Chapter 1 Don’t Disgust Me and Carlos
On the day Anna was released from prison, the first snow in early winter fell. She stretched out her skinny left hand to catch a falling snowflake, looking at it in fear and curiosity.
The snowflake scattered on her warm palm and she felt so cold and desperate.
She had once been the respected and spoiled daughter of the Perkins family. But during her past three years in prison, she had been tortured until she was pale and skinny with sunken eyes. If it wasn’t for the well-meaning prison guards who gave her a simple make-up before she was released from prison, perhaps outsiders would have thought she was a mummy that had just crawled out of the grave.
“Are you out?”
“Yeah.”
“Come with me and get in the car.”
“But I…”
The person who came to pick up Anna was Pier, her elder brother. Pier looked impatient, “But what? Don’t think that you can do whatever you want after you get out of prison! You killed my sister. Do you think you can pay off a debt of blood just by being in prison for three years?”
Pier’s eyes were sharp as if he wanted to cut her into pieces, “Dad said he has found a man for you. You will go on a blind date and get married as soon as you get back. Don’t hurt my good friend again.”
Anna lowered her head and curled the corner of her mouth lightly, “… Sorry.”
Hurt his friend? Well, that was right… Three years ago, everyone had thought that it was her, the arrogant fake daughter of the Perkins family, who killed beloved fiancée, Lola, of Carlos’s, who was Pier’s good friend, the real daughter of the Perkins family out of jealousy.
She was just a fake daughter who had been misidentified by the Perkins family. She had taken away Lola’s life as the daughter of the Perkins family in the first half of her life. In the end, the truth came out. She met her alcoholic biological father, and Lola was taken away by the Perkins family and got engaged to Carlos Scott. But just one month after their engagement, Lola had died strangely, and all the witnesses and material evidence pointed to Anna. Otherwise, how could she have been locked up in prison for three years?!
“Hey, did you hear? I’m asking you to get in the car. Are you deaf?”
Anna nodded, licked her chapped lips, wrapped herself in her sweater tightly, and followed behind cautiously.
If she followed Pier back to the Perkins family, at least there would be Mr. Perkins, her father, who loved her dearly. Under the protection of the Perkins family, even if her bastard biological father Brad Blake found her, he would not force her into prostitution.
“Take the passenger seat! There’s someone in the back!” Pier sounded annoyed.
Anna obediently opened the passenger seat’s door and got in.
“Who is it?”
“Carlos.” When Pier said the name, Anna happened to meet the eyes of Carlos in the back. They hadn’t seen each other for three years, and his eyes were filled with indifference and alienation, even with a bit of probing and hostility.
Anna greeted Carlos out of politeness, “Hello, Mr. Scott.”
Carlos was taken aback and raised his eyes to glance at the skinny woman in front of him. In just three years, she had become like this. This was called retribution!
Anna didn’t dare to look directly at Carlos anymore. She shrank her neck and curled herself up on the passenger seat. Pier, once a doting brother, was so impatient and cold to her. Carlos, the handsome man whom she had claimed to get in the past, was a stranger to her now… Well, he had never loved her three years ago. After Lola died, he had regarded her as an enemy.
Anna had thought that she would choose to explain everything to the two people who had been closest to her when she was released from prison. But she didn’t, because she found it hard to explain it clearly.
Carlos watched the snowflakes fall into Anna’s neck one by one, but she didn’t seem to feel it at all. Was this woman deliberately pretending to be pitiful to win his sympathy? Anger gradually rose in his heart, “Don’t pretend to be pitiful. Get in the car. I’m in a hurry!”
Carlos sounded impatient and icy cold.
Pier honked the car horn, “Did you hear that? Get in the car quickly! Don’t pretend to be pitiful. Don’t disgust me and Carlos!”
Then he turned his head, glanced at Carlos lightly, and said with a smile, “Carlos, you have to be careful. Don’t get pestered by her again, or you’ll be impossible to get rid of her.”
“Will she still dare to?” Carlos smiled contemptuously.
His casual response with a hint of warning seemed to be just a part of the conversation between the two. But in fact, he was warning Anna.
So Anna stopped responding, turned her head, and buried her head in Carlos’ direction, “Mr. Scott, you are right. I will not do those things again in the future. Sorry, I was wrong.”
Her posture and words reveal a subtle sense of distance and sense of proportion. Carlos frowned slightly, and his tone was flat but hurtful, “Turn around. You will bring bad luck to me.”
Anna obeyed.
The lesson from three years ago was hard enough. In the past, she had spent all her thoughts chasing Carlos, but only to be alienated and loathed by Carlos. Now that she thought about it, it seemed unnecessary.
Soon the car started.
Anna didn’t say another word on the way and she just curled herself up in her seat, looking at the snowy scenery outside the window. This kind of scenery was different from the past winter scenery. And she was different too.
Pier and Carlos talked from time to time. These two good friends from childhood to adulthood cooperated tacitly. Carlos was intelligent, and Pier was active. At that time, Anna, with the favor and love of the Perkins family, had been unruly and willful. Also, Pier and Carlos were close friends, and she had deliberately approached Carlos, almost causing the two friends to break up.
But now, Pier probably regretted how he had doted on her in the past as an elder brother. Carlos had always hated her in the past, and he would only hate her more now. No expectations, no disappointments.
The car slowly drove into a familiar courtyard.
Anna recognized that it was Carlos’s house, and a little further ahead was the Perkins mansion.
The car stopped at Carlos’s house.
