Chapter 11: She Will Never Explain Again
It was not the Claire they remembered. Diana looked at the apologetic woman before her, unable to believe her eyes. She still vividly remembered the first time she saw Claire. At such a young age, she was wielding a rattan cane to reprimand the servants for their mistakes. The fierce look in her eyes at that time seemed to still be present before her even now. Not to mention, as she grew older, Claire became even more arrogant and unrestrained. Diana was quite domineering and wild, but she was never a match for Claire. So, Diana had always disliked her. But seeing Claire in this state now, Diana truly felt sorry for her. However, there was a hateful reason behind every pitiful person. After all, it was her fault for causing Anna’s death four years ago. She deserved the current situation.
“Claire, what are you pretending to be pitiful for? Do you think apologizing a few times will earn you forgiveness? Let me tell you, it’s impossible!”
Diana walked over and kicked Claire to the floor. Claire fell to the ground, her left side scraping harshly against the floor. Only then did she come back to her senses and realize what she had done. She turned her head in a daze, looked around, and finally realized that she was in Frederick’s manor. She had forgotten that she had already been released from prison.
During those four years in prison, countless times of loud shouting and tearing screams resulted from people repeatedly attacking her, trying to beat her to death. At first, she indeed had the spirit to die rather than surrender, with unyielding determination. But later on, it was as if the fear imprinted in her bones caused her to uncontrollably apologize and degrade herself at the sound of such voices. That one time, she was beaten to the point of almost having her body shattered with compound fractures. During that period, the pain was so overwhelming that she wanted to bite her tongue and end her life at every moment. She never even thought she could survive under such circumstances. She genuinely thought she would die from the pain.
That time was the closest she had come to death, so close that every day when she woke up, Claire had to make sure she was still alive, not in hell. Therefore, after recovering from that incident, she would never again be stubborn, nor would she exhibit unyielding determination. Did pain, humiliation, and self-respect matter? Nothing was more important than staying alive.
The cursing voices continued in her ears, but Claire simply didn’t care.
“You heartless woman! Back then, Anna was so kind and forgiving towards you. Every time, she spoke up for you and stood by your side. There was even one time when she was almost disfigured for your sake, yet what did you do? You actually found some hooligans to beat her to death. Is it just because Frederick loved her but not you? A wicked woman like you deserves more than just a knife cutting your face. You deserve to die a horrible death…”
Diana humiliated her at the top of her voice for a long time until her throat was dry and her mouth parched. Only then did she stop. Claire silently listened without retorting or explaining from beginning to end.
If this had happened four years ago, she would have gone crazy trying to defend herself, telling them that she didn’t kill Anna or hire those thugs. She didn’t know why there was a message from Anna on her WhatsApp, saying that she had arrived at Redsun Bar. She never made plans to ask Anna to go to a bar. She explained and screamed countless times four years ago, yet nobody believed her. In the end, all she got was everyone believing she was the murderer, leading to four years of imprisonment.
Now, Claire would never explain herself again. She had reached the pinnacle of despair, the height of suffering. All that remained was the simplest wish—to stay alive.
“Diana, have you had enough of the trouble?”
She didn’t raise her head until she heard Frederick’s voice. The next second, he approached her, carefully helping her to her feet.
“Does it hurt?”
He gently stroked her face, his tone so tender, resembling that of a loving partner.
At that moment, Claire looked at him, and her heart almost stopped beating.