Filed To Story: A Second Chance with My Billionaire Love
Soon, many people started to gather around them, muttering to each other as they watched the scene.
“You’re the one who killed my son and destroyed my chance at motherhood! I’m going to kill you! Die!” Jessanna hissed, her nails digging into Flossie’s skin. This made it very difficult for Flossie to breath, and her face turned red as she winced in pain.
Suddenly, the hands around Flossie’s neck disappeared, and she could breathe again. Gasping for air, she turned to look at Jessanna, who was unconscious in Halston’s arms.
“What just happened? She fainted on her own, alright, so don’t even try to put the blame on me!” Flossie gently rubbed her sore neck and took several steps back, observing the eerily still woman.
“Hey… Why isn’t she moving? She’s alive, right?”
“You seem eager to have her dead.” Halston shot Flossie a dirty glare, carrying Jessanna bridal-style and laying her down at a resting area nearby.
Flossie had almost died because of Jessanna’s sudden outburst, and a panicked Halston had no choice but to hit Jessanna on the back of the neck to knock her out for a while. Flossie might not have survived otherwise.
Jessanna would probably be better after resting, so Halston didn’t try to wake her up. Instead, he turned to Flossie, who was still in the children’s section, and pointed at the clothes on the ground. His eyes narrowed as he asked, “Why are you buying so many children’s clothes?”
Flossie and the employee were busy putting the outfits on the ground back into her bags. She scoffed dismissively, “Why do you care? Am I not allowed to buy cute things?”
Halston squatted down and picked up one of the striped socks near him, observing it curiously. The sock was pink, soft, and no bigger than his hand. He couldn’t deny it was cute, and it softened his heart for some reason.
“So you bought these socks… because they’re cute?” Halston asked dubiously as he handed them to Flossie.
However, the woman didn’t want to play buddy-buddy with him, and shot him a disgusted look. “I did think it was cute, yeah, but now you’ve dirtied it with your hands. I don’t want it anymore.”
“You!” Halston was furious. ‘What the hell? Didn’t she say she hoped we could still be friends?! She was acting so nonchalant before, but now she’s acting like I’m some kind of curse! What’s her problem?!’
“I just knocked Jessanna out just to save you, and this is how you thank me?!” Halston wanted an explanation for her behavior, so he blocked her way to question her. He scowled as he asked her, “What have I done to piss you off this time?”
Flossie felt her blood boil, and her eyes blazed in rage. “Do you really not know? Or are you just pretending to be oblivious, Guajardo? I couldn’t tell before, but you and Ximenez really are a family, aren’t you? Now that she’s joined your family, she’s just so eager to choke people too. You weren’t able to break my neck four years ago, so your girlfriend is doing it for you now. Why are you pretending to be a good person?”
Honestly, four years was enough for her to let go of her miserable past, and move on from the man in front of her. However, when Jessanna was choking her, painful flashbacks of Halston doing the same played in her head. His grip had been much stronger than Jessanna’s, and Flossie still remembered the feeling of that near-death experience like it happened yesterday. Those upsetting memories had never left, and remembering them had just made her pain resurface.
There was no way she could be entirely numb towards the situation.
Seeing how agitated the woman was, Halston felt a little satisfied. ‘She’s finally not acting like an emotionless statue. Her mood was affected…
because of me.’
Although she was upset with him, it proved to him that he still mattered to her in some way. It made his dead, cold heart explode with passion once again.
“That’s right, I’m not a good person! So hate me, yell at me, you can even hit me…” Halston grabbed Flossie’s hand all of a sudden, placing it on his chest. “If you’re so angry with me, if you hate me that much, then don’t hold back! There’s no need to pretend you’re doing fine on your own.”
He just wanted to tell her that she could hate him and take her anger out on him as she liked, but he couldn’t bear it when she ignored him. He would rather them fight with each other than become complete strangers
“Come on, hit me! Aren’t you a great fighter? Beat me till I bleed, or you can always return the favor and choke me to death!” Halston declared as he shifted her hand to his neck, his expression serious to show her he wasn’t joking.
“Are… Are you insane?” Flossie was utterly stunned by the man’s actions, and her anger morphed into confusion. She tried to pull her hand away, scowling. “There are cameras here, so don’t you dare try to get me in trouble!”
“Then I’ll just let them see that I allowed you to hit me! If you kill or cripple me, I’ll take full responsibility for it.”
“You’ve definitely gone mad!” Flossie was finally able to escape his grasp, and quickly stepped away from the man like he was a rabid animal.
‘Ugh, as expected from the madman Halston Guajardo – he’s actually willing to get beaten up! It’s pretty creepy, honestly…”
“I wronged you four years ago, so now I’m giving you the chance to take revenge! You’re the one who refused the opportunity, so let’s not bring this up anymore. It’ll only damage our relationship.” Halston looked at Flossie coldly, his demeanor returning to his usual aloof pride.
