Elisa couldn’t imagine whom she had offended among the Stewarts.
No, there was one… Hugo, Lila’s lover, the one who made a cuckold of Hamish.
Lila was dead, yet those around her remained as restless as she had been.
One of Elisa’s guiding principles was “live and let live.”
Elisa spoke up, “Hugo?”
“Never thought the Miss Powell recognized me,” Hugo replied. He had a deep scar across his face, almost cutting through his eye. In the dim light, he looked overly sinister, like a snake lying in wait.
Hugo had climbed up from being a small-time thug to the top of the underground gambling scene, and his methods were not to be underestimated.
However, lately, he had been worn down. First, Lila’s death, then someone intentionally suppressing him, systematically separating and driving away his influence.
He should have avenged Lila long ago, but obstacles drained his energy, and he hadn’t found the right opportunity. If someone hadn’t suddenly approached him to collaborate, he wouldn’t have been able to smoothly abduct Elisa.
“I promised Mingyue that I would get rid of you a long time ago, but never had the chance,” Hugo said with a sly smile. Elisa remained unshaken. “So, you want to avenge Lila by killing me, an eye for an eye?”
Hugo shook his head, “I didn’t bring you here to kill you.”
“Then what for?”
“People can die and come back to life, souls can inhabit others to survive. I want to know the secrets within you,” Hugo squinted, “If these secrets were exposed, they would surely cause quite a stir, wouldn’t they?”
“Did you abduct me just to study how I came back to life?” Elisa asked.
“I want to bring her back to life,” Hugo said.
“Lila?”
Hugo’s silence was an admission. Elisa’s smile faded, and after a long pause, she said calmly, “Give up your fantasies. A person like Lila will only go to hell after death. If you want to see her again, you might as well die and try to catch up with her. Maybe you’ll have a companion on the road to the underworld.”
Hugo’s face darkened, and he slapped Elisa hard, the sound echoing in the room.
Elisa’s head turned from the force of the blow, her ears ringing and feeling dizzy. She looked at Hugo coldly, thinking he had hit her out of anger, but his face showed no extra emotion.
Elisa sneered, “Hugo, I’m curious why you would like someone like Lila so much that you would go to such lengths for her. Don’t you know she always liked Hamish and wanted to marry him? Or are you just twisted, enjoying a bit of humiliation? Do you like sharing a woman with other men?”
Elisa’s words hit the mark. Hugo’s affection for Lila was not normal; it was pathological.
In short, he was a love addict combined with Stockholm syndrome.
The more Lila ignored him, the more he loved her. Hugo knew that all along, Lila had been using him. Instead of being discontent, he felt he had become a useful person.
Having climbed up from the bottom, Hugo was most often called “useless.” Lila was the first woman who made him feel pleasure.
Lila often called him worthless, yet in the end, she would obediently ask him for favors.
It was this extreme pathology that made him more and more dependent on Lila. He was extremely insecure, even though he had become a big shot. The long-standing inferiority complex in his heart couldn’t be filled except by feeling superior through Lila.
He had saved Lila, undergone plastic surgery, changed his name, and given her everything she wanted, but it wasn’t out of deep love. To Hugo, Lila was just a piece of art, a creation of his success.
Elisa was good at reading people, but even she couldn’t fathom Hugo’s complicated mind.
After Hugo slapped Elisa, neither of them reacted much, as if it was just a scratch. However, his henchman beside him was shocked and whispered, “Mr. Stewart, didn’t you say not to touch her?”
“If I’ve already touched her, what else can happen?” Hugo pinched Elisa’s chin and looked at her half-red face from the slap. “Does it hurt?”
“If you let me go, I’ll slap you to see if it hurts,” Elisa replied with a hint of blood in her mouth, swallowing the saliva mixed with blood.
“So many men like you for a reason. It’s exciting, gives people a desire to conquer,” Hugo said as he lit a cigarette, taking two steps back to sit in a chair”Can you be Lila, and I’ll let you go,” he said.
“Be Lila’s stand-in?” Elisa laughed mockingly. “Are you insulting me or disgusting me? For you, it may be about conquering Lila, seeing a person who looks down on you grovel, but I won’t. Even if I die, I won’t beg you.”