Selina clenched her teeth and tried to cover her dripping wound with her hand as she closed her eyes, her heart overwhelmed with despair and forlornness.
Well, she might as well take this opportunity to convince herself that the hero in her heart was long gone. Maybe it was about time that she should let go of her wishful thinking. Since her mother had left, she felt like her father had gradually become unrecognizable.
After a pause, she opened her eyes and gave them her ultimatum, “Let Lindsay know that if Horace doesn’t want to sign the divorce paper, I will see this through with him.”
As soon as she had finished her sentence, she turned around and ran out from the Jones’ residence.
Marshall tried to go after her instinctively, but he was soon held back by Sharon, “Selina has gone way overboard, Dad. She is Manfred’s lover now, of course she will look down on Horace.”
Marshall frowned, “What a misfortune in our family!”
…
After Selina had fled from her home, she wandered aimlessly on the road for a very long time.
Her phone that was inside her bag rang again but she had no intention to pick up the call. Who else could it be other than Marshall whom had wanted her to go back?
However, her phone had rung persistently which had deeply frustrated her, so she finally answered the call without even looking at the caller ID, “I’m never going back, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it!”
After three seconds of silence, a husky voice sounded from the other end of the phone, “Selina? Did you have a fight with someone?”
“Mr…. Mr. Gordon?” Selina was dumbfounded as she hurriedly took a glimpse at the caller’s number. Although it was an unknown number, but it was indeed different from the one in the afternoon.
“Where are you?” Manfred asked.
Selina looked up only to realize that the night had fallen as she quickly replied, “I will go back at once.”
“Where are you?” Manfred asked her the same question again, and Selina finally reported her current whereabouts. “Find a safe place and wait for me.” Manfred promptly hung up on her after leaving behind his order.
Selina looked around her surroundings and spotted a supermarket with its lights still on, so she strolled over and took a seat on the bench in front of it.
A young man was holding a little girl whom seemed like she was only four or five years old by her hand while they walked over to the bench. The girl was wearing a princess dress, and her face was beaming with happiness.
When they had passed by Selina, she could hear the little girl asking her father softly, “I want a big doll, Daddy.”
“Sure, Daddy will buy it for you.”
“What if I want a princess bed?’
“Of course, Daddy will buy it for my little princess!”
The little girl giggled as she rolled her eyes, “What if it is the star in the sky, Daddy? Can you pick it for me?”
The young man pretended to look troubled as if he was in a dilemma, “Hmm, you’ve got me there. This is going to be hard for Daddy. What should we do?”
The girl swiftly shook her head when she thought that her request had really put her father in desperate straits, “Then I don’t want it anymore.”
“That won’t work. Why don’t you close your eyes and let Daddy have a try at it?”
The little girl proceeded to close her eyes as the young man scanned around his surroundings. When he had spotted Selina, he walked over to her with a neon-coloured plastic origami stick in his hand.
“Excuse me, miss. Do you know how to fold a star?”
“Oh, I do!” Selina took the stick over from his hand and quickly folded a star. The young man thanked her repeatedly as he held the star carefully in his palm as if it was some sort of priceless treasure.
“My little princess, open your eyes now and take a look at this!”
“Wow!”
“…”
By the time they had walked away, tears were already streaming down Selina’s cheeks.
…
When Manfred had arrived at her location, he could perceive from afar that Selina was sitting by herself in the vast plaza, but it was not until he had gotten closer to her that he had noticed her quivering shoulders.
A frown materialized on his face as he walked up to her and pulled her into his embrace, “Are you crying?”
Selina was startled by Manfred’s sudden appearance as she never thought that he would arrive so soon. She hastily wiped away her tears while shaking her head, “No, it’s just that sand has gotten into my eyes.”
It was apparent that her unconvincing and poor excuse would not be able to deceive someone like Manfred.
“Where have you been this afternoon? You can choose not to tell me, but I will still have my way of finding out what had happened.”
Selina reluctantly opened her mouth, “I went back to the Jones’ residence.”
Manfred’s gaze darkened after hearing her statement, “Someone in the Jones family had bullied you?”
“It’s nothing!” Selina shook her head as she tried to suppress her emotions. However, she could feel her nose twitching when she was faced with his worried gaze.
When she had finished her brief answer, Manfred could discern the hand mark on her cheek and the blood stain on her arm with his sharp eyes.
“Did you get hurt?” He quickly grabbed onto her bloodied arm as he scowled, “When will you stop acting like you’re okay, Selina?”
As soon as Manfred had finished reprimanding her, tears started to well up in Selina’s eyes, and she finally broke down and wept on his shoulder.
This was already the second time that she had bawled her eyes out in his embrace. He still looked as scary and forbidding as ever, hence she could not explain why she could not hold in her tears when she saw his face every time she had been wronged by someone else.
“Stop crying!” Manfred did not let her have her own way this time around, “Your arm needs to be treated.”
He promptly wiped away her tears with his big rough hands and scooped her up to put her inside the car.
The car belted down the road and it was not long before they had gotten home. Manfred immediately brought over the first aid kit and started to clean the wound on Selina’s arm in an attentive manner.
The blood on her arm had already dried up, and it was only after the cleaning that he could detect a cut which was the length of a pinkie. As it was a blunt force injury, her skin and flesh had been turned over from the inside, resulting in an unsightly wound.
Manfred frowned as he asked, “Is it Marshall? Is he even a man?”
Selina was startled by his shrewdness, “How do you know?”
“Oh…Who else in the Jones family could make you cry your heart out if it’s not him?”
His statement indeed made some sense as a wry smile spread over Selina’s face, “Don’t you worry about it as this will be the last time of me crying for him. He’s not worth it!”
Manfred’s brows were still knitted as he asked, “Why did he call you back home?”
“It was because of Lindsay!” Selina answered, “She wanted me to get her son out from the prison. As for the Jones family… maybe they felt that my status had humiliated the Jones’ reputation.”
Manfred narrowed his eyes as he uttered, “The Jones and Keith family?”
“What do you intend to do?” Selina asked intuitively.
“Nothing!” Manfred carried her upstairs after he had finished treating her wound, “You should rest now.”
Selina had initially felt uneasy when she was being watched by him, but as soon as she had hit the bed, fatigue started to overwhelm her, and she soon drifted off to sleep.
Manfred finally moved his eyes away from her after he had heard Selina’s measured breathing which had indicated that she was sleeping soundly.
He got up and went outside to make a call, “What is the progress of the matter regarding the Keith family, Osborn?”
“I’m still on it! It’s just that Horace is too cunning as the police is not able to press him against any charges due to lack of evidence. If nothing goes wrong, he could be out by tomorrow.”
“Huh…” Manfred sneered coldly, and his chilly aura had caused a shiver to run over Osborn’s body even though he was only at the other end of the phone call.
Manfred continued right away, “What about HT Group? Do you believe that his hands are clean when HT Group has prospered over the past few years?”
Osborn was suddenly inspired by his words, “I get what you mean, Mr. Gordon. I will dig into it starting tomorrow.”
“One more thing!” Manfred paused for a second as he added, “Invite Marshall Jones to my office tomorrow.”
After he had ended the call, he walked towards the bed again and held Selina’s hand as he stared at the deep wound on her arm. It was aggravating as though someone had dug a hole on the surface of a perfect apple.
Manfred’s gaze gradually darkened as his eyes were fixated on her injury, “Marshall Jones?”
Manfred would not allow anyone to ever harm his woman even if he was her father.