Filed to story: Sweetheart Do You Still Love Me
Once inside the elevator, Elspeth pressed the button for the top floor. As the elevator ascended, she pondered Yena’s intentions in asking her over. When the elevator doors opened, the strong wind on the rooftop gradually brought her back to full alertness.
The rooftop had been designed in a style resembling a small villa. At this moment, Yena was sitting at a table with two glasses of wine placed in front of her.
Upon seeing Elspeth approaching, she surprisingly showed a friendly attitude. “Wow, you’re here. You’re quite punctual.”
Elspeth sat down opposite her with an expressionless face, not touching the wine in front of her, and directly asked, “So, why did you ask me to come here today?”
When Yena saw that Elspeth didn’t drink the wine, she didn’t force her either. She picked up the glass in front of her and took a sip.
“I have my reasons for asking you here today, of course, but don’t worry. I’m not here to discuss work with you. I just wanted to have a heart-to-heart conversation.”
Elspeth found her words ironic. “You don’t have to beat around the bush. Just say what you want to say.”
Judging from Yena’s slightly flushed face, she appeared to have already consumed several drinks. “I said that I asked you to come here today simply to have a drink and chat with you. Why don’t you believe me?”
“You put something in the wine, right?”
At her suspicion, Yena suddenly blew a fuse. She directly picked up the glass of wine in front of Elspeth and finished it in one gulp. “Why would I put something in your drink?”
After finishing her drink, she turned the glass upside down and smashed it on the ground after she confirmed that not a drop was left.
Crack! The shattering sound made Elspeth instantly alert.
“If you have nothing special to discuss with me, then I’ll leave now.” She had no interest in chatting about life with Yena.
However, Yena was persistent. “Why don’t you want to chat with me? Didn’t you promise me?”
“What did I promise you?” Elspeth turned around, looking puzzled.
“You promised to come and chat with me.”
Elspeth thought she might have had too much to drink, having no interest in her nonsense.
Just as she was about to stand up and leave, Yena’s voice came from behind her. “If you take one step away from here today, I will immediately release that mutant virus.”
At once, Elspeth turned around with an icy gaze. “What do you want from me?”
“I’ve said it many times already. Just chat with me.”
Elspeth had no choice but to reluctantly sit back down. “Fine. Speak.”
A smile tugged on Yena’s lips, and her eyes shone with an unfathomable light. “Do you know what I’ve been through all these years?”
Elspeth naturally had no idea because, in her memory, Yena had died a long time ago.
At this moment, Yena picked up the nearby wine glass and poured herself another drink. “Right. It’s pointless for me to ask you this question. Let me tell you then. Three years ago, when I was lying in the hospital bed in a vegetative state, Arthur, the man who claimed to love me forever, bribed a nurse to remove my oxygen tank.”
As Elspeth listened to these words, she remained silent.
“You know what? At that time, I knew nothing. But the reason his plan failed was because the nurse he bribed happened to be one of my relatives.” Yena spoke, her face showing a grateful relief.
“That nurse would never do anything to harm me, so she secretly saved me behind Arthur’s back. Later, when he returned to the country, she diligently took care of me. And I miraculously woke up. Don’t you think God was helping me? When I woke up, she told me everything about what had happened. I couldn’t believe that Arthur would harm me. So, I pondered and figured out that it must have been your doing. He must have tried to seek revenge on me on your behalf. Since then, I’ve tried every means possible. First, I changed my face and assumed a new identity, as the name Emma Walker was already tarnished. Only by changing my name could I do the things I wanted to do freely. You can’t even imagine what I’ve done to elevate myself.”
Those memories were like needles piercing deeply into her heart, and she couldn’t even speak of the nauseating things that had plagued her sleep countless times.
“The savior Arthur met back then when he was a child was you. I took over your identity, and I’ve done so many terrible things to you. So, you hold a grudge against me and devised this plan to get back at me.”
At this moment, Elspeth calmly said, “I don’t know anything about what you just said.”
“Can’t you stop pretending to be innocent and harmless all the time? Do you know that you’re really annoying like this?” When Yena saw Elspeth’s calm expression, anger rose inside her for some reason. “It was you who intervened in my relationship with Callum and made me end up like this. How dare you act all holy and noble?”
Her emotions had become somewhat unstable, and Elspeth was worried that she might do something extreme, so she remained vigilant. She then asked, “So? Have all these actions you’ve taken to seek revenge on me given you the outcome you wanted?”
Yena laughed loudly at these words. “You think too highly of yourself, Elspeth. Do you actually believe that I came back this time just to take Callum away from you? I’m not that obsessed with love.”
