Chapter 141: Chapter 141: Blood-Stained Wedding Night
Victoria Monroe sat obediently on the steps, her skirt and the spaces between her hair filled with cherry blossom petals.
The makeup on her face was waterproof and hadn’t smudged. In the faint glow, she looked like a fairy emerging from the flowers.
So beautiful, yet so cold.
Julian Fordham had also not eaten for the entire day while accompanying her. His face was full of distress as he raised his hand to touch Victoria Monroe’s face, "Victoria, what’s wrong? Don’t you recognize me?"
Victoria Monroe seemed to be trapped in her obsession, temporarily shielding herself from all the sorrow and everything external.
She blinked, "I’m looking for fireflies."
"Why do you want to find fireflies?"
"If I find the fireflies, Grandma and I can go home."
"This is your home."
"No, this is not my home."
Victoria Monroe said as she stood up again, "Oh right, I need to take Grandma home."
She kept murmuring about going home and finding the fireflies.
Julian Fordham gently said, "I’ll take you somewhere to find fireflies, okay?"
"Really? Do you know where?"
"Hmm."
She stood up and was about to push the wheelchair with her grandmother, but Julian Fordham knocked her unconscious.
Victoria Monroe softly collapsed into his arms.
Julian Fordham carried her horizontally.
The bodyguard looked at the old lady’s corpse with some difficulty; there was no morgue on the island.
The temperature on the island was very high, and in one day, the old lady had already started to decompose. If this continued, the body would soon rot.
But with Victoria Monroe’s current unstable emotions, if the body was handled without her knowledge, she might wake up and not see her grandmother, which could lead to complications.
"President Fordham, what should we do with the old lady’s body?"
Julian Fordham had also considered this, looking at the woman sleeping in his arms with a face full of heartache.
"Get someone to properly handle Grandma’s appearance and freeze her with a refrigerator, and then... we’ll make plans for the future."
Grandma was the most important person to Victoria Monroe. If burned, Victoria Monroe would suffer another trauma.
Everything that happened today was beyond his expectation. Besides not knowing how to handle Grandma’s body, his relationship with Victoria Monroe was an even tougher issue.
When she wakes up, what will she decide?
If she wants him to let go, how could he be willing?
But if he doesn’t let go, his presence would be a kind of hurt for her.
Julian Fordham could only temporarily take Victoria Monroe back.
Take it one step at a time.
On a night when cherry blossoms danced in the air, the moonlight was tranquil, and the shadows under the trees were in pairs.
He carried Victoria Monroe, walking slowly on the path, where the cherry blossom petals on the ground naturally formed a romantic and beautiful flower carpet.
This was the wedding and wedding night he had been dreaming of.
Victoria Monroe’s wedding dress was half white and half red, and her train cascaded like a waterfall, dropping down from Julian Fordham’s arm, with some trailing on the ground.
Julian Fordham carried Victoria Monroe back to the bedroom; she was in a disheveled state, stained with either blood or mud.
Especially those feet, the soles were rubbed raw by stones, speckled with bloodstains,
Some wounds had even scabbed over, while others still glistened with tiny droplets of blood.
"Victoria, I’m sorry."
He really hadn’t wanted this, but why had the plot developed this way?
Did he and Victoria Monroe still have a future?
Now wasn’t the time to consider the future, Julian Fordham drew a bath and carefully removed Victoria Monroe’s clothes.
Even though he had seen this body countless times, never had there been a moment like this, without any impure thoughts.
Victoria Monroe, exhausted, did not wake up.
Felicity Fordham gently placed her in the warm water, seeing the scars on her wrists that still hadn’t faded.
He first used makeup remover to take off her makeup, then washed her hair and body.
From head to toe, he treated her like a treasure, finally changing her into a nightdress before starting to clean the wounds on her feet.
Victoria Monroe had a dream.
In the dream, she returned to the alley where she used to live as a child, wearing a small backpack, with two braids bouncing as she hopped home.
"Grandma, I’m so hungry!"
The familiar room was full of ash, surrounded by white cobwebs, as if it had been long sealed and never inhabited.
She panicked, searching the world for her grandmother.
"Grandma, where are you?"
Everywhere, from her aunt’s house to the clearing, to the places where Grandma did odd jobs, she searched.
From dawn till dusk, Grandma didn’t want her anymore.
Victoria Monroe sat on a swing in the clearing, wiping her tears, feeling that what others said was true, she was a jinx.
Her parents didn’t want her, and now even Grandma didn’t want her.
Under the streetlamp, her shadow stretched long.
Suddenly, a hand landed on her shoulder, and a familiar voice came from her ear, "Who bullied my girl?"
Victoria Monroe’s bowed head jerked up, looking at her grandmother, only sixty years old.
Her face wasn’t lined with wrinkles yet, her hair hadn’t turned white, and her back was straight.
"Grandma!"
Victoria Monroe pounced on her grandmother.
Her grandmother’s body wasn’t as warm as it used to be, and Victoria Monroe grabbed her hand, huffing on it, "Grandma, why are your hands so cold? I’ll warm them up for you."
"Silly child, stop blowing, my body won’t get warm again."
"Why?"
"Because Grandma couldn’t bear to leave you, she wanted to come over and see you one last time."
Victoria Monroe still retained her childhood form, yet she had a feeling that her grandmother was about to leave.
She tightly grasped her grandmother’s hand, "Grandma, you promised to watch me grow up, get married, and have children."
"Yes, I’ve seen it, girl. Life is like a test, very few people get a perfect score. It’s okay to make mistakes, just move forward, and try not to repeat them next time."
"Grandma, I don’t understand..."
"In the future, without me, don’t be sad. Be brave and move forward. Whether in heaven or on earth, Grandma will always protect you."
After speaking, she looked across, "It’s time. Your grandpa’s come to fetch me."
Victoria Monroe watched as the clearing suddenly turned into a river, and on the water stood a dark silhouette, holding a very peculiar lantern, seemingly made of fireflies.
The light of the fireflies blinked, like little starry eyes.
Victoria Monroe remembered something her grandmother had said before. Back then, many pursued her, but it was her grandpa who captured her heart with a hundred fireflies.
Their token of affection was the fireflies.
Her grandmother’s body suddenly became light and airy, floating toward the shadow on the river.
Victoria Monroe ran toward the river, crying, "Grandma, where are you going? Take me with you, I don’t want to leave you."
"Silly, I hope you never come to that place. Hurry back."
A firefly flew in front of her, its wings flickering.
Victoria Monroe’s attention was captured by this firefly, and mysteriously, she followed it away.
A faint sigh, almost inaudible, came from behind, "Girl, you must be happy."
Victoria Monroe suddenly snapped back to reality, looking behind her.
Where was the river? There was no sign of her grandmother, and even the firefly had vanished.
She cried as she ran to where she had been, there was only a vague black mist.
She threw herself into the mist.
"Grandma, wait for me!"
She opened her eyes.
"Victoria, you finally woke up."
Hearing this voice, Victoria Monroe shivered.
She grasped the blanket tightly, turning sharply toward the man beside her, and, like an enraged beast, she spat through gritted teeth, "Julian Fordham, why wasn’t it you who died?"