Chapter 23 Please Spare Him
But Judson kicked Rose away.
He did it like she was a stone by the roadside.
He held the closet’s edges with both hands and moved it more quickly.
“Judson…” Rose ignored the pain in her knees and rushed forward to hug his leg, saying incoherently, “Judson, don’t … don’t do this. It’s all my fault…”
She was afraid to admit she was wrong.
She didn’t dare to make a bet or be willful.
Darrin was her life. No one could hurt him.
She owed him too much to return his kindness. She couldn’t be the reason that he was dead.
“Please let him go. Please stop…,” she begged, crying. “Judson, I can do anything you want me to do. You can even take my life. But spare his. Please. Don’t do this. Please, I beg you…”
“Rose!” Darrin guessed what she was doing and yelled at her. “Shut up! Don’t beg him!”
Rose came to Flourish Media to ask for a job, and Darrin asked the personnel manager to send her an offer.
That was all he could do for Rose.
The job didn’t come with a handsome salary, and her apartment only had a closet with a loose door. Darrin wanted to give her more, but she
But he didn’t want her to kneel for him or beg Judson for him. She shouldn’t go back to that splendid hell called the Roach’s villa for him.
When she arrived that day, her complexion was pallid and despondent, not befitting her age. Her exquisite visage was like a wilting rose. She appeared to have no spirit, trudging out of a quagmire like a machine, instinctively searching for the final glimmer of optimism….
These days, he felt she was becoming more alive, and her face was lighting up and regaining its old vigor. She smiled more often, and her eyes were bright again.
Darrin would die for her freedom.
She would live, smile, and fly freely…
Perhaps because Rose cried with intense emotions and sounded too afraid, Judson finally stopped.
He lowered his head and looked at Rose’s tearful face coldly.
Rose looked up with moist eyes, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Judson reached out and caressed her cheek with his cool fingers. Then he raised his hand and spread it, looking at his wet palm.
“You are crying.” His voice was icy and calm. “Rose, you are crying for the first time in front of me for … another man.”
That man wasn’t named Judson.
Judson suddenly leaned over and grabbed her hair, forcing her to look
- up.
“Rose, you are actually crying for him.” Judson gritted his teeth hard,
scarlet.
You knelt to me, begged me, and cried,
repeatedly, all for him.”
Judson’s voice changed. His sneer was shrill and weird.
He repeated his words, “You did it over and over again, for him. All for him… Just for him…”
Rose was shaking.
She was shaking from pain and fear.
She had never seen Judson like this.
1
He used to look down on her and taunt her. She never tried to provoke him to his limits and didn’t know what she would get after that.
“I will push him down…” Judson leaned to her ear and whispered like a demon, “He will be smashed into mush in the closet… Shush. Don’t be afraid. Rose, you are my accomplice tonight. We will get him killed together.”
With that, he pushed her to the ground violently.
“No!” Rose screamed.
She got up from the ground and rushed to the window.
She stopped before the closet and spread her arms, her hair flying behind her head.
Her face was colorless, and her voice was heartbreaking, like the howling wind from a lonely cliff. Her expression was determined and desperate.
“You must push me first. Once you have my blood on your hands, you will have committed the crime… Judson, you are the sole murderer of
this night.”
Judson pushed the closet to the side violently.
The heavy closet fell to the ground and made a cracking sound.
He then stepped forward and grabbed Rose’s neck, pushing her head outside the window.
“You think only you have the gut to die?” His voice reached her ear with the wind from outside the window. “You think only the Edwards family dare to die?
“You think I will let you die with him? You don’t believe I will jump with you?”
Rose coughed from his grip.
Blood rushed to her head. Her feet were off the ground, and she felt her world was spinning.
She felt Judson pressed himself against her.
Then he fell into a twisted world with her.
His breath was hot, mixed with the night breeze, hovering above her
ear.
Warm and sticky liquid fell onto her face.
“Rose, even if you die, you can only die with me!”
***
Rose didn’t know how she got to the room from the window, nor did she know how Judson released her.
When she came back to her senses, she found herself sitting on the floor in her room, coughing and panting.
There was a large hole under the closet lying horizontally.
There were blood spots on the ground and walls.
There were two groups of people at loggerheads. They were threatening each other with harsh words.
Darrin was in one of the groups, his fists stained with blood.
Judson was in the other group. He was being held under his arms, and his face was ashen. There was blood on his mouth corner and clothes.
Isidro was squatting beside Rose, yelling something.
Rose tried to focus and heard Isidro beg, “Ms. Edwards, please go back. Mr. Roach hasn’t slept, eaten, or drunk water since last night. Please stop torturing him…”
Rose continued to cough and laugh. ||
Judson hurt her with violence and almost pushed the innocent Darrin out of the window.
But Isidro begged Rose to stop torturing Judson and spare his life…
“Please, Ms. Edwards. Since you started causing trouble last week, he hasn’t rested well. He asked me to buy the dresses you would like. He also told me to find the best doctor to cure your neck…”
Isidro’s eyes turned red from his own words, looking more like a mother than Tameka.
“Ms. Edwards, please say you are sorry to Mr. Roach, and he will let this go. When did he not forgive you?”
ISIⱭTO KNEW Kose did more hateful things to anger Judson, but Judson would let it slide if she was remorseful.
Rose pretended she didn’t hear anything and slowly got up from the ground.
Then she walked to Darrin, shaking.
She noticed his severely wounded hand from breaking the closet door. She bit her lips and restrained herself from coughing. “Darrin, does your hand hurt?“
