Aurora Rivers was stunned.
She looked at Winston Wyatt.
‘A substitute?
What’s this all about?’
Winston Wyatt shook his head in a panic, scrambling to explain.
“It’s not like that!
There’s no substitute.
You’re not a substitute for anyone.
You’re just you—one of a kind, impossible to replicate.” ‘How could I ever find a substitute?’ he thought.
‘My teacher is irreplaceable.
There’s only one.
Calling someone her substitute is a grave insult.’
Winston Wyatt was seething with rage, his head feeling like it was about to explode.
Aurora Rivers reached out and placed a hand on his arm, patting it gently to show she understood.
Meeting Aurora Rivers’s trusting and soothing gaze, Winston Wyatt knew she hadn’t believed Victoria Sutton’s nonsense.
He calmed down, and the restless, chaotic aura around him slowly settled.
Seeing Aurora Rivers completely unfazed and continuing to act intimately with Winston Wyatt, Victoria Sutton glared and warned, “Hey, you couldn’t possibly be unaware that our Isla is the true mistress of the Wyatt family, could you?
Don’t think you can climb over the rightful owner just because you have a pretty face.” Aurora Rivers possessed a divine beauty that even Victoria Sutton had to acknowledge.
She was far more beautiful than Isla Chambers.
If the two of them stood side by side, all eyes would undoubtedly be on Aurora Rivers, while Isla Chambers would fade into the background.
It was as if Isla Chambers bore a slight resemblance to Aurora Rivers, not the other way around.
But no matter what, Isla Chambers was her best friend, so she would stand by her side through thick and thin.
“I advise you to quit while you’re ahead.
Take what you’ve gotten and leave.
Don’t have ambitions taller than the sky when your life is as fragile as paper.” Victoria Sutton’s gaze swept over the numerous shopping bags with luxury brand logos in the bodyguards’ hands, her eyes flashing with contempt.
She had already pegged Aurora Rivers as an obvious gold digger, one who didn’t even bother to hide her blatant greed.
The rage Winston Wyatt had just suppressed was instantly reignited.
The phrase “life is as fragile as paper” echoed in his mind like a curse.
At the same time, vivid images flooded his memory: the scene from twenty years ago, of his teacher dying before his eyes, her body left with nothing to bury.
Even though he knew his teacher had returned to him, alive and well, the words still struck a raw nerve.
The twenty years he had spent without her had been agonizingly real, a long and desperate wait.
When he opened his eyes again, they were a terrifying, bestial red.
“Victoria Sutton, if you dare say one more word against her, I’ll rip out your tongue and shatter every last one of your teeth.”
Victoria Sutton instinctively covered her mouth.
Just hearing his words made her own teeth and tongue ache in sympathy.
Though she could taste fear in the air, she was still certain Winston Wyatt wouldn’t dare to actually lay a hand on her.
“I’m Isla’s best friend!
Aren’t you afraid she’ll blame you when she finds out you treated me this way?”
“Give me back the candied haws.” Winston Wyatt’s scarlet, bestial eyes were dark and obsessive.
Victoria Sutton glanced at the candied haws in her hand, showing no intention of returning them.
‘Could Isla’s hold on him really be less important than two sticks of candied fruit?’
‘I don’t believe it,’ she thought.
Her goal had been to drive a wedge between the two of them and vent some of Isla’s frustration.
But now, not only had she failed, but she was also covered in a sticky, humiliating mess.
The more she thought about it, the more resentful she became.
Victoria Sutton slammed the candied haws onto the ground and stomped on them.
Before Winston Wyatt’s very eyes, the candied haws were ground into the dirt, crushed to pieces.
At the same time, Winston Wyatt’s sanity shattered.
It was as if a voice was mocking him, telling him to stop deluding himself.
He could never hope to live like a normal person.
He was a monster in the eyes of others, neither human nor ghost.
He was a bastard in the eyes of his own mother.
He would never have the warmth and love he craved.
Victoria Sutton met Winston Wyatt’s blood-red, bestial eyes.
They were filled with savage hatred, glaring at her with nothing but violent, destructive intent.
It was as if he were looking at a dead thing, wanting to tear her limb from limb and scatter her ashes to the wind.
She lifted her foot off the crushed candied haws.
A deep chill crept up from the soles of her feet and spread through her entire body, raising goosebumps on her skin.
She realized now that she had truly, completely enraged him.
Swallowing nervously, Victoria Sutton forced a casual tone.
“What are you looking at me like that for?
The great head of the Wyatt family can have anything he wants.
You’re not going to be so petty as to pick a fight with a woman over two sticks of candied fruit, are you?”
“Tsk.
Big deal, I’ll pay you back for them.”
The next second, with a guttural roar, Winston Wyatt lunged at her like a demonic beast breaking free from its chains, a bloody, violent aura radiating from him.
Like prey caught by its natural predator, her neck was seized in his grip.
Kian Blackwood was sent flying.
Victoria Sutton slammed hard onto the ground, her eyes rolling back as she gaped for air.
Her face and neck instantly turned a deep red, veins bulging visibly.
“GHK…
GHKK…”
The scene instantly descended into chaos.
The master is having an episode!
Restrain him, or she’ll die for sure!”
The bodyguards dropped everything and rushed forward in unison.
Hearing this, Kian Blackwood’s expression changed.
Forgetting everything else, he threw himself to the front of the group trying to stop Winston Wyatt.
If anything happened to Victoria Sutton, Silas Blackwood would surely have his hide.
They finally managed to pry Victoria Sutton free.
Kian Blackwood’s face was black and blue, his teeth loosened by Winston Wyatt’s blows.
He’d even lost a molar.
Victoria Sutton scrambled away on her hands and knees, her face a horrified, purplish-red.
She clutched her throat, coughing so violently it sounded like she had consumption.
As she caught her breath, she burst into terrified tears.
“Stay away!
You’re a madman, Winston Wyatt!
WAAAH…
I’m with the Blackwood family!
I’m with Silas Blackwood!
If you hurt me, he won’t let you get away with it!”
‘Silas Blackwood?!’
Hearing that name, Aurora Rivers looked over at Victoria Sutton.
‘Silas Blackwood was one of the six “cubs” I had raised.
He was also the great villain who brought about the apocalypse.
In order of age, he was the eldest.
When I traveled back twenty years, he was only eight.’
‘If Victoria Sutton is part of the Blackwood family, why is her last name Sutton?’
Aurora Rivers was confused.
She wanted to ask Victoria about Silas Blackwood’s current situation, but this was clearly not the right time.
‘First, I have to calm Winston down.’
…
Not far away, a black, stretch Pullman was parked in a private lane.
The sharp-eyed Secretary Cheney recognized the Wyatt family’s bodyguards and reported to the distinguished, aloof man in the back seat, “Mr.
Sinclair, it looks like Lord Wyatt’s men.”
Damian Sinclair didn’t even lift his gaze.
His handsome, refined face was adorned with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his prominent nose.
His indifferent, narrow eyes remained fixed on the file in his hand.
“Go see what’s happening.”
“Yes, sir,” Secretary Cheney replied.
A short while later, Secretary Cheney returned to report what he had learned.
“It was the young miss of the Blackwood family who got into a dispute with Lord Wyatt.
Apparently, Miss Blackwood accused Lord Wyatt’s companion of being a substitute.”
“A substitute?” Damian Sinclair asked.
Secretary Cheney elaborated, “A substitute for Miss Isla Chambers, the one Lord Wyatt keeps hidden away in his golden cage.”