The woman led Anna through the crowd and to the center. While walking, Anna could tell that the kitchen was a shambles, with shocking blood stains on the stove’s walls. Several cooks stood by with knives and spatulas, staring blankly at the woman on the floor.
A few broken porcelain pieces were scattered around the woman’s hands, and there was blood around her body. Her right wrist was swollen with blood from a horrific wound.
Anna was taken aback by all this. Still, she quickly regained her composure and approached the woman to see what was going on with her. And the first thing she did was check to see if she was still alive. Anna then examined her wound and pressed her hand against her arm to stop the bleeding.
“Give me two clean towels,” Anna yelled at the cook standing beside her. Following that, several people dashed to the storage room.
“Please call an ambulance!” The woman looked increasingly frail, so Anna said to the guards.
“The ambulance will be here soon,” one of them answered her quickly.
After a while, they heard the sound of an ambulance coming from downstairs. Several medical workers arrived, and Anna helped them carry the woman to the stretcher.
“Her breathing is weak, so I couldn’t take my hands off her,” Anna explained to the medical workers. Later, she followed them to the ambulance, her hand pressing firmly on the woman’s arm artery to stop the bleeding. A doctor told the guards, “This woman must go to the hospital with us. One of you can go with us and bring her back later.”
“I’ll go with her,” One of the guards dashed out and into the ambulance.
The nearest hospital around the detention center was about a ten-minute drive away. The ambulance sirens wailed the entire way. Fortunately, they arrived at the hospital quickly.
Once the woman was in the operating room, Anna felt relieved. She sat on a seat in the corridor and took a deep breath. The guard who had accompanied them took a deep breath and asked, “Will she be okay?”
Anna was unsure of how she should respond. After all, she thought the woman would die on the way because she had lost so much blood. After a brief moment, Anna nodded as she knew they did the best they could. She was about to say something when one of the doctors said to them condescendingly, “Thank you for acting so quickly and stopping her bleeding. Even the chief doctor couldn’t have saved her otherwise.”
This doctor’s voice sounded vaguely familiar to Anna. When she looked up, she noticed a male doctor staring at her.
“Adam?” she asked after a brief moment of thought.
“You still remember me?” Adam asked. He wore a stethoscope around his neck, which made him look professional. And he examined Anna’s face while his hands were in the pockets of his white coat.
Anna was not wearing any makeup, which made her look even more haggard. She wore a white sweater with a blue uniform jacket over it. The jacket was a bit loose, making her look frail.
“You look so different from the last time I saw you, so I almost didn’t recognize you,” Adam said with a fake smile.
Although Anna knew he was being sarcastic, she didn’t take it personally. She looked up and said flatly, “You’ve probably seen the news. I’m a suspect now, so I’m obviously different from before.”
Anna was as assertive as she had always been. Adam felt very uneasy because her confidence and firmness made him seem small.
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Adam said, nodding his head. “I certainly noticed it. That day, there was news of you winning the competition and you being detained on TV. What a dramatic scene!”
“If I had known how much winning the championship would cost, I would have given it to you,” Anna joked with a wry smile. She then stood up, nodded slightly to the prison guard, and said, “Let’s go back, shall we? I have things to do this afternoon.”
The guard put on her hat and stood up, saying, “Let’s go.”
They then walked away, and Adam could smell the rose shampoo in Anna’s hair as she passed by. Watching her back as she walked away, Adam felt less dejected. After coming back to his senses, he proceeded to his office.
Anna and the guard had just left the building when the prison guard grabbed Anna’s arm and winked with a sly smile.
“What’s the matter?” Anna had no idea what was wrong, but she could guess what she was up to. So, Anna patiently waited for her response.
The guard pointed to the other building and said, “I need to get some medicine. Is it okay if we come back later?”
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll take advantage of the opportunity to escape?” Anna asked, surprised.
