Chapter 7
Angeline brought a chair over to the couch and sat down opposite Sean, with the coffee table
between them.
Sean treated Ned and Ingrid coldly and with hostility, but he was a whole different person when talking to Angeline. He sounded a lot more gentler with her. “What’s with the injuries on your body?”
“Ned pushed me. I then banged my head against the fake hill …”
“I’m not talking about the injuries on your head,” Sean interrupted.
Ned had just sent Ingrid off and was on his way back to his ward when he overheard Sean asking the question. He stepped back and peered through the crack in the door to Angeline’s
ward.
Angeline had a reserved expression on her face. She spoke calmly as if she was just reciting someone else’s story. “The Emmersons said it was time for Benjamin to get married, so they wanted me to buy him a car and a house. That’s why we fought at the college gates.”
Angeline wasn’t lying. However, she only told him part of the full story.
The Emmersons didn’t come to Oceanford just to look for her. They were also looking for Jessica Lawson, who was Angeline’s and Benjamin’s birth mother.
They couldn’t find her. When they also realized that Angeline was still studying in college instead of working and giving them her wages, the Emmersons were enraged.
George Emmerson then demanded that the college refund all of Angeline’s tuition fees to him simply because he was Angeline’s biological father. He kept bugging the dean and even made a huge fuss at the dean’s office.
Seeing that they weren’t able to get any money from Angeline, George demanded that Angeline return with him to Emmerson Village so that he would be able to sell her off to the highest bidder back home. Then, he would use that money to pay for Benjamin’s wedding. It was then that Angeline got into a huge fight with the Emmersons.
Sean rubbed his hand against his knees as he stared at the bruises on Angeline’s chin and
neck.
Since Angeline didn’t want to go into details, then he wasn’t going to press any further. Sean straightened his legs and leaned forward, looking at her seriously. “What I told you eight
+15 BÔNUS
years ago still counts. If you’re willing to give up on Ned, I can always send you abroad anytime.”
Angeline looked up and stared into Sean’s eyes, feeling his calm gaze piercing into her. She
clenched and unclenched her hands on her knees.
“I know the reason behind the Fletchers taking me under their wing and bringing me up in Oceanford. It’s so that the Lawsons will continue investing in them and supporting them whenever they need it.
“I’m sure that the reason you talked to me eight years ago was because the Fletchers didn’t want their only son to get into a relationship with me, but they didn’t want to say it outright. They then conveyed their wishes to the Lawsons, which is why you want to send me abroad so that I’d cut all connections with Ned.”
Angeline then frowned. There was confusion in her eyes. “But now, Ned has forgotten me and loves another. I don’t think the Lawsons are going to benefit even if they insisted on sending me abroad now.”
“You’re a smart kid,” Sean said, still trying to convince Angeline otherwise. “But aside from the benefits you mentioned, it’s also because you’re related to the Lawsons.”
Angeline tensed when she heard him say that.
She then said in a determined voice, “No, I have absolutely nothing to do with the Lawsons. The fact that I’m alive is living proof of the hell that she went through. I hope that she or I have nothing more to do with the Lawsons for the rest of our lives!”
“But with your predicament now, you’re facing a lot of troubles alone. Even so, are you still reluctant to let the Lawsons help you?”
“I’m thankful to the Lawsons and the Fletchers for bringing me out of Emmerson Village and giving me a chance to further my studies. Even if we’re blood–related, I think that the Lawsons have done more than enough for me. I don’t want to owe them any more favors.” Sean remembered the first time he met Angeline. Her grandparents once told him that she was a cold and indifferent person.
However, he knew that Angeline’s indifference was because of her kindness, high morals, and deep love for her mother.
Angeline suppressed her emotions and longing for kinship. Instead, she turned herself into an “orphan” so that the Lawsons would feel less guilty about her. She chose to live with the Fletchers so that the Lawsons would be able to continue living with their conscience.
