“Grandma!” Lillian woke up abruptly, looking around the unfamiliar room.
The sky outside had darkened, and her heart raced.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her grandmother in trouble.
Lillian anxiously got up and opened the door, finding the same two guards outside.
“I need to see Andrew.”
The two men ignored her completely.
Lillian tried to rush out, but they pulled her back hard. Seizing the opportunity, she tried to grab one of their guns.
However, she lacked professional training. Unlike Conrad, who played along for fun, no trained guard would let her take their gun so easily.
“Behave!”
Lillian was shoved back into the room.
Behave? She was on the verge of losing her mind. How much longer did they expect her to wait?
Lillian thought for a moment, then turned to the bed, yanking off the sheets and blankets.
She stood by the window, looking out. The area below was full of people, and they had covered all possible blind spots.
Glancing toward the bathroom, Lillian decided she didn’t care anymore.
Waiting here passively was useless. It was better to try escaping. If she could find someone and borrow a phone to let her grandmother know she was safe, even getting caught again would be worth it.
She couldn’t wait aimlessly any longer. It would drive her insane!
Lillian opened the window and, fearing she might attract attention, slowly lowered the tied bedsheets.
The second floor wasn’t very high, but she had never done something like this before. Gathering her courage, she jumped.
However, the moment the red security line scanned her, a loud alarm blared throughout the entire villa.
The two guards at the entrance reacted immediately, burst into her room, and quickly found her.
Lillian was yanked back up.
“Get her up here!”
Lillian glanced back at them, then gritted her teeth and let go of the sheet, falling hard to the ground. Her ankle hit the ground painfully, bringing tears to her eyes, but she didn’t stop running.
A gunshot landed right by her foot, but she kept going.
The wind rushed past her as she ran, until she was suddenly lifted by a strong force.
Andrew grabbed her and carried her back to the house.
“Andrew! Let me go!” she shouted. “I want to go back! I want to go home!”
Andrew tossed her onto the couch.
As she struggled to get up, Andrew’s voice turned cold. “Stop it, Lillian!”
“I’m not making a scene! I just want to know how my grandma is doing! Is that so hard? You know what the situation is. How can you expect me to wait here for so long?”
“I’ve told you, there can be no domestic communications from this island! If we’re discovered, it’ll only make things more dangerous for Mr. Conrad!”
“Then what am I supposed to do? I’m innocent! I got dragged into this by you. What does this have to do with me?”
“It has everything to do with you! Because of you, he let his guard down and took the food you cooked. Don’t you understand your importance, Lillian? You’re not the same as you were three years ago when you first followed him! You’ve long since…”
You’ve long since unknowingly invaded the most important part of Conrad’s territory.
Otherwise, whether it was an engagement with Daisy or any other socialite, it would have just been a strategic alliance for him.
He would have done it by now!
Why else would he delay everything for her?
Clearly, just one alliance would crush those plotting beneath him. Yet, the conflict between you and the White family made his situation even worse.
It gave others the chance to scheme against him.
Every plan, every unexpected change, was because of you, Lillian.
“I’ll find someone to watch over your grandma,” Andrew said, his tone firm. He wasn’t one to explain himself, especially not to someone like Lillian, who wouldn’t understand.
“It’s not the same, Andrew! It’s not the same!” Lillian clutched his sleeve. “I can feel that my grandma needs me right now. Something must’ve happened. If you’re so worried, have someone accompany me back. Once we’re sure she’s okay, I’ll take her to the hospital in City N, and then I’ll come back to you. I’ll even repay Conrad with my life. Is that enough?”
By the end of her plea, Lillian was nearly breaking down.
Andrew simply let go of her hand. “I’m sorry, but nothing is more important than Mr. Conrad’s safety.”
If contacting anyone risked exposing Conrad’s location, Andrew would rather bear the burden of being the bad guy himself.
Lillian’s hand fell limply. After Andrew left, someone soon brought her food, which she promptly smashed to pieces.
Since Conrad had started coughing up blood, he had slipped into a long coma.
George had no time to care about Lillian.
“She still refuses to eat?”
“Yes.”
“Give her a nutrient injection.”
Andrew rubbed his temples. If Lillian kept this up, once Conrad woke up, she might stir up enough trouble to convince him to risk returning to the country. But he couldn’t handle such turmoil right now.
Lillian had gone two days without food or water, protesting through a hunger strike. She spent her days curled up on the couch, watched constantly by a guard, who was wary of her making a scene or attempting anything drastic.
Lillian began observing the guards’ shift patterns and studying the people watching her. Eventually, she found a brief window of opportunity. She started eating regularly, which made them relax a bit, even improving the meals they brought her, fearing she might suffer from malnutrition.
Lillian also started calmly asking about Conrad. “Has he woken up today? What do the doctors say?”
“Not sure.”
“Oh.” Lillian would walk out to the balcony, watching the boats at the dock.
She had learned how to drive a yacht from her father before, and these small boats likely worked on similar principles.
Through bits and pieces of conversation she overheard, she deduced that they were on a private island, not far from the mainland. The entire island had just this one large house, and she had no idea where the rest of the people lived.
She tried to slip out during the shift changes, but to her despair, the guards weren’t split into two shifts as she had thought. Instead, each group had different timing, and another team monitored them, making escape nearly impossible.
Lillian grew anxious, suffering from sleepless nights and spending entire days without speaking a word. She drew patterns on any scrap of paper she could find in the room, but those were soon confiscated as well.
She resumed her hunger strike, refusing to eat, leaving Andrew no choice but to have someone give her nutrient injections. The nurse came twice a day and occasionally tried to persuade Lillian not to harm herself.
One day, while lying still, Lillian suddenly spoke. “Will it rain tomorrow?”
The nurse glanced out the window. “Probably. Are you feeling better? If there’s anything wrong, let me know, okay?”
Lillian looked at her. “I’m sorry.”
“What?”
The nurse looked up, and Lillian swiftly injected her arm with a needle, then used all her strength to pin the nurse down on the bed. It was the sedative they had been injecting her with; she had been saving a small dose each day.
Lillian knew Andrew wouldn’t help her. She had to save herself.