Chapter 317
I was struck dumb and couldn’t answer Russel’s question to save my life.
Even though only a couple of minutes had passed, it felt like a bloody eternity.
While waiting for Neil to make a move, Russel suddenly leaned in and bit my neck, leaving a hickey on purpose. He gave me this complicated yet helpless look before getting up to open the door
Some of the tension inside me eased up, and at that moment, I just gave up resisting.
As for what happened next, it was a complete blur. When I came around, I was back in Sapphire River Community, all prim and proper with nothing amiss.
Hannah was by my side. The moment she saw me wake up, she immediately asked, “Ms. Finch, you awake? You feeling alright?”
“I’m fine; who brought me back?” Right now, that was all I cared about.
“It was Mr. Russel who brought you back. What the hell happened?” Hannah asked, a little edgy.
After hearing her response, my heart tightened. Did he not open the door after all?
Or maybe he did, but Nell didn’t react, so Russel ended up bringing me back..
If Neil didn’t react, I didn’t know whether to feel relieved that he kept his cool or disappointed.
But whatever he did now was all for my sake. I had no right to blame him.
“Did Neil come by?” I couldn’t resist asking in the end.
“He didn’t” Hannah shook her head.
I fell silent, feeling quite mixed up. But soon, I reassured myself that I shouldn’t be so hard on Neil. As long as he could defeat Ethan Foster, Bonnie, and Gloria, it was all good.
Once that happened, no one could pressure me because of my dad anymore. It would all be resolved, as would the issue with Oscar.
Nell once told me that Oscar’s death could be related to some unknown secrets of StarGlow Enterprises.
So, once Ethan Foster was taken down, all problems would be solved, including Gloria and Bonnie.
Thinking like this made me feel a bit better.
Hannah then asked if I wanted some lunch, and my tummy growled in reply. “Sure, has mom eaten?”
“I’ve brought her some food. She seems to be getting better recently. She should be able to come downstairs for meals in a couple of days.” Hannah told me excitedly.
My mood brightened instantly. As long as Mom recovered soon and Dad got out, our family of three could be reunited
Hannah was very caring towards me and Mom, so I wanted her to feel at ease and stay. After lunch, I told her. “Hannah, let’s go back to your hometown tomorrow and bring your parents over.”
“Tomorrow?” Hannah seemed surprised.
“Yep.” I just wanted to get out for a bit because what happened last night made me uncomfortable. I didn’t want to see Neil in the next few days, fearing that I wouldn’t know how to face him.
It was already settled, so Hannah didn’t say more and just nodded, looking a bit worried.
Early the next morning, I found Hannah, asked her to take care of Mom at home, and then got her parents’ address from her. Bailey and I went over to pick them up.
Her husband probably wouldn’t recognize Bailey and me, so we could just pick up Hannah’s parents directly.
After setting off, Bailey drove towards Hannah’s hometown. It was about a fourteen to fifteen-hour drive.
As I was recalling the events of the night before, I fell asleep in the back seat and was awakened by Bailey. “Ms. Finch, your phone has rung twice. It might be an important call; do you need to answer it?”
I took out my phone and saw three missed calls from Neil.
“It’s okay; I’ll call back later.” I silenced my phone and put it back, then continued to rest.
My deliberate Ignorance resulted in a string of messages and missed calls from Nell. This was the first time he had tried to reach me
so frequently. Seeing the bunch of red notifications on my phone made me a bit nervous.
They were all messages from Neil.
“Where are you? Why aren’t you answering your phone?”
“Pick up!”
“Did you elope with Russel?”
I had to admit that sometimes Neil’s imagination was quite surprising. In the end, I picked up his call. He didn’t sound as mad as I thought he would; in fact, he sounded quite calm.
“Finally decided to pick up, huh? Where are you?”
“I’m going to pick up Hannah’s parents, so I might not be back for a few days.” I said as I looked at the darkening sky outside.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Don’t you want me to go with you?” Neil sounded displeased.
“No need; I’m just picking someone up.” I replied, feeling a bit helpless.
“We’ll talk about the other night when you went to see Ethan Foster alone when you get back. Don’t you care about your safety at all?” Neil sounded annoyed. “Didn’t you worry about Russel taking advantage of Ethan Foster and doing something to you?”
I hadn’t thought of that. In my view, Ethan Foster and Russel were two completely different people. I couldn’t connect them. If I knew Russel would be there that night, I probably wouldn’t have gone.
I fell silent, and my already oppressive mood got even worse.
There was a sigh of resignation from Neil on the phone. “I’m not saying you should listen to me on everything, but you can discuss anything with me. What was I supposed to do in a situation like that? Anything I did would’ve felt wrong.”
“Actually, no matter what you did that night, I wouldn’t have blamed you.” I sighed and replied softly.
“I’m worried sick about you.” Neil’s voice was a bit shaky, but he was trying hard to keep his cool. “We’ll soft it out when you’re back.” Before I even had a chance to respond, Neil had already hung up.
Bailey gingerly asked me. “Ms. Finch, are you and Mr. Whitmore…?”
“It’s exactly as it seems; we have our differences.” I answered vaguely.
Bailey got the drift and didn’t push any further. At that time, we had no clue that on this trip we would have a brush with death.
Around 10 p.m., we arrived in the small town where the Morse family resided. Since it was pretty late and Bailey needed some shuteye, we decided to drop by the Morse family’s house first.
Hannah must have given her folks a heads up, so the Morses were super welcoming and even invited us to crash at their place for the night.
