika wondered.
Erika stoned her heart, she was no longer the timid Erika and had changed for the past four years and she wouldn’t let Mary get her way into her head anymore.
"You don’t have to care about my safety, Mary. I think that you should be more worried about yours. Remember, you are a murderer and you will either spend the rest of your life here or die," she promised. Her tone was so harsh that it made chills run down both the mother and daughter duo.
Her character seemed to have strengthened some more, they thought to themselves but it was because of how they treated her in the first place. No one wants to be a human toy.
Mary smiled at Erika as she released a sigh afterward. "I don’t mind dying as long as you forgive me before I do," she suddenly said, making Erika’s eyes widen in surprise.
Edward looked at Erika for a quick second and he finally opened his mouth to say something.
"Why are you asking for an apology from Erika? Do you suddenly regret the way that you’ve already maltreated her?" He questioned Mary, waiting for her to reply to him.
She first glanced at him before she looked back at Erika. "Regret? Do I regret everything that I’ve done to her?" she repeated Edward’s question that was directed to her. "Yes, I do regret my actions towards her and I hope that she can forgive me one day. I don’t want to die knowing that Erika hasn’t forgiven me yet. I know it would take time but I hope that she can find a way in her heart to forgive me." Another stream of tears flowed down her eyes and she immediately wiped it off again.
After hearing all that Mary had just said, she looked at Juliet and found the latter tearing up as well, just like her mother. Her eyes which were already red and swollen just got more red and more swollen.
This scene was the last thing that Erika had imagined seeing the mother and daughter duo play for her. Those two have always been partners in crime so believing that Mary was asking for her forgiveness seemed unbelievable to her.
"I always thought that Felicia was the ideal daughter-in-law for me but because I was too blind, I didn’t get to see the real gem I had in my household," she continued. Her tone was so soft, the kind that she had never used while talking to Erika before and the latter only felt even more uncomfortable than she already was.
"That woman was the only reason that my family shattered into nothing," she continued.
Erika scoffed at Mary’s last sentence without even realizing it.
"I don’t know what happened," she retorted. Her face was calm this time but her eyes told another story. It was sharper than usual and looked like it would be able to cut off their necks anytime soon.
"As far as I know, you were the ones who killed grandma Elizabeth. Have you forgotten that?!" She suddenly demanded with a louder voice this time, completely taking them off guard and they ended up flinching due to the impact it had on them.
Edward’s eyes opened wide, silently swallowing the new information he just discovered. He had thought that it was only Iza that Mary had killed but she seems to be a valid murderer, killing more than one person.
"Wasn’t it a week ago that you were dreaming of how to turn me into a slave?!" She demanded from Mary and the old woman unknowingly covered her seat, trying as much as possible to hide herself but it was impossible. The cat had been let out of the bag and there was nothing that she could do at the moment other than just listen.
"I’m sure that you must have already arranged some piles of chores for me to do once I’d become your daughter-in-law again but you are mistaken Mary, I’m no longer the same person. You keep on forgetting that," Erika reminded her, while she resisted the urge to pin her index finger on Mary’s forehead so that she could digest that information properly.
"I know that things had been different back then but I promise you this Erika, I feel bad after everything that I’ve done especially after I found out about Felicia’s infidelity and the affairs that she has shared outside of her marriage," Mary tried to speak up without choking on her saliva.
The aura that Erika was emanating was very dark and suffocating and she felt like she was in an enclosed room, having no single ounce of oxygen to keep her alive anymore.
"I was blinded by Felicia’s fake act and was fooled, thinking that she was the best daughter-in-law that one could ever ask for....."
"Because she came from a strong family background and you thought that I wasn’t?" Erika interrupted Mary as she helped in completing her sentence for her.
