Chapter 253
Stephanie slowly moved her legs to the door. The fright from Marco and Sebastian earlier had masked the pain in her body. Now it all came flooding back.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me.” Sebastian’s voice came from outside the door.
Stephanie’s heart, which had just started to relax, tightened again. “What… What’s wrong?” she stammered.
Sebastian said, “The shower in my room is broken. I came to take a bath here.”
Stephanie was speechless. ‘No, well…’ thought Stephanie. Glancing at the scarf in her hand, she panicked. “Y… You wait a minute,” she stuttered. After saying that, she couldn’t care less about the pain in her legs and hurried back to the bathroom to hide the scarf.
Once everything was taken care of, she came out to open the door. Sebastian looked at the scarf still around her neck, a hint of intrigue in his eyes.
“I thought you were sleeping. Why are you still wearing a scarf?”
Stephanie was speechless. ‘It seems like this scarf is going to be a topic tonight,’ she thought. ‘Someone left such a large mark on my neck, I won’t be able to show my neck for the next week,’ Stephanie complained to herself.
Seeing that Stephanie wasn’t responding, Sebastian stepped forward and tried to take off the scarf for her. However, Stephanie, with her agile frame, jumped far away.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow and said, “Hmm?”
“I’m cold,” she replied. No matter how many times she was asked, the answer would be the same. Besides being cold, she couldn’t think of a suitable reason.
Sebastian said, “Are you really cold, or…” As he spoke, his tone suddenly changed, and he looked at her with a hint of a smile. “Are you sure you’re not injured?”
Stephanie was speechless. Her breath hitched. Her mind was already a bit sluggish, and now, hearing Sebastian’s words, she felt like her brain had completely stopped working.
“What? No, I’m not,” she stammered.
For a moment, Stephanie actually suspected that Sebastian hadn’t forgotten. But that suspicion lasted only a fleeting instant. Every time he drank, he forgot everything that happened afterward. Last night, with both alcohol and drugs involved, there was no way he could remember.
“No?” Stephanie nodded. “No, I’m going to sleep. You go ahead and take your bath.” She couldn’t continue talking to Sebastian; if she did, her heart would really explode.
Sebastian watched her escape-like figure as she ducked into the quilt, and the smile on his lips grew even more pronounced.
“Sleeping with it on isn’t good for your health,” he said. With that, Sebastian went straight into the bathroom.
It wasn’t until the sound of water splashing came that Stephanie’s head popped out from under the quilt. “Oh my, do I have to wear this scarf for a whole week?” Stephanie complained to herself.
Sebastian asked her about the scarf every day, and she didn’t know how long she could hold out. Once was scary enough. And then there was Marco. Stephanie acknowledged his medical skills, but his emotional intelligence was really lacking. The more you try to avoid a certain question, the more he insists on asking it.
Thinking of the large area of bruising she had seen in the mirror just now, Stephanie couldn’t help but groan again. ‘Ah, what should I do? Can I tell Sebastian that I want to go back to Fiorenza early? Say that I miss Mom and Feather? No, that definitely won’t work. If I go back, and Mom asks, how am I supposed to answer? I can’t tell her that the daughter she raised as her own slept with her own son. If I do, I might be kicked out.’ Stephanie’s thoughts were driving her crazy.
The bathroom door opened, and Sebastian’s voice came, “Stefi, what is this?”
“Hmm?” Stephanie lifted the quilt, puzzled, and looked towards Sebastian. When she saw the scarf she had carefully hidden in his hand, her mind went ‘clang,’ completely stunned.