Only then was Flossie able to understand his motives.
“Guajardos, who the hell said we still had a future with each other?! We don’t have a relationship to begin with, so what is there to damage?” Flossie said incredulously, trying to calm herself down.
‘I swore that I’d never let this man affect my mood so easily!1
“We can always build a relationship even if we don’t have one. Even if the end result is resentment, it’s still worth it!” Halston said with a smirk, his tone teasing but his expression serious.
Flossie gulped nervously, then scoffed, “Looks like you’ve really lost your mind.”
Just then, Jessanna regained consciousness. As if she had become a completely different person, she rushed towards Flossie and dropped to her knees before her. “I’m so sorry, Miss Ellsworth! I won’t try to take Halston from you ever again, so please let my child and I go! Please have mercy, I beg you…”
“What… What’s going on?” Flossie watched in shock as Jessanna begged and groveled, feeling like her entire worldview had just collapsed. Was this just her bad luck or was something really going on?
Halston seemed cold as he helped Jessanna to her feet. “Jessanna, did you not take your meds before heading out today?”
“I… I…”
“Damn it.” Halston let out a long sigh, and fished out a jar of pills from his pocket. He took one out and ordered Jessanna, “Take it.”
“Halston, I don’t want to… The medicine is so bitter, and I can’t take such things when I’m pregnant! It’ll be bad for the baby! Please don’t make me take the pill… I won’t mess around or bother Miss Ellsworth anymore, just please… no pills!” Jessanna begged pitifully.
However, Halston was stern. “Eat it!”
“Okay, okay… Please don’t get mad and abandon me…” Jessanna took the pill and swallowed it with a face full of tears.
Flossie, who had been watching everything, was speechless. She couldn’t help but feel conflicted, and whispered to Halston, “What happened to Ximenez? Why is she acting like this?”
After Halston made sure Jessanna took her medication, he ordered her to stay in the resting area next to them.
Jessanna didn’t object to this, and merely headed back to the resting area with a blank stare. She sat down on one of the benches quietly, as if she was a mindless zombie.
The man then turned back to Flossie with a cold glare. “How can you ask me that? Do you really not know why she’s acting like this?”
Flossie instantly became angry. “Can’t you just be direct, Halston Guajardo? If you really think I’m such an evil person, then feel free to take revenge on me! Don’t act like you’re on some kind of moral high ground to punish me.”
Halston continued to look into her eyes, his gaze clouded with sadness as he asked softly, “Do you really feel no pity towards the child whose life you took, or the woman you destroyed? Do you really believe you don’t have to be held accountable for all this?”
“I…” Flossie was speechless, and thought miserably, ‘How could I possibly not feel any regret or pity? I’ve been blaming myself for that incident every single day for the past four years. But I can’t turn back time, so I shouldn’t punish myself for life, right?’
“She was covered in blood when I brought her to the hospital, and the doctor said… They said they could’ve saved the child if we had just sent her over a little sooner! They wouldn’t have had to remove her uterus… A little sooner, he said!” Halston’s eyes were slightly red, and it was obvious that his heart was truly aching for Jessanna and her child.
He questioned Flossie in a lowered voice, “Why did you have to push her? I made sure she was legally dead and put her somewhere you couldn’t even have known! Why couldn’t you just let her go?”
“I…” Flossie averted her gaze helplessly. She wanted to say that she didn’t voluntarily look for Jessanna, that it was the other way around. Moreover, she didn’t intend to push the woman at all. Jessanna had just provoked her ruthlessly, which had resulted in…
However, she knew that her explanation didn’t matter, since she wasn’t exactly innocent in this bloody tragedy. Thus, she decided that it was best to save her explanation.
“Just a little sooner! If we were a little sooner, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened in the first place! How could you be so cruel as to stand back and watch? What were you so scared of?!” Halston’s eyes seemed to be tearing up. He didn’t seem angry – it looked more like regret.
“I had already chosen you! If we were a few seconds sooner… everything wouldn’t have turned out this way!”
At the time, he had just left the Baldwin family manor with Flossie, and had realized his true feelings for the woman. He had been waiting for her answer as well, hoping that she’d agree to start over with him. Yet, no one expected something like this to happen…
‘We wouldn’t have ended up like this if we arrived a little sooner!’
“I’m so sorry…” Flossie slowly lowered her head, speaking regretfully.
Halston sighed softly. “After she lost her child, Jessanna lost her mind as well. The doctors said she had severe manic depression and anxiety, and she has to take medication for life to regulate her condition. However, although the medicine helped calm her down, there were severe side effects too. Her insanity worsened, and now, she needs me around constantly…”