“You weren’t like this before,” Elisa remarked, staring at the same face, but it was certainly not the same as before. How could one person change so much? It was as if she had become a different person. If she had always been this way, he wouldn’t have underestimated her so carelessly.
“Then consider me with split personalities. Remember me as I am now, and if you can’t, I’ll leave a deep impression on you,” she retorted sharply.
The dull ache below reminded Thomas that the current impression was already profound enough.
Elisa casually tossed the magazine she was holding onto the table, and bluntly stated, “I need the money transferred to me before dawn, and the contract termination should be in my inbox by the weekend.”
Thomas’s expression contorted. “I thought you said you didn’t want to terminate the contract.”
“I don’t want to do it now, but that doesn’t mean I won’t want to in the future. Do you really think your pathetic company can keep me for ten years? The signatures and seals required on the contract need to be there. I don’t want to embarrass you later, do you understand?”
She still needed to use the company as a shield, but she couldn’t continue like this forever. She had to prepare an exit strategy in advance to be able to leave at any time.
A recording would only ensnare these scoundrels in a predicament, but it wouldn’t completely solve her problems. She needed to wait a little longer. At the very least, she had to uproot the “money-making tree” of the company.
As Elisa continued her ambiguous and derogatory remarks, Thomas’s complexion worsened, changing from pale to flushed, resembling a thunderstorm.
Elisa settled back onto the sofa and rang for the waiter.
Seeing an outsider about to enter, Thomas, forgetting the pain below, stood up, bowed slightly, and stood before Elisa as if he were a misbehaving elementary school student facing the principal.
The waiter entered and was met with this bizarre scene.
“Get me your most expensive tea to take away,” Elisa demanded.
“Of course, please wait a moment.”
The “Ancient Charm” tea from the shop was all packaged. The waiter brought over an exquisite bag, and upon inspection, Elisa raised an eyebrow slightly. She could already smell the fragrance before the bag was even opened.
Her grandfather used to love this kind of tea back when the Powell family hadn’t gone bankrupt. A small canister was worth twenty thousand dollars.
Elisa closed the bag. “Thank you for your hospitality today, Thomas. We’ll make plans for another day.”
Thomas’s teeth ached. Usually, he was the one deceiving others. When had someone torn a piece of flesh from him? He had only tasted such expensive tea once.
Thomas didn’t want to provoke Elisa any further. He just hoped this trouble would leave quickly, not linger before him. He feared he might not be able to hold back his frustration.
Elisa, carrying the tea, reached the door and suddenly remembered something. She turned back with a smile, “Oh, don’t forget to sign me up for the ‘Weekend Show.’ I heard they are starting recordings next week.”
Gritting his teeth, Thomas replied, “I know!”
Leaving the private room, Elisa touched her still-sore neck. She forgot to ask him for medical expenses and compensation for mental anguish. Oh well… fattening the lamb would take time. Overdoing it would be counterproductive.
Her tactics were only suitable for dealing with ordinary people. If she encountered Hamish, a single glance might expose everything.
Elisa touched the “hairpin” on her head. Next time, she would disguise it as some sort of earring.
Elisa stood at the elevator, adjusting her face mask. As the elevator rose, it dinged, and the doors opened. Just as she was about to step in, she looked up and saw four people inside.
She stood still, and her eyes instinctively sought out the handsome man standing at the back.
Her breath caught. She hadn’t expected to encounter him here.
Her ex-husband, the man who had caused her family’s downfall, the man who owed her five lives-Hamish.
Hamish seemed to have been drinking. His complexion bore an unnatural flush, and he wore a white shirt that didn’t fit his usual style, with a few buttons undone, revealing his exquisite and sensual collarbone.
After a few drinks, Hamish’s eyes would become particularly bright. When he looked at someone, it always seemed as if he cherished them deeply. But only Elisa knew that this man was cold to the bone, cold enough to abandon Lila, who had been with him for over a decade.
He claimed to love Elisa, yet he wanted to break her leg and imprison her at home as a doll he could manipulate at will.
It wasn’t justpossession but a twisted, controlling obsession. He didn’t like anything he possessed slipping from his grasp.
During the year she spent as a soul, she was forced to stay by Hamish’s side several times, witnessing his self-harm, tears, and bloodshed. She even watched him undergo the childbirth experience machine that he had previously scorned.
Did it move her?
The answer was no. In fact, it almost made her want to laugh.
What you can’t get is always in turmoil. Time had taught her a lesson-what should stay, will stay, and what shouldn’t, won’t stay at all.
Elisa disliked the notion of forgiving and forgetting. It felt hypocritical and made people seem pathetic. She preferred the idea of fortunes changing, turning for the worse!
Suppressing her boiling resentment, Elisa knew that once emotions took over, it was easy to lose focus. Her body seemed to shrink into a protective shell, the world around her fading into nothing, her ears deaf to sound, her eyes open but lost in a vacant stare.
“Miss, could you please step aside?”
Elisa’s feet moved stiffly to the side, her head bowed as she watched each person in the elevator pass by her, until she saw a hand with no fingernails, unattractively bare.
She lifted her foot and stepped into the elevator, calmly pressing the “1” button. The doors slowly closed.
At that moment, Hamish subconsciously turned back, his face still carrying the same aloof, disdainful expression.
Elisa’s mask covered half her face, and she didn’t worry that Hamish would notice anything.
Their eyes met through a narrow gap. She saw a flicker of complex emotions in Hamish’s indifferent gaze-confusion, astonishment, a rekindled surprise, and a hint of moistened sorrow.
Elisa’s heart skipped a beat, but fortunately, the elevator doors closed and began its descent.
Several cabs were waiting outside. Elisa casually opened one of the doors and got in, stating her destination.
The driver accelerated, and as the car merged into traffic, Elisa glanced at the rearview mirror. She saw a figure from the teahouse standing still, staring at the car she had just entered.
Elisa sighed. Chiwood was so small. It was only a matter of time before she would encounter Hamish, but it couldn’t happen now. Her wings had yet to fully grow; she wasn’t ready to confront him.
She knew all too well that a bird with broken wings would die.