Frederick Addington was silent for three seconds. Those memories were real and vivid in his mind. If she could tell him in such details, he believed that she really knew where Stella Grace was.
He had never once thought that he had gone too far in the past, for Stella had never complained in front of him. She was always cold and she would bear all the pain and anguish alone.
At that time, he felt as though he was possessed by a demon. The more prideful she was and the more indifferent she appeared to be, the more pain he wanted to inflict on her.
Now, hearing Natalie’s calm reminisce of the memories, he finally realized that he had really gone too far. No wonder Stella would rather die than to be with him.
“I’ll let her go. I hope that you would not break your promise. Otherwise, not only she but even you would die too,” Frederick warned fiercely and hung up the phone.
After a while, the gunshots outside stopped and the tranquility of the area resumed. Frederick’s men retreated from the room, taking the dead bodies along with them.
Stella looked at Bettany and said, “You are safe now. Since Frederick has promised to let you go, he should be able to persuade the people above. He should be capable of doing so. You don’t have to worry about Ralph. He will come back to you soon.”
A sense of bleak emptiness gripped Bettany. She muttered, “You told him that I loved him and that I was willing to sacrifice myself for him, but he still wanted to kill me. You just told him that you would tell him where Stella was, and he immediately ordered his men to retreat.”
Looking at the grievous look on Bettany’s face, Stella’s eyes darkened.
This was the reality of a love triangle. One person’s gain was another person’s loss. Slowly, the person will be overpowered by sadness and they will eventually become depressed.
Her mother was one of them.
“One day you will understand that Frederick has never loved you.
However, at the end of the day, it is up to him whether to love you or not. The reason for the sadness you are feeling now is that you thought that he would love you just because you loved him so much. This mentality is wrong, to begin with.
No one is obliged to do anything for you, and they have the perfect right not to do so. What matters most is that you should know what you are doing!” Stella said calmly.
“Have you never longed for Jasper’s love? Maybe you’re just lucky. The ones whom you loved, loved you back, and the ones whom you hated, still loved you,” Bettany was losing too much blood, and her face slowly became as pale as paper.
Perhaps everyone had their own ways to love. When Jasper only had Bettany in his heart, she refused to utter a single word. She didn’t even tell her feelings to Jasper. She just suffered everything by herself in silence and went abroad. Then they stopped contacting each other.
She might have wanted or even longed for his love, but she definitely would not ask for it by force, because she knew there was nothing she could do.
“Elvis, send her to the hospital. She’s bleeding too much,” Stella said.
Her mobile phone rang, and she saw that it was Frederick calling.
“Will you tell Frederick that you are Stella?” Bettany asked worriedly.
“No, I won’t.”
“Don’t forget what you have promised me. I don’t expect him to love me. He doesn’t love me at all. I just want his child. At least, I’ll have someone to accompany me from now on,” Bettany said gloomily.
“What about Ralph? With Frederick’s child by your side, how will you treat Ralph?” Stella was suspicious.
“I had never wanted that child. They forced me to give birth to him.”
Stella suddenly thought of a question, “Jasper’s sperm was left behind when he raped me. Was it already planned by Frederick from the very beginning?”
“I’m not sure about that. He didn’t want to marry you at first. He just wanted to hurt you. Maybe it was General Charles who arranged it. In fact, he was very afraid of Frederick towards the end. He was worried that Frederick would betray him. After all, his mother had a good relationship with the former President, who even deliberately sent Jasper to hold him down,” Bettany guessed.
Stella’s hair stood on end as she felt a chill run down her spine.
She was afraid of neither ghosts nor devils. She was truly afraid of people because a person’s hidden thoughts were sometimes much eviler than those of a devil’s.
“What about my child? Who took him away?” Stella asked.
“Even Frederick doesn’t know where your child was. It probably wasn’t him or General Charles who did it. I reckon that General Charles would have hoped that you would keep the child by your side to create a conflict between Jasper and Frederick. Moreover, he wouldn’t have sent the child back when Jasper is decadent. I guess it should be Jasper’s people who did so. They did so in order not to make any unnecessary trouble for Jasper.”
“Well, did you know anything about that time when Jasper was drugged and eventually raping me?” Stella looked at Bettany and asked.
Bettany shook her head. “They just said that they wanted me to give birth to Jasper’s child, so that I could control him. However, I didn’t want to have sex with him. That’s how the later arrangements came about.”
After Stella’s mobile phone stopped ringing, it rang again.
She answered the phone.
“I’ve already let her go. Tell me,” Frederick came straight to the point.
“She told me that she was going to the South Pole. I don’t know where she is exactly,” Stella said calmly.
She was so used to lying that she did not feel guilt nor shame anymore. She did not feel her conscience being condemned at all when she lied. Perhaps she had no conscience anymore.
“Natalie Wheeler, you tricked me!” Frederick was livid with anger.
“If you know her well enough, you should know that she had always wanted to visit the South Pole,” Stella said calmly.
“If you lie to me, I will take your life at any time,” Frederick hung up the phone.
After listening to the phone call, Bettany followed Elvis to leave.
When she went out, the mercenaries and the Dark Shadow’s men were waiting for her.
She said to the mercenaries, “Although you have only completed one task this time, it was indeed a dangerous situation. I will transfer 3 million to your account. We will work together in the future. Release the child now. You should leave while Jasper is still trapped.”
She turned to look at the Dark Shadow’s men and said, “One of you will go with them to bring the child back. As for the others, you can do whatever you want.”
The people of Dark Shadow gawked at each other in dismay as they watched Stella leaving the house.
Stella got into the car and took out the recording pen from her bag. She recorded the whole battle and all the conversations just now. After listening to it over and over again, she felt a little dizzy. She wasn’t sure whether it was because of the lack of sleep or if she had caught a cold. She could not think of anything at the moment. Her mind went blank.
She closed her eyes and leaned against the sofa. After a while, she fell asleep.
In the morning, some people in A City would begin their day as early as at half-past six. Some of them would make breakfast, some might have just gotten off from their night shifts, some would go to school early, some would go to work, and some could just be leaving the internet cafe after a long night. At this moment, the aroma of bread that was fresh off the oven and the fragrance of the coffee beans drifted into her nose. She opened her eyes. She was having a splitting headache. Her throat felt dry and sore too.
She opened the car door and came down. A gust of wind blew over and she felt a little cold. She tightened up her clothes. When she went out for breakfast, she saw a lot of policemen coming over, followed by armed officers.
She ordered a cup of coffee and some bread. Suddenly, her mobile phone rang.
She saw that it was Jasper Milton. She took a deep breath and answered.
“Where are you?” Jasper asked coldly.
Stella had a bad feeling, “I’m having breakfast outside.”
“Should I go and look for you, or are you coming back?” Jasper asked without a trace of warmth in his voice.