“What do you want then?”
As Yena met Elspeth’s eyes, she said, word by word, “I want to destroy you, Callum, and everyone you care about.”
“So, this is your reason for repeatedly scheming against everyone?”
Yena realized her tone was rather hysterical and tried to regain her composure. “Does it matter? I’ve never been treated well, anyway.”
At Yena’s answer, Elspeth shook her head helplessly. “That is a vengeful mentality. It will eventually destroy you.”
“Do I need you to tell me that? Do you think I don’t know?” Yena staggered to her feet and walked to the edge of the rooftop, overlooking the scenery along the river. “The night view of Damoria is truly beautiful. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but when you stand at the top and look down, everything feels so small and surreal.”
When Elspeth noticed the precarious railing, she felt a sense of unease.
“I come up here almost every night after work. I’ve schemed against too many people in my daily life. I’m truly exhausted. Only here can I truly relax. This is my secret sanctuary, but now you know my secret.” With a relaxed expression, Yena held onto the railing and propped her chin with one hand. “Do you know what I was thinking just now? I wanted to push you off from up here.”
At her words, Elspeth’s heart skipped a beat. I was right to be cautious just now.
“But I didn’t do that because I know you have good skills, and if we were to argue, I might end up being the one pushed off.”
Elspeth chuckled. “Good that you know that, but I won’t push you off. Maybe I’ll choose to pull you back instead.”
Surprised, Yena turned around and looked at Elspeth. “Why? Don’t you hate me? If I die, everything can go back to how it was.”
Elspeth slowly approached her but made sure to keep a safe distance from the precarious railing. “I don’t hate you, but I do dislike you. You have hurt many people with your actions, so I can’t bring myself to like you. But it’s not exactly hatred. I have never truly hated anyone.”
After hearing that, Yena raised an eyebrow. “I seem to understand why Callum likes you now. You are indeed different from other women.”
“That’s an overstatement, but it’s best if you step back a bit. I don’t think that railing is very safe.”
At her words, Yena suddenly burst into crazy laughter. She deliberately reached out and shook the railing vigorously. “You think so? Actually, I’ve known all along that this railing is unsafe, but I still choose to lean on it. If nothing happens, then it’s my luck, but if one day I accidentally fall off, then it’s fate.”
“Why do I feel like you don’t really care about living?” Elspeth listened to her words and couldn’t help but feel that they were the ramblings of someone who had lost all hope for life.
“Take a guess,” said Yena as she blinked at Elspeth.
After Elspeth inspected her complexion, she noticed her heavy dark circles. Her footsteps seemed unsteady as she walked earlier, and her body appeared frail. “Are you sick?”
“Terminal lung cancer.”
At her answer, Elspeth fell silent for a long time.
“Before this, I wanted to cure my cancer, but I found no results no matter where I sought medical help. That’s when an evil thought crossed my mind-I wanted everyone to suffer from lung disease, just like me.”
Instantly, Elspeth understood that this grand pandemic was actually a product of Yena’s revenge on society. This is truly… mind-boggling.
“But I never expected that the virus I thought was incurable could have a cure so soon. I thought that even if there were people who could find a cure, it would take several years. I never imagined that you would persist and develop the cure so quickly. Elspeth, oh, Elspeth, you truly are my nemesis. Are you sent by God to punish me?”
Elspeth frowned. “I think your values are quite twisted. Perhaps before doing anything, you should carefully consider whether it’s right or wrong.”
“Consider? Why should I consider?” Yena shrugged. Due to the wine earlier, she felt dizzy and stumbled, almost falling off the railing. “I’m already on the verge of death. Do you think I still care about that?”
“So, you called me here today just to talk to me about these things?”
Yena nodded readily. “That’s right. These things have been weighing on my heart for a long time, and I couldn’t find anyone to confide in, so I thought of you. It’s ironic that in the end, you’re the one I can truly open up to.”
At this moment, she forced a sorrowful smile. My life is so miserable that I don’t even have a confidant by my side. In contrast, Elspeth has a blissful marriage, someone she loves, and a loyal friend who would do anything for her. Everyone seems to listen to her. She was consumed by jealousy and on the verge of madness.
Elspeth noticed the change in her gaze, which had become malicious. After she pondered for a moment, she took a few steps back instinctively.
“Elspeth, I don’t understand why you have a better life than me.”
As Elspeth watched Yena struggle with her obsession, she uttered a remark that hit the nail on the head. “Because you were wrong from the beginning.”
“Oh, really? Tell me, where did I go wrong?”