Chapter 4

Lawrence didn't know how she had suddenly appeared here. He jumped up reflexively and quickly put his clothes back on. Looking into Aaliyah's sad eyes, he almost blurted out the truth. But his reason quickly returned. He forced himself to put on a carefree smile: “What are you talking about? What do you mean ‘saving you’?” “This injury? It happened when I was in prison, fighting with other men over a woman, then I got burned.” “The men in prison are all brutal. Those women were all vying to sleep with me, and they couldn’t stand it, so they had to resort to such methods to deal with me.” Aaliyah was so enraged by his words that her face turned pale, and the compassion in her eyes vanished. She angrily grabbed his neck, as if she wanted to strangle him to death. “Lawrence, you have no heart!” “Are you that desperate for excitement? Haven’t I satisfied you? What was our relationship back then?” He was choked until his face turned red, coughing violently. But when she let go, he burst into laughter. “What was it? It was your deep affection, your foolishness.” “Aaliyah, I truly wanted to marry you, but loving only one person for a lifetime is too difficult. In truth, those other women were just flings. If it weren’t for your mother catching me in the act and forcing me to kill her, we wouldn’t have ended up like this.” “After all, no matter how they are, they can’t compare to how good you’ve been to me, can they?” Aaliyah’s face alternated between pale and flushed, clearly enraged to the extreme. She angrily shook off his hand, her tone devoid of any emotion. “Lawrence, you make me feel sick. Loving you was the biggest regret of my life.” With that, she didn't look at him once more, storming out and slamming the door behind her. The room was finally left with only him. He collapsed weakly against the bed, slowly sitting down. Wasn't this what he wanted? For her to completely despise him and never think of him again? But why did his heart ache so much, as if someone had taken a knife and sliced it open, then sprinkled salt on the wound? It will pass, he comforted himself. After getting dressed, Jason offered to drive him out to run some errands. The Bailey Family clearly had a driver, and Lawrence didn’t know why he insisted on driving himself, but he didn’t ask any further questions. As he sat in the driver’s seat and started the car, Jason, who had been standing beside him moments ago, suddenly rushed to the front of the car and collapsed on the ground, covered in blood. Lawrence was completely stunned. The car had only just started and hadn’t even moved yet; even if it had hit him, it wouldn’t have been that severe. Where did the blood on his body come from? Before he could figure it out, Aaliyah had already rushed over. She hurriedly helped Jason up, her voice filled with urgency: “Jason, how are you?” Jason leaned weakly against her, his pitiful gaze fixed on Lawrence. “Aaliyah, don’t blame Lawrence. He didn’t do it on purpose.” As he spoke, he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. The vivid red color stung Aaliyah’s eyes. She looked up at Lawrence coldly, and the image of her mother being hit by a car flashed through her mind. In that moment, she lost control completely. “Lawrence, you’re incorrigible. Jason caught you with someone else again, so you did this to him!” She clenched her teeth, carried Jason to the car, and then sat down in the driver’s seat. As the engine roared to life, Aaliyah’s eyes grew increasingly red. She stared at the person in front of her, the images of her mother’s death and Jason coughing up blood overlapping like a net, completely ensnaring her. Her heart suddenly felt as though it were being squeezed by an invisible hand, the pain making it hard for her to breathe. But those images and Jason’s moans appeared again, and she finally calmed herself, stomping on the gas pedal and plowing straight toward Lawrence.