Elisa circled behind Finn, squatting down and pinching his hand.
Finn’s hand was clearly defined, with a thin callus on the fingertips. Elisa looked at his ten fingers, as if patiently selecting vegetables in a market, and finally pinched Finn’s left index finger.
“Now I’ll give you two choices. One, open the elevator to let me go, and I will spare you. Two, today you will wish you were dead.”
Finn kept his eyes closed and said nothing.
Elisa had anticipated this outcome, but couldn’t help but sneer, “It seems you don’t want to let me go.”
As she spoke, she aimed the needle of the syringe at his fingernail and pushed it in.
The pain, spreading from finger to heart, would be enough to haunt him for a lifetime. Elisa’s hand trembled, but she still administered the dose.
Finn only emitted a muffled groan, his hand subconsciously struggling and trembling.
“When you were researching these drugs, did you ever think they’d be used on you one day?”
The needle pierced through the nail, blood gushed out. Just a single finger; the pain he was enduring now was nothing compared to what Elisa had suffered before. Twenty-eight tiny steel needles… just the thought was chilling.
The stimulating drug spread from the finger to his whole body, making his scalp numb. His body couldn’t withstand the convulsions. Finn suppressed the groans of pain, but couldn’t control his physical reactions. Cold sweat poured, tears streamed from the corners of his eyes.
Elisa was not Finn after all. She wouldn’t derive pleasure from this process, nor would she find joy in revenge. Time had long smoothed the edges of her hatred. Only when she thought of Autumn did that flame ignite.
“Does it hurt?” Elisa asked.
Finn tilted his head, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said, “Don’t use Aoife’s voice to speak to me like that.”
Finn kept his eyes closed, knowing that even though the person before him was Elisa, he didn’t want to see “Aoife’s” face showing hatred towards him.
“Can’t bear it?” Elisa’s tone now was remarkably similar to the tone Finn had when tormenting her in the past.
“Know that Aoife endured for two years, suffered your mental abuse during her time with you, and developed severe depression after leaving you. You may not know that Aoife suffered from severe depression while she was with you.”
“She had depression?” His voice was hollow and hoarse. Finn struggled with his eyelashes, finally opening his eyes. His pupils contracted slightly, and his tear-filled eyes, crystalline under the light, conveyed a sense of tearing and fragmentation.
The drugs Elisa injected into his body had taken effect. The tearing pain in his muscles was excruciating, but it still paled in comparison to the torment of his heart.
“You mean Aoife had depression when she was with me?”
To be precise, Aoife’s depression was only diagnosed after she left Finn.
Finn had a significant impact on her mental state-intimidation, threats, coercion, insults. Leaving Finn, facing persecution from her agency, and the insults from netizens, these became the final straw that broke her.
Finn, however, didn’t believe Elisa’s words. “It’s impossible. She didn’t show any signs of depression when she was with me. If she had depression, why didn’t she tell me?”
“You treated her as a substitute, humiliating her. Would someone like you care whether she had depression or how she felt? Someone like you, who treats people as toys to be played with at will, does dignity and feelings even matter?”
Thinking of the medical report on Aoife’s depression hidden in the closet, Elisa felt a pang in her chest.
Aoife had been diagnosed but didn’t return to the hospital after being diagnosed with severe depression. She had no savings, and depression was a disease that the poor couldn’t afford to treat. Choosing to die easily rather than live in pain, that was her choice.
After saying this, Elisa continued to administer the new drug with precision.
Under the influence of the drug, Finn’s nerves were becoming somewhat unclear.
Elisa pushed the chair to the elevator door, gauged the distance, made sure she could unlock the pupils, then lifted Finn’s head.
Finn had already noticed and closed his eyes.
“At this point, you still won’t let me go.”
“I’m just thinking, will Aoife come back if you die?”
“And if she comes back?”
“I’m sorry.”
Elisa hadn’t expected to hear these three words from Finn. She had always thought that someone like him would never deign to apologize.
“Aoife doesn’t need just those words ‘I’m sorry.’ Besides, what’s the worth of yourapology? You, who doesn’t even believe in sincerity, how much truth can there be in your ‘I’m sorry’?” Elisa’s expression slowly solidified, she didn’t want to waste any more time on Finn.
Outside, the sky was quickly darkening, and it wouldn’t be good for her to go out any later.
Elisa tightened her grip on the syringe and aimed it at Finn’s neck. “My patience is wearing thin. With everything you’ve done in front of me, killing Autumn is enough for you to die a thousand times over.”
The needle had already pierced the skin. “With just a little force, this needle can penetrate your carotid artery, and you should know what that feels like. Look at this liquid, I wonder if it’s more potent than the five injections you administered to me in the past.”
Finn glanced at the strange green liquid in Elisa’s hand. This drug was an upgraded version, untested. But judging by its content, a single injection into the artery would easily cause brain necrosis as it flowed through the body.
“There’s a communicator in the room. You can call the people downstairs.” Finn’s voice was weak. “I can’t see clearly now, my pupils can’t focus. The elevator won’t open.”
“Where is it?”
“In the room where these drugs are stored, in the drawer under the lab table.”
Elisa put down her hand, turned around, and indeed found the communicator in the drawer. She returned to the elevator door.
She contacted the people below. “Mr. Snearl is now in my custody. If you want him to be safe, open the elevator door and prepare a car.”
Elisa pushed Finn to the window. After saying this, she indeed saw the figures below raise their heads to look in her direction.
Regardless of whether they could see, the syringe in Elisa’s hand was still aimed at Finn’s neck.
Her courage was something Aoife could never learn in her lifetime. In fact, now it seemed that the two were completely different. Even after seeing each other so much, they didn’t seem much alike. Why did he choose Aoife to be Elisa’s substitute in the first place?
Just then, a rumbling sound came from outside. Elisa looked up and saw a helicopter slowly approaching the building.