Chapter 199 Substitute
The moment Dalton called out Meryl’s name, Lydia’s composure shattered. She grabbed Dalton, her voice filled with resentment. “Dalton, do you actually see me as Meryl’s substitute? I’m your wife. How could you do this to me?”
Lydia’s face was streaked with tears, her small face pale, her lips tightly bitten. It was too humiliating. She had finally married Dalton, but he called out Meryl’s name during what should have been a moment of intimacy.
Dalton instantly sobered up. He regained his senses and loosened his grip on Lydia as he saw her sobbing uncontrollably. Dalton straightened his clothes and sat in the driver’s seat without a word.
Feeling inexplicably agitated, Dalton didn’t understand what was happening to him. Seeing Chandler forcefully kissing Meryl filled his heart with a bitter ache. He wasn’t usually this irrational, but when Lydia had initiated… as Meryl.
When he closed his eyes, all he could see was her. Dalton had to admit that when he came to his senses and saw Lydia beneath him, he was disappointed. He even wished Lydia was Meryl, wished the person he had just been with… was Meryl.
He would fantasize about kissing Meryl, wondering what her expression would be like. Would she be shy? He wanted to hold her tightly in his arms! “Why was this happening?” he thought.
Dalton was incredibly agitated. He had to admit that he had developed a desire for Meryl, a desire to possess her. He lit a cigarette, holding it between his lips, and smoked one after another. In the seven years Meryl had been chasing him, they had never had any intimate contact.
But he did like her. No one knew it the day he saved Meryl from being bullied outside the bathroom. He had fallen in love with her at first sight. Otherwise, during those three years of high school, he, the young master of the Aniston family, wouldn’t have given up the… that she would be bullied again because of her naivety.
After finishing a cigarette, Dalton’s frustration not only didn’t ease but intensified. Lydia, sitting in the back seat, was also lost in her thoughts.
She didn’t know what Dalton was thinking, but she was sure it wasn’t about her. The thought that he might be thinking about Meryl made Lydia say faintly, “Dalton, have you forgotten what happened three years ago?”
Dalton’s body stiffened. “Three years ago, to let the thugs kidnap me, to bribe them, Meryl sacrificed herself to that thug!” Lydia’s face twisted in disgust. “And now, she can marry your uncle just for profit. What’s left in her that’s worth your longing?”
Dalton remained silent, his breath growing heavier. That was right. He had almost forgotten. Meryl was tainted long ago. To command those thugs, she’d sleep with any of them. They were engaged, and he had never laid a finger on her, yet Meryl could so casually sleep with those lowlifes!
The next day, Meryl opened her eyes. Seeing herself lying on the soft bed, still wearing her pajamas, Meryl started to recall how she got home last night. She remembered waiting in the car for Chandler, but he never came back, so she started drinking. Halfway through the bottle, Chandler seemed to return, but the rest was a blur.
Meryl looked down and saw several ambiguous red marks on her collarbone, obviously hickeys from a man. She froze. A few fragments flashed through her mind, and she remembered that when she got home last night, she was clinging to Chandler, begging him to bathe her.