“Jesus, Christ.” Was the only thing Tian could mutter under his breath, still reeling from the thought that Meilei had tried to die.
Tian couldn’t understand how they got it so wrong.
Ling didn’t know why this sudden honesty and emptying of the entire backstory was happening, because Tian was the single most annoying man on the planet. She had no reason to confide in him, yet he had drawn it out merely by listening. By being the first man she had ever met who didn’t butt in to justify, defend, discredit, or dismiss.
“Did Meilei give the police this version? In her interrogation? Why does her statement say otherwise?” Tian knew about the three days she was held. He couldn’t imagine what that must have been like for a scared girl with her vulnerable personality, already pregnant and suffering from the trauma of an assault and witnessing the death of her best friend. She must have been an emotional mess.
“Does she still have it?” Tian perked up, narrowing his gaze and wondering why they would ever have written two.
Ling shook her head, indicating it was long gone. Meilei left it on their doorstep.
“Meilei thinks the Xuchen family paid money to the police to put pressure on her. She was treated so horribly in that station, and they didn’t care about the truth, only a confession. They kept her awake for three full days, giving her only water, and didn’t let her leave the interrogation room once, even for the bathroom.. instead, they let her soil herself and stay that way. Humiliated and broke her. They questioned her to the point of exhaustion and mental fatigue until she was a hysterical mess. By the end, she signed whatever they wanted just to be left alone.”
He felt sick thinking about it and knew Kai would never have gone that far, so he probably wasn’t even aware of what they did to her.
Tian had visibly paled, his stress levels upped by a hundredfold, while his mind was a whirring mess. Trying to rationalize.
“Are you saying you believe it?” Ling eyed him warily, caught in two minds and pensive as she awaited his response. Telling him all of this had emotionally exhausted her.
“Hmm.” It was a nothing verbal, but he nodded, and she could tell he seemed shaken. He was processing, and she stood watching him, feeling strange. He was taking it in, thinking, evaluating, and weighing it up, which made her swallow down hard and place a hand over her erratic heartbeat.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Ling’s slight rise of hope was short-lived.
“You’re going to try and make him believe you? You’re going to tell him all this, right?” Ling repeated it robotically, unsure she was hearing him right and scrutinizing him.
Ling sank back internally and shook her head. Seeing through his words and coming up with a negative conclusion.
“Don’t bother.”
He didn’t intervene before; what made her think he would do it after she told him everything?
“Come to my office. I need to talk to you. Urgently.”
She moved aside as a few employees entered and gripped her cell against her chest, watching the numbers rise to the next floors, impatient to get this over and done with. It stopped again as two more people joined, and then Anna Taylor walked in. Meilei dropped her gaze to her hands to avoid eye contact and shuffled nearer the wall to try to make herself invisible.
Meilei spotted her first, her face heating, and fully aware that they were still the center of much speculation in this building. It’s not that the woman had ever been anything but nice to her, but knowing she was Kai’s lover still pained her heart. Gossips quickly pounced on their interactions, so she turned her face away and pretended to read her messages. Aware of the glances from others in here with them and a raised brow.
Meilei, next to her, was not even comparable. They were worlds apart, and Anna couldn’t see how the other girl was better than her in any way. Dressed like a kindergarten teacher, with the face of a young teen and the presence of a doorstep.
The elevator pinged open on the executive floor, and both women walked forward to get out. Anna stalled in the open doorway as she realized Meilei was following her. Blocking the exit and holding them all up.