After all, it was used to eating raw, bloody meat, and the scent of blood would only further stimulate its primal urge to rip and tear.
But since Aurora Rivers was the one feeding it, Bale didn’t want to miss the opportunity.
Winston Wyatt took out his phone and furtively snapped a picture of Aurora Rivers, who was focused on grilling meat for him.
After a moment’s thought, he cropped a portion of the photo and updated his social media feed, which had been dormant for years.
He even added a caption: “The most delicious barbecue in the world.”
The picture he posted only showed Aurora Rivers’ hand; the rest was a dazzling array of food.
At that same moment, five different people, each busy with their own tasks, all heard a notification chime.
It was like a stone tossed into a still lake, the splash sending out countless ripples that were impossible to ignore.
They paused what they were doing and clicked on it.
It didn’t seem particularly special, but they could all sense that this was unusual for Winston Wyatt.
They didn’t quite understand it, but they gave him a “like” anyway.
Seeing that every single one of them had left a “like,” the corners of Winston Wyatt’s mouth curved up again.
…
Winston Wyatt sifted through the hundreds of photos Mr.
King had taken.
Many of the shots were repetitive, with only subtle changes in expressions, movements, and lighting, but he liked every single one—except for the ones that included Bale.
Mr.
King, however, quite liked them.
He happened to be looking at the photos of Bale just then.
One of them captured Bale and Winston Wyatt vying for attention, looking at each other with mutual disdain as they both turned their heads away.
They looked like two kindergarteners after a spat.
Mr.
King felt that this version of Winston Wyatt seemed more human, more alive.
And it was all because of Aurora Rivers’ arrival.
“Have all these photos printed.
Enlarge this one and frame it,” Winston Wyatt said, pointing to the picture of the hand-heart.
“Of course,” Mr.
King replied.
“Get out of my way!
Let me out!”
A commotion nearby drew the attention of both Winston Wyatt and Mr.
King.
Winston Wyatt frowned and walked over.
Seeing this, Mr.
King followed close behind.
There, Isla Chambers was in a standoff with the bodyguards, her face flushed with anger.
Winston Wyatt’s gaze fell upon her face, lingering for a moment.
Catching a glimpse of the man’s silhouette from the corner of her eye, Isla Chambers suddenly lunged toward the bodyguards.
“Let me through!”
The bodyguards instinctively blocked her.
Whether it was from the momentum or something else, Isla Chambers ricocheted off their arms and stumbled backward, beginning to fall.
The bodyguards were stunned.
‘We only blocked her,’ they thought.
‘We didn’t push her, did we?’
Just as Isla Chambers was about to fall, Winston Wyatt seized her by the shoulder, powerfully steadying her body.
The next moment, he gripped her wrist tightly.
His narrow eyes turned grim, his gaze as cold as stars.
“What kind of scene are you making now?”
Isla Chambers bit her lip and met Winston Wyatt’s gaze, her face a mask of defiance.
“I want to get out.”
“Get out?
Out where?
Do you even have anywhere to go?”
“Do you think this is a place you can just come and go as you please?” Winston Wyatt stared at Isla Chambers, his gaze cold and sinister.
“Get out?
Don’t even think about it.” With that, he cruelly flung her hand away.
Isla Chambers’s eyes immediately reddened, and her voice, thick with grievance, cracked.
“Why won’t you let me out?
I’m not a prisoner!”
‘Inwardly, Isla Chambers breathed a sigh of relief.
Winston was acting as controlling as ever, which eased much of her panic and anxiety.’
“Because you don’t have the right to say no.”
Aurora Rivers arrived just in time to hear Winston Wyatt restricting Isla Chambers’s freedom.
Her head instantly started to throb.
‘No way,’ she thought, ‘is Winston Wyatt really following in Mr.
Wyatt’s footsteps and going down the path of imprisonment?’
‘No wonder Isla Chambers came to me and said all those things.’
‘Does she think Winston is going to imprison her someday, too?’
“Winston, say that again,” Aurora Rivers said, approaching with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
The moment Isla Chambers saw Aurora Rivers, her chest flooded with a sense of crisis and unease.
She instinctively glanced at Winston Wyatt.
Sure enough, the man whose attention had been solely on her moments ago now only had eyes for Aurora.
At her side, Isla’s hand clenched, tightly gripping the fabric of her dress.
Winston Wyatt was about to obediently repeat his words, but he sensed a dangerous air about Aurora Rivers.
His intuition screamed at him not to.
“Who gave you the right to restrict another person’s freedom?” Aurora Rivers said, her words sharp and deliberate.
She narrowed her eyes and stepped closer, giving Winston Wyatt no chance to evade the question.
Winston Wyatt said quickly, “I’m not.”
Aurora Rivers was taken aback by his shamelessness.
“But you just told her she couldn’t leave, didn’t you?”
To that, Winston Wyatt admitted, “Mm-hmm.”
Aurora Rivers said, “Exactly.”
Winston Wyatt lowered his gaze, his long lashes casting shadows.
Aurora Rivers tried to decipher the hidden meaning in his expression and couldn’t help but find it strange.
Before she could make sense of it, she was interrupted by Isla Chambers’s raised voice.
“I want to go to the hospital to see my mother!
The doctor called and said her condition has been very poor the last few days.
I haven’t seen her in so long.
Please, let me go.” Tears streamed down Isla Chambers’s face as she pleaded with Winston Wyatt.
She looked fragile and tragically beautiful, her stubborn endurance laced with a pleading vulnerability.
Anyone who saw her would feel a pang of sympathy.
Isla Chambers knew that Winston Wyatt’s attitude always softened whenever she mentioned her mother.
Sure enough, at the word “mother,” Winston Wyatt’s expression grew dark and unreadable.
Seeing this, Aurora Rivers knew he was thinking of Mrs.
Wyatt.
She reached out, her hand covering the back of his in a comforting gesture.
“Let her go.”
Winston Wyatt yearned for the warmth spreading from her hand, craving it greedily.
He nodded obediently.
“Okay.”
Although Winston Wyatt had agreed to let her go, Isla Chambers couldn’t feel happy.
She didn’t want to owe her freedom to Aurora Rivers.
“Didn’t you hear him?
Winston Wyatt said I can go.
Now get out of my way,” Isla Chambers snapped, her tone aggressive.
The bodyguards exchanged a look and immediately parted to let her through.
“If you’re not back by nightfall, I’m cutting off your mother’s medical payments.”
Winston Wyatt’s cold, ruthless voice sounded from behind her.
Isla Chambers’s spine went rigid, and she froze in her tracks.
She whirled around in a panic.
“Don’t stop my mother’s medical payments!
She’ll die!”
Winston Wyatt remained unmoved.
“Whether your mother lives or dies has nothing to do with me.”
A chill ran through Isla Chambers, as if she’d been plunged into an ice cellar.
Her mother’s situation truly had nothing to do with Winston Wyatt.
In fact, if it weren’t for him, she never could have afforded the millions in medical bills, and her mother certainly wouldn’t have lived this long.
You could say her mother’s life—the extra time she had—was bought with his money.
“But she’s my mother…” ‘Since Winston likes me, shouldn’t he care about my mother, too?’ But meeting his cold, cruel gaze, Isla Chambers suddenly found she couldn’t say another word.