The Lie Of That Night Chapter 07
The following day, Roderick was well enough to walk around.
He approached Gretchen tentatively, tugging at the corner of her sleeve. “It’s stuffy in here,” he murmured.
Gretchen looked down slowly, meeting Roderick’s eyes — eyes that were now brimming with an unspoken dependence.
In an instant, a ripple surged through the stagnant pool of her heart.
She reached out with a trembling hand, her voice thick and raspy. “Alright. Let’s go to the window and look outside, shall we?”
Watching this, the deep furrow in Terrence’s brow finally softened, a flicker of solace warming his chest.
That same night, Roderick was rushed back into the emergency room, where he underwent gastric lavage and cardiopulmonary resuscitation…
The doctor’s expression was grim; the preliminary diagnosis was the ingestion of a highly toxic substance.
Terrence’s eyes turned bloodshot with rage as he slammed a fist against the wall, blood trickling down his knuckles.
And this time, the evidence was even more damning.
A bottle of tampered vitamin gummies had been discovered right in Gretchen’s room.
“It’s impossible. Greta wouldn’t…”
Terrence’s breathing was heavy and ragged. His logic screamed that this was too obvious, too staged, yet the hard evidence was too solid to deny.
“Terry, I know how hard this is for you!”
Paulina said, her eyes red-rimmed. Her voice was mournful, yet she pressed him with calculated precision. “When Ricky wakes up, we’ll ask him. He knows best who gave him the candy.”
At that moment, the Mendez family elders arrived in a flurry, having heard the news.
Learning that Roderick had nearly lost his life for a second time, their faces turned livid. The atmosphere outside the ward became suffocatingly tense.
Gretchen was deaf to the world around her. She clung to the door of the emergency room, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the frantic movements of the doctors and nurses inside.
Finally, the surgical light flickered off. The doctor emerged and announced, “The rescue was successful. The child is out of danger.”
Gretchen stumbled into the ward, tears falling silently.
However, when Roderick woke up, he pointed straight at Gretchen.
“It was you… Why did you try to hurt me? You said you’d take me for fresh air… and you gave me those candies…”
Gretchen felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck her. She froze where she stood, paralyzed.
“You monster! It really was you!”
Terrence’s grandfather shook with fury, slamming his cane hard against the floor.
“You are a serpent in disguise! How could you lay a hand on such a small child?”
“She can’t produce a healthy child of her own, so she can’t stand to see anyone else have a healthy child. Terry, why are you still keeping a woman like this around?”
The scoldings and contempt of the elders rained down on her like a hailstorm.
The last flicker of light in Gretchen’s eyes died out, leaving behind a hollow, empty void.
Seeing her like that, Terrence felt as though someone had stabbed a knife straight through his chest. The pain was so sharp he could barely remain standing.
“I think she’s lost her mind. She’s mentally unstable!” Terrence’s aunt shrieked.
“Yes! Send her away! Get her to a bedlam immediately! We cannot let her continue to plague the Mendez family!”
Bowing to the pressure, Terrence gave a reluctant nod.
That night, Gretchen was strapped into a restraint suit and tossed into the back of a black van.
The vehicle sped off into the depths of the night.
Suddenly, her smartwatch emitted a faint glow as an automated location alert popped up.
Her parents’ location had suddenly appeared within the city — and astonishingly close to where she was now.
Gretchen peered through the rear window of the van.
Just then, sparks ignited from a car parked by the roadside.
Then, the vehicle suddenly accelerated, hurtling toward Gretchen’s van with a deafening roar as it slammed into them.