Chapter 204
Ella found herself back in the nightmare. In the dream, her parents had worked together to lift her onto the reef. Though she was saved, they died of exhaustion, swallowed by the sea, and could never come back.
“Mom, Dad. Don’t go, please don’t go….” Ella kept shouting and waving her hands in the air.
“Don’t go, don’t go.. I will listen to you, please don’t go…”
Suddenly, Ella clutched onto something, desperately grasping it as if she were clutching at straws that could save her life.
“Don’t go, don’t go…
Her voice trailed off as she fell into a deep sleep. Jaden tried to pull his hand away, but she clung on with surprising strength, forcing him to give
up.
He stayed by the bed, watching Ella with an almost obsessive intensity. He couldn’t bear to blink, unwilling to miss a single moment to look at her.
Ella was as beautiful as ever, even more so now. She seemed to live with newfound reason and freedom, doing as she pleased without concern for others‘ opinions.
Even if she had another man by her side, even though she had long forgotten him…it didn’t matter. Jaden still loved her deeply.
This moment of physical contact was something he had never even dared to imagine. She seemed so sacred and pure, while he felt himself filthy and tainted. Touching her was like a form of salvation for him.
Suddenly, Ella’s eyelids twitched. In a panic, Jaden turned off the lights and tried to make out her silhouette in the darkness. Thankfully, his years of adapting to the dark allowed him to make it.
Ella woke up to find it was pitch–black. She was still holding something in her hand.
It was a man’s hand. She also noticed that the man seemed to have lost his pinkie finger.
“Who are you?”
Ella did not let go, as if she was afraid that he would:
run
away.
“Just a nice guy passing by.” The man’s voice was extremely hoarse, like a middle–aged man in his forties. If one listened carefully, he would find his voice sounded a little pleasant.
“Why did you save me?”
“I can’t stand Mason’s despicable act.”
“Is that all? Do we know each other?”
Unwilling to give up, Ella wanted to turn on the lights. However, just as she reached out her right hand, the man mercilessly grabbed her with his large hand.
She touched the scar on his palm. She was shocked, wondering what this man had experienced. There was no unblemished skin on his hands.
“I’m ugly. I don’t want to be seen.”
“So you don’t usually see people?”
“Other than a few familiar ones, I basically don’t see anyone else,” he said calmly, his tone devoid of any emotion.
“How ugly you are?” Ella did not give up.
“Don’t you know that you’re very rude?” The man’s displeased voice reached her ears.
Ella sensed she might have overstepped. The man seemed oddly familiar, yet she felt it was impossible. She was just anxious to verify it.
“You really want to know?” he asked again.”
“Yes!” Ella nodded vigorously.
Jaden hesitated for a moment before carefully taking her hand and letting her touch his left eye.
Ella felt a few scars. Her fingers moved over his brow ridge and down the eye socket, which was marred with proliferating wounds. Ella was frightened.
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Chapter 204
“You…one of your fingers is broken and you lost one eye. Did something happen to you?”
“I gambled when I was young. I lost. And I lost an eye and a finger for it. Then I woke up to reality.”
“How old were you?”
“Fifty.”
“Your height?”
“6 feet 2 inches.”
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“Did we once meet at Ardbert City?”
When Ella asked this question, the man clearly hesitated as he remained silent.
After a long while, she heard the man’s voice. “Yes.”
“How could it be so coincidental that you saved me twice?”
“Yes, it’s coincidental. I didn’t expect to meet you here again. But…you look like, well…like my daughter.”
“Daughter?”
Ella’s head was buzzing. This man was over 50 years old, so it was not a problem for her to be his daughter. However, wasn’t this too much of a coincidence?
“Aren’t you single?”
“In the past, I was married and had a child. I had a cute and beautiful daughter, but she had an accident. I also divorced my ex–wife. My daughter’s death is a hurdle that I can’t get over. If she’s not dead, she should be around your age. She’s just like you. She’s top–notch and beautiful, attracting attention wherever she went. Seeing you reminded me of her, and that’s why I offered my help. I hope you don’t mind.”
How could Ella mind? The man had saved her anyway.
“I’m sorry to remind you of something sad,” Ella finally let go and said apologetically.
Jaden knew that Ella had let down her guard. What was she suspecting? Could it be that she had recognized him?
How was that possible? He had lost a lot of weight, and his temperament had changed significantly. If she saw him again, she would never recognize him at first glance.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Can I take a photo with you?”
“Why?”
“Didn’t you say that I look like your daughter? I’ll take a photo with you. You can keep it as a memento. It can comfort the pain of missing her.”
The man hesitated for a moment and said, “Then wait a moment. I needed to get prepared.”
Ella agreed and the man slowly got up and left. Ella was very surprised. How could he navigate the pitch–black darkness without bumping into anything? It was as if he got used to the darkness.
After the door opened and closed, Ella turned on the lights. She then found that she was still in the hotel suite, a high–class one. It was clear that the man held a noble status.
Ella got out of bed and looked around. The familiar mint fragrance was gone. Once upon a time, someone had the same smell.
Jaden went to Hank’s room. After hesitating for a long time, he said, “Hank, I want to see her.”
“But Mr. Watson, aren’t you afraid that Ms. Willow will see you like this?”
Jaden stood in front of the mirror, studying his disfigured face. He quickly put on the black lenses to conceal the scar and then felt a bit more at ease with his appearance.
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Chapter 204
In his current state, he would be able to scare the little kid to tears, wouldn’t he?
“Of course not in this look. Customize a mask for me. I will go to see her in a different identity,”
Hank immediately went to do it and soon brought a mask.
The mask was as thin as a cicada’s wings and could be glued to the face.
Jaden adjusted the height of his nose bridge, the peak of his eyebrows, and the thickness of his lips. Though he only made slight modifications to the mask, the changes gave it an entirely different feel.
He even whitened some of his hair and bent his back slightly, With these changes, no one would suspect that he was a 50–year–old man.
He looked at himself in the mirror with satisfaction, “I will go to see her with this mask on. I hope it won’t scare her.”
Ella waited for a full hour, but she was not impatient at all.
When she finally heard footsteps outside the door, she immediately became nervous.
She took the initiative to open the door and saw the man standing outside. He appeared to be around 50 years old, thin, and somewhat frail. His face was marked by wrinkles and looked a bit rough and unhealthy.
She saw the injured left eye, which was completely blind and appeared to have been repeatedly stabbed by a sharp blade, leaving crisscross marks. His left finger was broken, and the back of his right hand was covered in numerous knife wounds.
The man in front of Ella had nothing to do with Jaden. But somehow, when Ella looked at him, the tall and mighty Jaden appeared in her mind.
Perhaps it was because…the minty fragrance on his body.
Jaden suppressed his intense longing for Ella and tried to appear more composed. He avoided looking at her in a daze. Unexpectedly, it was Ella who seemed dazed, unable to regain her senses.
“Ms. Willow?”
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