Chapter 56\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet was usually a prickly hedgehog. One touch, and William would end up pricked all over. But she turned out to be more docile when inebriated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was, by all accounts, a well\u2013behaved drunk. She stayed quiet without kicking up a fuss and was Lucy\u2019s complete opposite. The only problem was that she cried a lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had no idea how she had so many tears. Every so often, another wave would spill, soaking into his suit and leaving dark, damp stains behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you made of water or something? How can you cry this much?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even William\u2019s fiery temper had been worn down by her tears. He pulled out a handkerchief to wipe her face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDrinking this much by yourself\u2026 Someone could\u2019ve taken you away, and you wouldn\u2019t have had a clue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet drifted between crying and sleeping. Eventually, she settled, leaning against William\u2019s chest, sound asleep and\u00a0<\/p>\n
oblivious to the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By the time the car pulled up in front of the house at Wolke Bay, she was fast asleep. Her cheeks were flushed, yet there was a faint crease between her brows. It was as if she couldn\u2019t be happy, even in her sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her mouth parted slightly, revealing a hint of pearly white teeth between pink lips.\u00a0<\/p>\n
William lowered his gaze and watched her for a moment. Then, he lifted his hand and pinched her lips together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet remained thoroughly unaware as she let herself be moved without protest. He pinched her lips close, then parted them again, as if she were a doll.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upon noticing how absorbed William was, Lester decided not to interrupt him. He discreetly removed himself from the car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Being fiddled with made Scarlet frown in her sleep. When she cracked her eyes open, she was met with William\u2019s amused gaze as he squeezed her cheek. \u201cYou sleep like a piglet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back when everything was still sweet between them, William loved teasing her while she slept. If he woke her up, he\u2019d laugh and call her a piglet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For a moment, it felt like they\u2019d gone back to those times. Scarlet hadn\u2019t seen this version of him in a long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caught between the land of sleep and wakefulness, she had no sense of time nor place. It all felt like a dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She reached up, arms slipping around William\u2019s neck, and instinctively pressed close. Her voice trembled with a choked sob.\u201d I miss you so much\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
William\u2019s smile began to fade. He didn\u2019t return her embrace, simply sitting in silence as he let her cling to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWho do you miss?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet stayed slumped against his shoulder as she sobbed softly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
William said nothing. He let her cry for a bit before carrying her out of the car, up the stairs, and onto her bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet had already slipped back into sleep. Her brows were drawn together as tears continued to fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fabric over his chest was soaked through, damp from her tears during the ride.\u00a0<\/p>\n
William thought of lighting a cigarette as he stood by the bed. He had even taken one out, only to put it away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bedside lamp stayed on. Ever since Scarlet had been kidnapped as a child, she\u2019d been terrified of the dark. She needed a night light to sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
X CLOSE\u00a0<\/p>\n
BC.GAME\u00a0<\/p>\n
View\u00a0<\/p>\n
5.0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 561\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
William leaned against the cabinet as he silently kept watch over her in the dim light. He was hardly aware how long he stood\u00a0<\/p>\n
there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When her sobs finally petered out, he straightened up, closed the door, and left.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet slept for a long, long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her dreams stretched on, flickering through different faces and locations. It was as though she were reliving the lonely, helpless life of the past 20 or so years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A myriad of lights twinkled behind her, and ahead lay an endless sea of white fog.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There had never been a soul by her side throughout the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No, that wasn\u2019t true. She still had people in her camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There weren\u2019t many in the world who loved her, but she had friends. It wasn\u2019t as if she had no one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was already close to noon by the time Scarlet opened her eyes the next day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019d never slept in this late before. With it already being this late, it left her with no sense of urgency. After all, at this point, it wouldn\u2019t make a difference even if she hurried to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She lounged in bed a while longer before calling Jeremy to ask for a day off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeremy sounded taken aback. \u201cYour family called in to request leave in your stead. Didn\u2019t he tell you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet was confused by Jeremy\u2019s mention of her family. It was likely William who called in. She seemed to remember seeing him yesterday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeremy lectured her a little more to remind her to submit a proper leave request next time. She couldn\u2019t simply decide not to show up. There were rules for a reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet knew she had messed up, so she took the reprimand without protest. Then, she got out of bed to shower and scrub herself clean of the lingering odor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 56\u00a0 Scarlet was usually a prickly hedgehog. One touch, and William would end up pricked all over. But she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-end-of-the-contractstart-of-his-obsession"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}