The bodyguard and old butler shared a look. They were both confused by Carter’s action.
Carter took Shirley back to the bedroom where she used to stay. The bed was very soft and big, and it even smelled of sunshine, indicating that the maids had always been taking care of this room.
The maids came in to help as per the butler’s orders. However, as soon as they entered the bedroom, they saw Carter, his face as cold as an iceberg, removing all of Shirley’s coat and clothes, leaving only her underwear.
This degree of close contact seemed very ordinary to Carter, but the two of the maids blushed a little as this scene unfolded.
Carter’s family doctor, reserved solely for the royalty, soon arrived. After examining Shirley, he said that there was nothing serious, only that she had caught a cold and a fever, and her body temperature was a little high.
After the doctor had left, Carter asked the maids to make some ginger tea.
He glanced at sleeping Shirley, then walked back to the desk, picking up the photo frame again.
The boy and girl in the photo frame stood side by side, radiant and cheerful smiles on their faces.
“Hmph.” Carter laughed suddenly, then he glanced at Shirley. “Big sister?”
Carter sneered and roughly threw the photo frame.
Shirley, who was deep in slumber, woke up when she heard the noise.
She opened her eyes. Groggily, she saw Carter’s cold facial expressions as he walked toward her, his entire body radiating an aura colder than frost.
Shirley examined her surroundings and realized she was lying in bed, in her room when she had stayed in the Gray Manor.
She slowly sat up, her head feeling abnormally heavy. She remembered standing in the wind and snow, and she figured she might have caught a cold and a fever.
However, she was not at all worried about her body. She knew the art of healing, so this minor problem was nothing to her.
As she was about to sit up and got out of bed, Carter suddenly grasped the back of her neck.
Shirley’s gorgeous eyes widened in surprise as she looked at Carter’s expressionless face.
With Carter’s palm on the back of her neck, she could feel that the unparalleled coldness penetrating her feverish skin, as though it instantly froze her body.
“Carter?”
Confused, Shirley looked at Carter, whose face grew increasingly cold. She quickly apologized to him.
“I can walk on my own. I won’t bring you any trouble. Please don’t get mad.”
“You don’t want to make me mad, huh? That sounds nice, but what have you done back then?”
Back then.
It was back then again.
Those two words struck a chord in Shirley.
“Shirley, do you know how much I hate you now?” Carter practically spat his words out through gritted teeth, his grip tightening.
Shirley winced in pain, her brows knitted tightly together. Coupled with the fever, the intense pain all over her body made her feel like she might explode.
Even so, she did not feel that this pain was too bad. She had already suffered so much throughout these years.
The most painful things to her were being abandoned by her parents and being hated by the man she loved.
“Let me say this, Shirley. You should’ve just stayed away after leaving back then. Since you have the guts to come back, then you should be prepared to be tormented by me!”
Carter’s face, which rarely showed any emotions, betrayed a furious expression.
He tossed Shirley, who had no strength to resist, onto the bed. When Shirley was least expecting it, he leaned over her.
Shirley was stunned. Despite her pain, she also felt joy.
This scene felt even more like a dream to her. In her dazed dream-like state, she could still hear the man’s clear yet cold voice. “Didn’t you say that you love me the most, and expressed a reluctance to part from me? This is the outcome you’ve been wanting the most, right?”
His low voice was laced with a hint of delight and disrespect, yet Shirley found it pleasurable.
She would accept it gladly, even if he was mocking her.
…
Outside the windows, the wind and snow continued to grow heavier, quietly covering every corner of the city with a layer of silver coating.
Inside the hotel room.
Kendrick had been staying by the bedside the entire time, waiting for Niamh to wake.
He looked at the time. It had almost been 6 hours since the injection, but Niamh still had not awakened.
Feeling a little worried, he took out the test reagent tube Shirley had given him. As he walked to the balcony, he took out his phone to call Adam.
After he explained the circumstances to Adam, Adam exclaimed in disbelief. “I didn’t expect her to become like this.”
“Can Nia be saved?” Kendrick was anxious to know the answer. “I don’t want her to experience the pain I’ve experienced.”
“I think I need some time to research this. Currently, I have no clue as to what Shirley had done to Eveline.”
“I’ll take Nia back to Glendale as soon as possible.”
“Okay, bring her back as fast as you can. Keep the test reagent Shirley gave you properly,” Adam urged again. Right before the call disconnected, he quickly stopped Kendrick. “Can you give me her contact number?”
Kendrick pondered for two seconds before asking, “Don’t you have her contact number?”
“She wouldn’t want to contact me. She hates me.” Adam laughed bitterly.
Kendrick was confused. “You’re brother and sister.”
“Well, yes, we’re brother and sister, but she always had something weighing heavily on her mind, so that’s why she’d stray onto the wrong path.” Adam sighed in regret. “Actually, she had been a good sister back then.”
Hearing the helplessness in Adam’s voice, Kendrick did not probe further.
After he hung up the phone, he sent Shirley’s contact number to Adam. Then, he returned to the bedside to watch Niamh.
He gently held Niamh’s hand and placed it next to his lips to kiss it.
‘Nia, I won’t let you experience the same pain I’ve been through.’
‘It felt so terrible.’
However, Kendrick kept feeling that something was amiss. ‘What was the purpose behind Shirley’s request and her actions?’
Why did he feel that someone was instructing Shirley behind the scenes?
After deliberating about this, Kendrick decided to contact Shirley once again.
He placed Niamh’s hands down and walked back to the cold and windy balcony.
Over at the other end, Shirley, against the will of her weak body, slipped away from Carter’s tight embrace.
The phone in her coat started vibrating as she got up.
Sitting on the bed, she took a deep breath before picking up her coat.
The phone was still vibrating. Seeing the remark on the screen made her frown.
As she contemplated whether to answer Kendrick’s call, an icy palm suddenly grasped her wrist, followed by an extremely cold voice that ambushed her from behind.
“You really did fall in love with Kendrick. You’d even want to answer his call at this time.”
Carter’s chilly voice, suffused with dissatisfaction, pierced into Shirley’s ears.
Before she had time to explain, Carter snatched her phone away and threw it forcefully at the corner of the wall.
The phone immediately stopped vibrating; the screen shattered into pieces.
In low spirits, Shirley stared at the shattered phone, sitting at the same spot in a daze. A sense of endless loneliness invaded every cell in her body, causing her to feel cold all over.
Carter got up calmly. In a carefree demeanor, he wore back his shirt and other clothing that he had removed, one by one.
As if nothing had happened a moment ago, he remained as the noble and elegant prince in everyone’s eyes.
With his unique and deep eyes, he looked askance at Shirley, towering over her.
“Enough with this pitiful expression. Didn’t you use to seduce me like this? Heh.” In the end, he let out a cold chuckle, brimming with endless derision and disdain.
After saying that, Carter turned around casually.
Shirley put on her coat as she walked to the corner of the wall, picking up the shattered phone.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.