Chapter 2
798words
I turned my head to look at Natalia, the woman whom I had almost married. Bitterness filled my heart instantly.
So she still cared about me, didn't she? A tiny bit of warmth returned to my drenched body, which felt cold from being soaked through.
Just as I was about to speak, Natalia suddenly slapped me hard across the face. "Did you think turning yourself into this pathetic mess would draw my attention to you? Don't be ridiculous! How dare you stir up trouble at my wedding? I won't let this go so easily!"
As her words fell, she grabbed my neck forcefully and pressed my upper body over the railing.
A crushing sense of suffocation closed in, but I didn't struggle at all. I thought that maybe dying like this wouldn't be so bad.
Hence, I closed my eyes, ready to accept death calmly.
That was when Natalia panicked. She noticed something was wrong with me. Alarmed, she took a step back and stared at me in shock.
"Why aren't you struggling? And why aren't you explaining yourself? Do you really want to die?" she demanded.
If I explained, would she believe me?
I had explained myself countless times before. But every single time, she thought I was just making excuses. All it ever did was push her closer and closer to Irving.
I gave a hollow smile, my voice tinged with a quiet sense of resignation. "Either way, I've lost everything. I might as well die."
The color drained from Natalia's face. She grabbed my collar tightly, and there seemed to be tears shimmering in her eyes.
She hissed, "Your life belongs to me. You're not allowed to die!"
When I had first become engaged to Natalia, her family had looked down on me and insisted that she break off the engagement. For my sake, she had endured who knows how many rounds of punishment from her family.
Even when she was beaten until her entire body was covered in bruises, she refused to give in. After I found out, I went to the Stone residence and took the punishment in her place.
When I was beaten to the brink of death, she held onto me in terror and made me a promise. She had said that without her permission, I was absolutely not allowed to die.
I looked up at Natalia. But before I could speak, a petite, cute young woman rushed in front of me.
This was Shiloh Quale, my second target of affection. She was originally my best friend in this world.
Ruthlessly, she stepped on my face and flung a stack of photos onto my body. "Lucian, since you dared to ruin Irvy's wedding, there's no need for me to care about your dignity anymore!"
In the photos, I was tied up and beaten mercilessly. There was someone pinning me down and riding on me. One even showed me stripped naked with the word "trash" written all over me.
Every single one of those photos had been taken by Shiloh herself. She had carefully chosen the angles to make sure that my face was captured with brutal clarity.
She had done all of this just because I exposed Irving's cheating during a photography competition. Because of me, he was humiliated.
Amid waves of mocking laughter, Shiloh sneered and raised her camera to snap photos of my current miserable state. In an inconspicuous corner of the camera, there was a tiny line of words engraved—Shi & Luc.
The camera was a gift I had once given her.
Shiloh had lost her mother at a young age. Her father constantly brought different women home and took pleasure in letting them torment her.
By chance, I became friends with her. To protect her from being abused by the lecherous old men her father brought back, I had been beaten so badly that I lost my sight for some time.
To comfort her, I gave her a camera and asked her to help me capture all the beautiful sights I couldn't see. After my eyes recovered, she retained the habit of taking photos.
Later on, I discovered that more and more of her photos had Irving's figure in them.
"If you don't kneel down and apologize to Irvy, I'll upload all these photos online. Let's see how you'll show your face in public when that happens," Shiloh sneered.
When I didn't respond, her voice turned even colder as she grabbed my collar and yanked me up gruffly. Weak as I was, I fell to my knees with a cry of pain.
Seeing this, Natalia frowned. She wanted to help me, but Shiloh blocked her way.
