Filed To Story: The Scarlet Vengeance: Justice of a Framed Beauty Novel (Grace & Jason)
The old Mr. Hunter left the room, leaving Chandler alone standing in front of the table, gazing up at the portrait.
When he was young, he used to resent the woman in the portrait. If it weren’t for her curse, he wouldn’t have to endure such pain!
But as the years passed, his resentment gradually faded and turned into another emotion.
If it weren’t for this curse, he wouldn’t have met Tina, and he wouldn’t have been there for Tina as she grew up!
Just then, a faint sound came from the air.
Chandler: “Who’s there?!”
Besides him, there was someone else in the room.
But there was no response, the air was suffused with a sense of suffocation.
“Come out!” Chandler said sternly.
Under the table, there was a faint sound of sobbing.
Chandler’s body suddenly stiffened, then his face turned pale, and his gaze fell under the table, filled with unease and fear…
He was like a taut string as if it could snap at any moment.
Time passed by minute by minute.
The air became oppressively strange.
It was so quiet all around, except for the audible sobbing under the table, which was so obvious!
Chandler stiffened his body, his mind almost blank.
There was only one voice constantly shouting in his heart, please don’t let it be Tina…
But sometimes, the more afraid you are of something happening, the more likely it will happen.
When he bent down and slowly lifted the tablecloth that had fallen, he finally saw the figure hiding under the table.
He was instantly shocked!
That familiar figure caught his eye.
It was Tina!
But Tina at this moment had tears all over her face, and her expressions were so different from the ones he was familiar with!
Her eyes, blinking non-stop, were filled with tears, causing him heartache.
“Tina…” he called out in a hoarse voice, “please come out first.”
She bit her lip hard, and after a long while, she slowly emerged from under the table.
“Why are you here?” he raised his hand, wanting to wipe away the tears on her face, but she suddenly took a step back, avoiding his hand.
His hand awkwardly stayed suspended in mid-air, with a trace of bitterness in his eyes.
“You heard what my grandfather and I were talking about just now?” he said softly.
“Yes, I heard it all!” she said in a nasal voice, “I didn’t know, but I couldn’t sleep at night, and I accidentally walked into this room, and I actually heard those words.”
Chandler withdrew his hand with a pale face and stood there quietly as if he was a person about to be judged.
Tina took a deep breath, “I don’t want any misunderstandings between us, so I have a few questions to ask you, but I hope you can be honest with me, without any concealment.”
He looked at her and said, “Sure, ask me whatever questions you have.”
“What’s the deal with the umbilical cord blood-saving lives?” she asked.
“The Hunter family has a curse that can be inherited by children, but this inheritance is not certain, it could be skipped a generation or several generations. But those who are affected by this curse will experience periodic excruciating pain. This pain may last a few minutes or hours and usually occurs within two to three days. After enduring these two to three days, the pain will subside for some time.”
“What if they can’t endure it?” she asked.
“If they can’t endure it, they will commit suicide,” he said, there have been many suicides among the ancestors of the Hunter family.
Tina’s body trembled, seemingly not expecting this kind of answer.
“As for the umbilical cord blood-saving lives, a person affected by this curse will have a connection with a certain opposite-sex individual. If they have a child with this person they have a connection with, the placenta and umbilical cord blood of the child can be used to create a medicine that can lift the curse,”
Chandler said.
Tina tightly pursed her lips, seemingly contemplating his words. After a long while, she asked, “So now, you are affected by this curse, and I am the opposite-sex individual you have a connection with?”
“Yes,” he said.
“When did you know that I was the person you had a connection with?” she stared at him and asked.
His body stiffened even more, “…Before you were born.”
“What?” Tina was taken aback, “Before I was born? Are you referring to when I was still a fetus?”
“Yes!” he could never forget that day when he saw Tina’s pregnant mother, the connection suddenly exploded in his body.
In that instant, he finally understood what the so-called connection passed down in the family’s records really meant!
It turns out that finding the person who can break the curse feels like this!
It wasn’t until now that Tina finally understood why Chandler appeared suddenly when her mother was in difficult labor, and then saved her and her mother, and wanted to be engaged to her.
It was all because of this curse.
The so-called fate was because of this!
“So, all these years, you have been by my side, to have a child with me in the future and break the curse on you?” Tina took a while before speaking again.
Chandler looked at Tina, her face full of tears, and he knew that he could lie to her at this moment, maybe lying would be good for both of them.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bring himself to say the lie.
He had promised her that he wouldn’t hide anything and would be completely honest with her!
“At first, that was indeed my intention, but later…” he wanted to explain, but she quickly interrupted him.
“So, it was all just a manipulation from the beginning?” Tina smiled bitterly, “Later? Are you trying to say that later you developed genuine feelings for me? When was that? When I was in elementary school?
Middle school? Or maybe high school?”
But none of that matters now!
When she looked at the old photo albums and videos of her and Chandler together, even though she didn’t have the memories of the past, she could still feel the beauty in those images.
But now, those beautiful images are starting to change.
How much sincerity is mixed in with all of this? How much is driven by ulterior motives?
Faced with Tina’s questioning, Chandler remains silent.
Tina’s heart becomes even more uneasy, sinking further.
She hopes he can refute, hopes he can tell her it’s not like what she said.
But his silence confirms, from the beginning, he used her, even if he did develop feelings for her much later.
And within this motive, how much does his affection for her really hold?
Tina wipes away the tears from her face, looking at Chandler with determination: “If I’m not the one who can break the curse, would you still love me?”
Chandler’s hand, hanging by his side, clenches into a fist, his nails digging into his palm: “I don’t know, because even before you were born, I knew about your existence, and then I stayed by your side, gradually falling in love with you. I don’t know what it would be like between us if you weren’t the one, but I’ve always…”
“If I’m not the one, then maybe you wouldn’t have given me a second glance, or by that time, both I and my mother would have already died and wouldn’t even be in this world!” Tina mocks herself.
Chandler wants to say something, he knows if he doesn’t say anything, their relationship might end like this.
But when he opens his mouth, nothing comes out!
“I need to think about this thoroughly, it’s already late today!” Tina says, walking out of the room.
In the room, Chandler is left alone.
Finally, at this moment, he released his tightly clenched hands, blood seeping from his palms.
He wanted to tell her how grateful he was that she was the one who could break his curse because she was so wonderful, and he loved her so much.
This love, even though it began with ulterior motives, eventually turned into genuine affection.
When he looked at her when she was a baby, when he watched her learn to speak, when he saw her call him Chandler, he knew his genuine affection was growing more and more. Later on, he gradually forgot about his original motives and only wanted her to grow up safe and sound.
If it were Tina hadn’t lost her memories, she would have understood and believed his words because
Tina had experienced those little bits of affection.
But the Tina of today, she had no memories of the past or feelings for Chandler, so she wouldn’t believe it at all.
Chandler lowered his eyes, thinking about the last time when Tina found out about this secret before losing her memories.
But the Tina of that time, she loved him, so her reaction would be completely different.
He never expected that back then, Tina would take the initiative to want to marry him early, to want to have his child as soon as possible, to want to break the curse on him.
But now everything had changed.
Chandler looked at the portrait hanging on the wall.
The woman in the portrait had caused great pain to the Hunter family. And now he couldn’t help but wonder if it was also a curse that things turned out like that.
Tina left the Hunter family the next day, without even saying goodbye to Chandler.
When Chandler found out that Tina had left, his expression turned dim.
“What’s going on? Wasn’t that girl coming to see you? Why did she leave on her own?” old Mr. Hunter furrowed his brows, asking his grandson.
Chandler smiled wryly and replied, “Tina already knows.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.