Behind the glass wall, there was no treasure at all, just a set of mechanical crossbows standing there.
All the images on the bookshelf were set up by the glass screen, an illusion.
All that awaited Jeremy was just a short arrow.
“…”
Jeremy stood there, lowered his head, and looked at the arrowhead in his chest in disbelief. The blood gradually spread out from his wound.
The blood was like a rose.
It was exactly the same as the one she had worn back then.
“Jeremy, I love you until the swamp swallows you up,”
her slightly hoarse voice sounded in his ear, just like every time she had whispered sweet nothings in his ear.
In fact, she had been saying it all along.
She had been saying it all along that she liked him, ever since he had deliberately approached her, ever since he had climbed over the railing and run towards her in the midst of the traffic, ever since… ever since…
Heh.
Heh.
Jeremy looked down at the wound in his chest and let out a low, shaky laugh.
Despite taking an overdose of painkillers, he felt like a huge pain was exploding inside his body, like countless worms were biting his whole body and chewing through every inch of his skin.
He slowly knelt to the ground.
“…”
Everyone looked at him in shock.
Paige watched the scene and her fingertips trembled. She couldn’t tell if it was unexpected or expected, but it was still unpleasant.
Next to her, Enrico rushed out, rushed to Jeremy, grabbed his collar in one hand, and said, “The antidote, where is the antidote? Say it!”
Jeremy was lifted by Enrico and his body swayed. He looked up at his son in front of him with trembling eyes. The evil, greed, and ferocity in his eyes seemed to be gone, leaving only something that was indescribable.
Blood slowly oozed from his mouth.
He slowly raised his hand, trying to touch Enrico.
Enrico grabbed his collar and, his body subconsciously moving backwards to avoid contact, asked him loudly, “The antidote! Where is the antidote?”
“The cabin,”
said Jeremy, his mouth full of blood, as he spoke the whereabouts of the antidote, his hand still trying to touch him.
Enrico let go of his hand.
Jeremy fell to the ground like a tree that had rotted away to the point where it no longer had any edges. He struggled to prop himself up and crawled a little further.
Not far from him was a portrait lying on its side.
The girl in it was young and beautiful. She was leaning against a tree, holding her hand up to shade her eyes from the broken light filtering through the leaves. The corner of her lips was slightly upturned…
“Jeremy, what is the solution to the Ferris Wheel Project?” Paige asked at this moment.
But Jeremy seemed to have already stopped listening. He was lying on the ground, crawling forward with difficulty, trailing a long bloody trail behind his severed hand.
Seeing this, Blanca, who was standing next to the painting, stepped aside.
Jeremy continued crawling forward, lowly and without dignity, wriggling forward like a worm with a broken leg. He stared fixedly at the painting not far away, and reached out with one hand, reaching a little further and further.
Just a little further.
Just a little bit more.
His eyes were bloodshot as he stared, but he couldn’t move another step. His gaze gradually faded, and his fingers fell.
He was only three centimeters away from Annie’s smile on the painting.
He didn’t move.
“…”
Paige turned her eyes to Enrico beside her. Enrico stood there, his eyes staring at Jeremy on the ground, his face expressionless, neither happy nor angry.
After a long while, he let out a low chuckle, as if mocking, or something else.
She walked towards him, ignoring the blood stains on his body, and snuggled into his arms.
At the moment, she was like a piece of cold jade, with no warmth, but when she nestled into his arms, he felt warm again.
Enrico paused for a few seconds, then raised his hand to embrace her, afraid that the blood on his hand would dirty her. He turned his hand around and pressed his arm against the back of her neck, and just held her like that.
“He’s finally dead.”
He held her, his eyes still on Jeremy’s body.
Over the years, there had not been a single moment when he had not wanted to dismember Jeremy into a million pieces.
“Yes,” she reached around his waist and buried her face in his shoulder, “you are free, Enrico.”
The man who had tormented him like a demon for so many years was finally dead.
No one would have thought that Jeremy would die at the hands of Annie, which was actually a great relief. However, Annie and Fawn would never come back.
Thinking about this, Paige couldn’t help but hug Enrico even tighter.
She felt indignant for Annie and Fawn, but she felt even more distressed for Enrico.
…
Going up from the basement, the sunlight outside was so bright it hurt her eyes.
Paige looked up and watched the halo of light resting in the treetops, feeling as if the short few hours had been a lifetime ago.
Jeremy’s body was carried up.
The Davis family matriarch had spoken, and until the memorial tablets for Annie and Fawn were ready, Jeremy’s body would not be cremated until after the ritual of dripping his blood in front of the tablets.
Enrico didn’t say anything, and went into Annie’s room alone, sat down on a chair.
Paige stood in front of the pool in the courtyard, washing the blood off her hands.
The blood mixed with the water and washed away, and her hands slowly returned to their pale colour.
“Will he be okay?”
a voice fell into her ear.
Paige turned her head and saw Blanca standing next to her, looking up at Enrico in the room with a slightly furrowed brow.
Paige looked in the same direction and saw that Enrico was sitting in an old-fashioned chair at the inner edge of the doorway. It was easy to see that he was still covered in blood, and even though he hadn’t washed his hands, they were hanging down. He was leaning back, his head resting on the shoulder of the chair, his eyes closed.
Sunlight shone in, illuminating only half the room obliquely, creating a sense of ambiguity.
“He’s fine,” Paige whispered as she looked at him, “he just… missed his sister.”
The torment and suffering he and his late sister had endured over the years were answered at that moment.
The emotions caused by this sudden answer needed to be digested.
Brangelina followed and sighed, “Annie has been smart her whole life, but how could she not have figured that someone like Jeremy would not treat her children well after her death, and she would rather die than leave with her children.”
She was too blind.
A woman like her could live a good life with her children anywhere.
Hearing this, Paige stood in front of the sink, rubbed her hands together, and continued washing them in the water. She said indifferently, “She thought she had thought of everything. She used her life to wake Jeremy up. If Jeremy is not moved at all, then that means he has been using her, and naturally he will not value their children. Then when Jeremy goes completely mad and decides to get back at the Davis family, she will end it all.”
“…”
Blanca and Brangelina listened quietly on the side.
“But she miscalculated one thing, and that is that Jeremy does not love her, nor does he not love her, so the moment she died, he went mad.”
Paige said bitterly, “Jeremy blamed everything on the Davis family’s lineage, and even hated his own children. How could what he did be simply not taking them seriously?”