The young woman confidently shook her head, replying, “I was on duty in the conference room and heard you speaking with your lawyer. He wanted to bail you out, but you refused. So I don’t think you’ll run away.” She then took Anna’s arm and led her to the outpatient facility.
There weren’t many people picking up the medicine, but everyone was talking to one another and making the place appear noisy. At the same time, a television nearby was broadcasting a cosmetics commercial.
“Has the news program ended?” A man on a bench next to him looked up, his gaze fixed on the TV screen.
“The news will be on in a minute. It’s commercial time,” the woman next to him said.
“All right, let us just wait a little longer.”
They both stopped talking after that. Intrigued by their conversation, Anna couldn’t help but look at them and notice them leaning together and closing their eyes, looking cozy.
The commercial ended just as the news preview began after the guard finished picking up the medication. “Let’s go,” the guard said cheerfully to Anna.
Anna was about to walk to the front door when she heard something. She paid close attention to the news on TV. A few seconds later, she was stunned and strangely excited. After hearing the beginning of the news and wishing she could watch it all, she felt conflicted.
“What’s the matter?” The guard asked as she noticed that Anna was in a trance, and she then also started watching the news.
On the screen, there was a woman in a hospital gown sitting on a bed. Her face was pale, her cheeks were thin, and she had two distinct dark circles under her eyes. It was Johanna.
Johanna pulled out a stack of papers, unpacked one of them and stated, “This is the personal information those patients, including their hospital treatment cases. This evidence suggests that those people had leukemia before working at Lemon. I am certain that they were hired on purpose to frame Ms. Wright, the owner of Lemon.”
Hearing that, the prison guard reached out and pointed to the TV screen in front of her, looking at Anna suspiciously.”Is this news about you?” Instead of answering the guard, Anna remained silent, her gaze fixed on the image on the television.
“What I’m going to say next is also very important. It’s the evidence that can prove that Ms. Wright did not kill anyone,” Johanna said, picking up another file. She handed the reporter a piece of paper. It was a printout of a screenshot of a text message chat, with the time and content clearly visible.
“The evidence is as follows and I quote, ‘Is there anything else you want me to do?’”
“You have two options. First, torture Anna for me. I do not want her to die, but I want her to be crippled or disfigured or to have a more miserable life than mine. Second, let Anna murder you.”
“I’ll take the second,” Bill replied.
Anna’s eyes ached a little as she stared at the image, especially when she heard the words “I’ll take the second.” Her emotions became extremely complicated.
Then Johanna smiled as she held the photograph in her hand while the reporter told her that the photo didn’t prove anything because it could be faked.
Johanna responded calmly, “I have Bill’s phone card, which is where this message was saved. I asked my lawyer, and I’m confident that the text message can be used as direct evidence. I swear I’m telling the truth. I’m not going to fabricate false evidence to smear him.”
Finally, she took out the letter Bill had left her. The content of this letter was her secret, but she eventually chose to make it public. The letter gave a general account of everything that had happened, beginning with Bill’s collaboration with Ada to frame Lemon and continuing through the following events. He also told her about the evidence associated with each incident.
Johanna looked as if she was about to have a nervous breakdown after reading the letter. Before the end of the statement, she shook her head and muttered, “He did everything for me. It’s all my fault.” I want to apologize to Mrs. Wright. I never intended to hurt her, but it was all my fault. I feel so bad for her that I don’t know what I can do to make it right. After some consideration, I think that the only way to prove her innocence was to make all the evidence public.”
Johanna finished with a genuine smile and a sign of relief. Guilt and remorse had tortured her for so long.
After seeing Johanna on the screen, Anna also smiled. Despite her best efforts to remain calm and rational every day, she began to suffer from insomnia and anxiety as the public trial approached. She was prepared for the worst, but she did not expect things to be resolved in such an unexpected manner.
The next afternoon, Anna’s public trial was canceled, and she was immediately released. When Anna walked out of the detention center, the golden sunshine shone on the road. She wrapped her coat tightly around her body and was surprised to see Wayne standing in front of the door, waiting for her.
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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.