“You can accept Winston Wyatt being good to you, but can you accept him hurting you?”
Aurora Rivers was baffled.
“So, what are you trying to say?”
Isla Chambers took a deep breath and said with a steady gaze, “I want you to leave Winston Wyatt.
Leave this place.”
“I’m not afraid you’ll steal Winston Wyatt from me, and I’m not trying to push you out on purpose.
Please don’t misunderstand me,” Isla Chambers said in a rush.
She waved her hands frantically, as if to distance herself from Winston Wyatt while expressing her own desperate wish.
“If I could, I’d be the one leaving him, leaving this place.”
“But I can’t leave.
You can, though—while there’s still time.” Isla Chambers looked at Aurora Rivers with desperation, grabbing both of her hands tightly.
“Miss Rivers, please believe me.
I’m doing this for your own good.
I would never hurt you.” Isla Chambers’s eyes were brimming with sincerity.
Aurora Rivers’s brow twitched slightly.
She watched the agitated Isla Chambers in silence.
Isla Chambers took Aurora Rivers’s lack of refutation as a sign of hesitation and decided to press her advantage.
“You have no idea what kind of hellish prison this place is.
You don’t know what kind of person Winston Wyatt really is.”
Aurora Rivers asked, “So you’re saying you know Winston Wyatt very well?”
Isla Chambers nodded.
“I’ve been by his side for three years.
Absolutely no one knows Winston Wyatt better than I do.”
A faint, unreadable smile touched Aurora Rivers’s lips.
“Then in your eyes, what kind of person is he?”
Isla Chambers bit her lip.
“He’s not human.
He’s a monster.
And not just in my eyes—in everyone’s eyes.
No one has an ‘episode’ and turns into a beast, making animalistic sounds and having terrifying, demonic red eyes.”
“No one would ever like a monster, fall in love with a monster, or want to be with a monster.”
“Miss Rivers, I don’t want you to end up in the same situation as me, trapped at a monster’s side.” Isla Chambers’s eyes reddened, putting on the perfect display of a pained, helpless, and wounded damsel in distress.
“You probably don’t know this, but you’re my stand-in.
I’m telling you because I don’t want you to be deceived.”
By now, Aurora Rivers’s expression was completely gone.
Her long, thick lashes framed dark eyes that were like jade submerged in a cool lake, holding a distinct chill.
Isla Chambers assumed Aurora Rivers was too shocked to react and hurried to console her.
“Don’t be too upset.
Now that you know the truth, you can get out while you can.”
Aurora Rivers pulled her hands free.
Isla Chambers froze.
“Isla Chambers, who gave you permission to spout such nonsense here?”
Winston Wyatt’s cold, menacing voice came from behind.
Isla Chambers went rigid in an instant.
Her eyes widened uncontrollably, her pupils contracted, and her expression became one of utter panic.
‘How could Winston Wyatt be here?
Did he hear everything I said?’
‘From this angle, Aurora Rivers could see Winston Wyatt behind me, but she didn’t even warn me.’
‘I can’t believe she’s so conniving.’
“Who told you she was a stand-in?” Winston Wyatt grabbed Isla Chambers’s wrist, a storm raging in his eyes.
Isla Chambers’s arm was twisted painfully, and she cried out.
But more than the pain, she felt sheer terror.
“I…
I…”
“Stop flattering yourself.
Take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself if you’re even worthy,” Winston Wyatt said with undisguised contempt, his mocking gaze making her feel like a clown.
The color drained from Isla Chambers’s face, leaving it as white as a sheet.
She trembled with humiliation.
“Listen to me and listen good.
She is not a stand-in for anyone.”
Tears streamed down her face.
Isla Chambers was an absolute, mortified mess.
While Isla Chambers was being judged by Winston Wyatt, was Winston Wyatt not also being judged by Aurora Rivers?
Winston Wyatt didn’t dare to look at Aurora Rivers.
He had heard everything Isla Chambers said to convince Aurora Rivers to leave him.
‘Actually, Isla Chambers is right.
I am a monster.
Everyone’s afraid of me.
No one could ever like me.
No one would be willing to stay with me forever.’
‘And love…
that’s an even more impossible dream.’
‘Teacher just got back and she’s already had to see me have one episode after another.
Does she really not mind at all?
Does she think I’m too much trouble?’
‘If Teacher decides to leave, will I even be able to stop her?’
Aurora Rivers placed a hand on Winston Wyatt’s forearm, signaling him to let go.
Winston Wyatt’s breath hitched, and he released Isla Chambers.
He lowered his head and closed his eyes.
“‘Everyone?’ And just how many people is that?
It doesn’t matter how many.
To me, Winston Wyatt has never been a monster.”
“And I don’t want to hear anyone else call him a monster again.”
Winston Wyatt opened his eyes.
A ray of light broke through his darkness.
“Even if he really is a monster, I love him,” Aurora Rivers said, stepping in front of Winston Wyatt and enunciating each word with perfect clarity.
Winston Wyatt’s head snapped up.
His eyes were wide, his eyelashes trembling violently.
Winston Wyatt’s mind was reeling.
He grabbed Aurora Rivers’s hand and just started running.
He didn’t know where he was taking her; he just wanted to find a place where no one else was around.
A place where it was just the two of them.
“Teacher, what you said just now…” Winston Wyatt stopped walking, his eyes fixed on her, brimming with hope.
“I meant every word.
We’re family, so of course I love you.
No matter what other people say, no matter how they look at you, you must remember—you still have me.”
Winston Wyatt’s eyes instantly turned red, and he felt a stinging in his nose.
Her heart ached as she looked at Winston Wyatt.
“I should have told you this twenty years ago.
These past twenty years must have been so hard for you, Winston.”
Winston Wyatt couldn’t help it; his lips trembled as tears began to fall.
He pulled Aurora Rivers into a tight hug, resting his head on her shoulder like a wronged child seeking comfort.
“Teacher…
Little Mom…”
Aurora Rivers gently patted Winston Wyatt’s back.
Her thoughts turned to his condition, the frenzied, beast-like loss of control, and a worried expression crossed her face.
“Don’t worry, I’m here now.
You’re going to get better.”
Winston Wyatt nodded again and again.
He had never imagined that someone in this world would actually be willing to love him.
‘It turned out he’d been a child who was loved, even twenty years ago.’
Winston Wyatt clung tightly to this love, his eyes filled with obsession and possessiveness.
Bale trotted over with a piece of meat in his mouth.
He hadn’t eaten his last piece.
Ignoring Winston Wyatt’s presence, he nudged his large, fluffy head against Aurora Rivers again and again.
It was hard for Aurora Rivers not to notice him.
“What is it?”
Bale stretched his neck out, his golden eyes as pure and intense as the sun.
His gaze was full of earnestness as a low rumbling sound came from his throat, his tail wagging nonstop.
“Did you save this piece of meat just for me?” Aurora Rivers immediately understood.
Bale nodded.
Winston Wyatt was a little surprised.
As his master, he knew better than anyone how protective Bale was of his food.
Not even he would dare try to snatch food from the beast’s jaws.
This was, without a doubt, the first time Bale had ever willingly shared his food in his entire life.
“But what do I do?
It’s raw.”