“Harry, you just refuse to admit, refuse to admit that Hattie is retaliating against you in this way, refuse to admit the harm you have done to her, so you want to use me to offset your mistakes! To clear your scumbag behavior! Harry, you’re a coward!”
Harry remained poker-faced, but at this moment, a deep bitterness appeared on his face. Yes, he still refused to admit it.
Mrs. Thompson was sentenced to life imprisonment, Fiona was right. Everything he was doing now was just to cover up this fact.
All the anger vanished in an instant. Harry slumped on the sofa, rubbing his temples.
Just when Fiona thought she could escape this disaster, Harry spoke up, “Fiona, no matter how much you say, it cannot wash away the reality of you hurting Hattie. Even if I don’t like someone, I don’t interfere with her, you shouldn’t use your jealousy to hurt someone in my name. I’m guilty and you can’t escape it.”
“What do I owe her?” Fiona’s face grew increasingly unpleasant, feeling increasingly uneasy.
“Hattie has over a hundred wounds on her body, do you know that?”
Fiona naturally knew. Those wounds Hattie received in prison were ordered by her. The more severe the injury she inflicted, the happier she was.
“Have you seen those wounds on her body?” Harry asked again.
Fiona shook her head. She had only heard of it and never seen it. She looked at Harry, growing more and more afraid, wanting to escape, but she knew she couldn’t get away today.
Harry opened the file on the sofa and threw it at Fiona’s face. Inside were photos of wounds, new and old wounds stacked together. Even though Fiona knew from the beginning how severely Hattie was injured in there, seeing these wounds still made her feel scared.
People have a natural fear of horrific wounds, but Fiona’s was more guilt and fear. She was afraid her body would turn into something like this.
“Hattie had a finger broken, so I’ll break one of yours, isn’t that fair?” Exchanging one finger for over a hundred wounds was already generous.
Harry still had a soft spot for Fiona.
Fiona shook her head, “I don’t…”
“I’m not negotiating with you. One finger or one life, you choose.”
“I won’t choose anyone. Harry, did you forget what you promised me? You said you would always protect me and keep me from harm.” Finished speaking, Fiona remembered something, and she took out the golden chain she had been wearing around her neck, as if she were holding a get-out-of-jail-free card. “Back then, I saved you. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be here today!”
Looking at that chain, Harry’s pupils constricted. When the Stewart family had an accident, he and his mother knelt on the road begging the Mason family for help, but they didn’t even look at them.
The Stewart family went bankrupt, his father had just died, his mother was seriously ill, and when she was desperate and wanted to commit suicide, Fiona appeared in front of him with this chain, urging him to exchange it for money to get through this ordeal.
Fiona was an orphan, and the golden chain was said to have been picked up by the headmaster when they found her. It was a very important chain, possibly related to her birth parents.
To help him, she didn’t even want such a valuable thing.
Every time they met by chance, she could do so much for him, while the Mason family, who he had known for so long, not only treated him like a stranger but also insulted him like a dog.
Whenever he remembered these things, Harry felt a deep-seated hatred towards the Mason family. Fortunately, the Mason family eventually got their comeuppance, and he also tasted the joy of revenge on Hattie.
Suddenly, Harry reached out and forcibly pulled at the chain around her neck. The part that connected broke, and Fiona felt a sharp pain in her neck. Instinctively reaching to touch her neck, she felt blood and saw the golden chain in Harry’s hand.
When he appropriated the chain, he always kept an eye on any news about it and told the shop not to sell it, agreeing to buy it back no matter the price.
When he finally had the money, Harry did buy the golden chain back, paying twice the original price. There was a red jade set in a gold pendant on the chain, resembling auspicious clouds, which was the most valuable part of the chain.
After redeeming it, he returned the chain to Fiona. Fiona rarely wore it, claiming it was too precious, and even when she did, it was always hidden inside her clothes.
Now, seeing it, feeling like a lifetime ago, Harry squeezed the pendant on the chain tightly.
“I take back what I said earlier.”
“How could you…” Fiona couldn’t believe how decisive Harry was. She was somewhat afraid.
Harry said, “Yes, perhaps without this chain, I wouldn’t be here today, but aren’t you the same? Without me, Fiona, can you be sure you would have safely left the orphanage? And this chain, do you think you could have kept it safe in a place like that?” As it is said, keeping an air of mystery, this golden chain is too conspicuous. It’s a wonder how Fiona, a background-less orphan, wasn’t robbed with it for life can be filled with threats when one flaunts their wealth.
Living in the orphanage wasn’t easy for Fiona. She was bullied by older kids, and she was considered quite pretty. She had almost been adopted by a pedophile, but Harry intervened in time.
“In the end, what I owed you has long been repaid.” Returning the chain, the money he spent on her far exceeded the value of the chain.
“But what you owe Hattie still remains.” After Harry finished speaking, he took action directly. The remaining bodyguards understood his meaning with just a glance, went over, pinned Fiona to the ground, clenched her fist tightly, and twisted her fingers one by one, firm in holding her down. She couldn’t break free no matter how hard she struggled.
Harry took out a knife, squatted in front of Fiona, the tip of the knife getting closer. He was going to do it himself.
Fiona struggled, crying and gasping for air, her voice hoarse, “Harry, don’t do this to me. No one in this world loves you more than I do, Harry. Please, think about it. Do you really want to let that heartless Hattie sever my fingers? Don’t forget how her family treated you before. Back then, Hattie even stabbed you 29 times, she wanted you dead. I only retaliated against her because she harmed you. I did it because I care about you…”
It was as if Harry hadn’t heard her. He held Fiona’s hand, smooth and delicate. Compared to Hattie, she seemed extremely ugly.
“Even if she deserved retaliation for the 29 times she injured me, it should have been done by my own hands, not by letting you do it in my name.” Thinking about Hattie’s hand and all those wounds on it, his heart sank, feeling a sense of weightlessness. “Just losing a finger, not having hot oil poured on you, not enduring two years of torment in darkness. Fiona, be content.”
Fiona froze, pinned to the ground, her face pressed against it, the cold floor rubbing against her, making her sore all over, looking extremely disheveled.
Three years ago, she lost her left leg in a car accident, but with Harry’s favor and trust, she felt like she had won.
After that, Hattie went to prison, and she felt like the threat was gone from her later years.
She was so confident about her place in Harry’s heart that she never considered her future.
Now she realized she had underestimated Hattie in Harry’s heart and overestimated Harry’s attitude towards her.
At the moment the knife fell in Harry’s hand, she remembered what Hattie had said to her that day.
“You are over thirty, without the innocence of a child or attractive looks, physically disabled, with a decline in intelligence, and lacking the capabilities that match your age, clinging to a man like a burr, what would you choose in a situation where you have no assets left, to keep your dignity intact, kindness, and morality, rather than end up with nothing, shouting around like a pitiful creature.”
Like three years ago when she lost her leg, now that she had lost her fingers, she truly was the most pitiful and ridiculous creature in the world.