Qian froze at their words, tilting his head and narrowing his gaze as he held his breath. His heart rate quickened. Swirling emotions and hostility brewing in him to dangerous levels.
San’s words stopped Meilei in her tracks, and she faltered even though she had turned away from him.
“What?” Meilei gulped down and turned to glance back over her shoulder in wide-eyed shock, stopped dead by his confession, and San sunk his head to his chest. Relieved she stayed but was ashamed to be telling her this.
Qian facially gawped, turned his head to stare at the wall opposite him to get his head around what he was hearing, and checked his cell was still recording. A million crazy thoughts ripped through him, and he leaned in closer to get them in a better frame of his viewfinder, still keeping out of sight. Biting on his lip to silence himself.
Kai was going to fucking end him when he saw this. Kai was going to go through his mother like a ton of bricks.
Meilei was stunned into silence. Wracking it all through her head, it all started to make sudden sense. Like being slapped into sobriety and having the light switched on in a dark room. A feeling that deep down she always knew but couldn’t piece it together.
The way San changed after months of being nothing but Kai’s best friend and someone she had once trusted. He had never made her uncomfortable before moving near her, and then he had seemed to become a different person overnight. It was subtle at first but grew worse as the weeks drew on. So slight in the changes towards her that, at first, she convinced herself he was still just her friend, and she was being irrational.
Qian was seething with anger, and the urge to walk out and punch this asshole in the throat was racing through him, causing him all kinds of bodily reactions, but he held still. He knew Kai would kill the motherfucker when he sent him this, and as long as he didn’t move any closer to Meilei, he had no need to reveal himself. He would kill San himself if he touched her after hearing this. Qian was shaking with adrenalin at the deep killer need to kick seven shades of shit out of this twisted, betraying dickhead.
The truth was something he could never have fathomed, and it was ripping the rug out from under him. This girl had never done anything wrong.
Meilei sniffed back tears, shaking her head at San and rubbing her cheeks as though grappling to get her head around it. Still keeping her distance because she didn’t trust him.
Qian pressed the red button on his screen to end the recording and gritted his teeth, still vibrating with the need to walk in there and beat San into a pulp, but he took a long, even breath. Spotting Meilei exiting in haste from an alley further ahead, he turned away, moved along the street, and took a first exit to conceal himself. Peeking out, he saw her running across the street in obvious distress as tears ran down her face, and she disappeared into the nearest shop to hide. Qian moved along the space he was in to be sure San left her alone and didn’t follow her.
Kai would want to be sure Meilei was safe after what he had just heard, and he couldn’t stop growling at it, churning it over and over with disbelief.
Stalking her.
Attempted rape the night of the accident.
Pulling her back from saving Yuelin?
Leaving Meilei to take all the blame and losing everyone around her.
He didn’t know how to feel. This sense of betrayal, confusion, and rage was overwhelming, so he couldn’t begin to imagine what this would do to Kai. This would screw him up.
To know he had been punishing Meilei when she had been the one in need of the most protection all along. His family had royally fucked her over, and Suying flashed into his mind.
Qian’s rage was indescribable.
He flattened himself to the wall until he saw San walk past, heading back in the direction they came, seemingly giving up on trying to pursue Meilei and exhaling with relief. He would wait and follow San to see where he went after this because he didn’t doubt Kai would want to know. This was far from over for Kai.
Meilei maybe didn’t want the past to keep hurting, and now he knew he couldn’t blame her. The girl had been traumatized in so many ways, and she just wanted life to stop coming at her. Qian had never felt more sorry for a human in his life than he did at this moment. A real sense of shame for his own blood and what they had done.
Kai would kill him. He did not doubt that.
Kai would be devastated.