Chapter 24
Vincent watched Stephanie, her sun-kissed face just perfect, and asked, “What is it?”
She quickly kissed him. “That’s your goodnight kiss,” she whispered.
‘Oh man, he thought, she’s gonna be the death of me
After a long time, she fell asleep with satisfaction. Vincent covered his eyes with his hand. He felt that Stephanie had deliberately tortured him.
Moments later, he turned to look at her, who was sound asleep. She had a delicate face. She looked so p
pure and beautiful
Nonetheless, she somehow managed to take over the whole bed, with her pajama top riding up, showing her beautiful legs and plump bottom. For a second, Vincent’s throat felt dry seeing her like that. His mind was racing, and he struggled to chill out.
He tucked the blanket around her, turned, and clicked off the lamp.
Soon, Vincent felt Stephanie wrap her legs around his waist. He took a deep breath. He would make sure she slept in her own bedroom tomorrow.
Early in the moming, when Stephanie woke up, she found that Vincent was still sound asleep. She lay there grinning at his face, reaching out to gently touch his cheek
“Are you up?” Vincent opened his eyes and looked at her tenderly, Withdrawing her hand, she said in an embarrassed manner, “Have you woken up a long time ago?”
He thought about telling her he’d barely slept, but she’d want the whole story, “Yeah,” he played it cool.
“ThenThis belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.
you can sleep a little longer. I’ll prepare breakfast.” Then, she jumped off and returned to her bedroom. She changed into her loungewear and went to the kitchen.
Vincent smiled softly. He was no longer sleepy. After washing up, he went to the kitchen too. He watched as Stephanie stirred the oatmeal and then cut the fruit. She was a bit busy but still organized.
Lydia appeared and greeted Vincent respectfully. Then, she walked to the kitchen counter. “Mrs. Fletcher, please wheel Mr. Fletcher to the dining room I’ll bring the fruit and oatmeal.”
Stephanie nodded. “That’d be awesome, thanks!”
“No problem,” Lydia replied.
Stephanic then pushed Vincent to the dining room and whispered, “Be ready for a good show.”
Moments later, Lydia put the food on the dining table. She carefully set the utensils and put the oatmeal into two small plates.
Stephanie held Vincent’s arm while pointing at the phone screen smilingly. “Check this out! How could she not know she’d get busted? What do think her boss is gonna do when they find out?” she asked.
He raised his eyebrows slightly. “What would you do if it were up to you?”.
“I’d cut off her hands and feet! Too much?” Stephanie commented.
“No way. She totally deserves it,” Vincont replied/playing along.
you
Lydia felt kinda awkward overhearing them joking about punishments. She went to put Vincent’s plate down and caught a glimpse of her own picture on
ΕΠ
the phone screen. The plate slipped from her hands and crashed to the floor, sending oatmeal flying everywhere.
Connor and Sophia rushed in, wondering what happened, and were shocked at the mess.
Vincent instructed indifferently, “Just wait outside. We’ve got this,”
“Understood,” they said and left.
Lydia was freaking out. She dropped to the floor, “M-Mr. Fletcher, I am so sorry!”
He glanced at her casually. “Why the kneeling?”
Lowering her head, Lydia begged, “Please, let it slide this time.”
Vincent’s eyes were as cold as ice. He tapped the armrest of the wheelchair. “When did you start doing this? Tell me the truth. Or maybe I will accept Stephanie’s brilliant suggestion.” Vincent’s voice was soft but icy. Lydia could feel a chill down her spine.
She was weeping bitter tears. “Look, three months ago, I got this scary call. They said they’d hurt my son if I didn’t do what they said. They told me to pick up this little bag at the beef stall in the market. Then I was supposed to sneak something into your food and watch you. I tested it on a stray dog first and saw it wasn’t deadly, so I did it. I swear, I had no choice-my son is all I have!”
༤ན་མཆོན་ཞི་ ོ་ནི
Stephanie gave her a hard look. “So, your kid is important, but you don’t care about harming others?”
Lydia choked, “But it was only sometimes! In the past three months, I didn’t do it every day, and it didn’t seem to make you sick…”
Stephanie walked up to Lydia. “You know Vincent’s been drinking this herbal medicine that’s supposed to be good for him, right? That was warm- natured, but what you added was cold-natured. If this turns serious, it’ll lead to physical disorder. Lucky for you, he’s strong and it didn’t do much. But that’s no excuse. If you’re in trouble, you should come to us first, not go hurting people!”
Vincent looked over at Stephanie, who was totally steamed. She reminded him of a cartoon character, all huffy and adorable in her anger. He just wanted to tap her on the nose to cheer her up.
“Hey, hey, Chill out,” he said, trying to calm her down.
“But what if something had happened to you?” Stephanie had tears in her eyes, and Vincent knew she was really worried about him.
Vincent felt that Stephanie usually looked at him with a trace of sadness. “Look at me, I’m all good,” he reassured her.
Lydia chimed in, “Yeah, Mr. Fletcher’s doing great…
Stephanie cut her a look. “Pipe down, please. I’m gonna ask you some questions. If you’re messing with us, there will be consequences. Got it?”
“Got it! I won’t lie.” Lydia nodded her head repeatedly.
“Okay then, how do you get in touch with those bad guys?” Stephanie was pretty smart and had already snuck a peek at Lydia’s old phone. Now she wanted to see if Lydia would fess up. Plus, Vincent hadn’t heard the whole story yet
Lydia spilled the beans, “They called me up a while back and scared me, using one of those weird voice things. They’d text me from different numbers, and I just texted back, I tried calling once, but it was a dead end.”
Vincent ordered, “Give me your phone.”
Lydia handed over her phone shakily, and he found their messages. They were pressing Lydia to add more stuff to his food and kept asking about Vincent’s schedule. One of them even inquired about whether Vincent and Stephanie had sex.
75%
Lydia replied: I didn’t hear anything in the bedroom at night.).
Vincent mused, ‘If I really did it with Stephanie, it would prove that I was not sexually impotent. Then, my fake disability would be exposed. This person doesn’t want me to recover, they want me dead. Maybe they are behind that car chase, too!
Playing with the phone, Vincerit looked down at Lydia, who was trembling. “What am I gonna do with you?”