And Mariam was right.
Megan was not pleased.
Barely a few minutes after Jackson entered the mansion, the front doors swung open with force.
Megan stepped out from the house.
Her expression contorted sharply with anger, her usually calm and kind presence replaced by something far more intimidating.
She marched straight toward them.
“You three,” she said, pointing directly at them in an accusing manner.
“Why are you bullying Jackson? And why does he have a bruise near his eye?”
They had rarely seen Megan being angry, so they were flustered.
Ronan spoke up without defending himself, while the rest kept their heads lowered.
“It was me who impulsively threw the basketball incorrectly. The rest aren’t at fault…”
“Why would you do that? What if he had been seriously injured?” Megan scolded.
“An eye injury is sensitive. Do you think it’s appropriate to joke around like this?”
“I…I am sorry…”
Megan’s gaze didn’t soften at all.
“Don’t repeat it,” she said firmly.
“You must not do anything like this again.”
Then, without waiting for a response, she turned and walked back inside the house.
Ronan exhaled slowly and shook his head in disbelief.
“Marie… are you seeing this? That little demon has done something to your sister. I swear she’s under some kind of spell. You need to save her.”
“I agree,” Minghao added immediately, still staring at the mansion doors.
Mariam said nothing.
She simply sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly.
Megan’s protective attitude toward Jackson had become impossible to ignore.
And there was nothing Mariam could do about it.
Later that evening, when Jackson was finally leaving the mansion after having tea with Megan, he looked at Ronan with a dark expression on his face.
Ronan also looked back at him with an irritated look on his face.
For a moment, the two locked eyes—Ronan’s filled with hostility, Jackson’s with indifference.
Then Jackson did something completely unexpected.
He bent down, removed his left shoe without and before anyone could react, hurled it straight at Ronan with brutal force.
THUD.
The shoe struck Ronan squarely on the head.
“Ah—!” Ronan yelled.
It hit him so hard that he flipped over and fell backwards.
“Ronan!” Minghao shouted, rushing forward.
Mariam froze.
Ronan lay on the floor for a second, dazed, blinking rapidly as though trying to understand what had just happened.
He was seeing stars in the back of his eyes.
A visible bump, the size of an egg was already forming where the shoe had hit.
“What… what just—” he muttered weakly.
Mariam and Minghao stared at Jackson in complete shock.
Who throws a shoe like that?
Jackson simply turned on his heel, and walked away.
His walk was now slightly uneven, wearing only one shoe, as though nothing unusual had happened at all.
He didn’t even look back.
Mariam slowly helped Ronan sit up, still processing the absurdity of it.
Minghao exhaled sharply.
“That man is not normal.”
Ronan groaned, holding his head.
“No. He’s definitely insane.” Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
Mariam didn’t say anything out loud, but she also thought that Jackson was a psychopath.
She wanted nothing to do with him in the future and intended to keep as much distance from him as possible.
***
She turned her head slightly in her sleep, but her body refused to respond properly.
Why was she even dreaming about the past lately?
Her eyes moved beneath her eyelids.
She couldn’t fully wake up from her sleep.
Her chest felt tight.
A suffocating pressure settled over her, as if the air itself had been stolen from her.
She tried to inhale, but nothing came.
Her throat felt sealed, her lungs refusing to cooperate no matter how desperately she attempted to breathe.
“What the…” she muttered weakly.
Her eyes flew open.
And horror struck her instantly.
Someone was on top of her.
He was pinning her down with brutal weight, one hand wrapped tightly around her neck, cutting off her air.
The intruder’s face was hidden behind a black mask, covering the lower half of his face.
Panic surged through her.
Her mind ran overtime.
And in that moment of fear, only one name came to her.
“Jackson…” she choked out, voice broken and breathless.
Her vision blurred at the edges.
Was it really him?