Chapter 24
As Tommy spoke, he glanced at Ned. “Besides, whether or not that York woman meant to push Ingrid, there’s no changing that Ingrid was injured because of her. Even if you want to plead on her behalf… you should drink a few glasses in apology, shouldn’t you?”
“Exactly! Have a few drinks to show your sincerity!” someone cried. “If you can’t handle hard liquor, I’m sure you can still handle a few glasses of red wine!”
Angeline stood at the entrance. She looked straight at Ned, who sat casually in the middle of the room. She walked toward the table, removing her scarf and
revealing her face as she moved.
Then, she draped her scarf over the back of a chair before grabbing a large wineglass and placing it before her. She turned the turntable, bringing a decanter filled with scotch to her. She poured some into the wineglass before her.
Angeline’s skin was extremely fair; it made the bruises on the side of her face, jaw, and neck all the more obvious. “When we met at 12, I had pesticide on me. If not for me stopping to save you, I would’ve drank it all.”
She picked up a second decanter and poured some of it into her wineglass.” Actually, rather than saying that I saved you from getting kidnapped … I should say you saved me.”
When she’d taken the blade for him, she’d truly lost the will to live. If not for Ned throwing a tantrum and insisting and taking her back to the Fletcher residence with him, she probably would’ve found other ways to take her life.
“I’m not the same as you. You grew up in a warm and happy environment, but all the warmth and happiness in my life that I can remember came from the time I spent with you. You barged into my life and made me think someone would actually love this dirty, unwanted life.”
Ned had been the only source of light in Angeline’s pitch–black life. That was why when they’d gotten into that accident, the thought that had horrified her wasn’t her own death–it was Ned’s.
It was also why she hadn’t beared to let him go despite knowing he’d fallen for someone else and would only humiliate her after losing his memories.
It was also why she felt like she’d been stabbed countless times over when he’d looked at her in contempt and said she was disgusting when they’d ended up in bed together after having laced drinks.
1/2
Ned looked taken aback. His Adam’s apple bobbed.
Angeline continued, “On your 18th birthday, the first wish you made was that Ned Fletcher would be the only person to bring Angeline Emmerson all the happiness in her life.”
She turned the turntable and picked up the third decanter. “You didn’t make your second and third wish, though. You said they would definitely have to do with me, so you wanted to keep them for another time.
“But no matter when you made those wishes, you wanted me to help you make them come through. You wanted that as my gift to you. I agreed. You made your second wish on your 22nd birthday–you wanted me to marry you. And so, I did.”
Angeline had done it despite knowing the Fletcher and Lawson families didn’t want to see them together. But as long as Ned wanted it, she was willing to go against both families.
The liquor from the three decanters filled the wineglass to the brim. Angeline looked at Ned. “You don’t need to threaten me with Anne and Henrietta. I’ll do whatever you want–all you need to do is say the word.
“After all, I owe you one last wish. Even without that, I would agree to anything you asked of me.”
Angeline thought she would cry incessantly when tearing open these wounds and saying these things. She didn’t, though, even if her eyes burned with unshed tears.
