Free Web NovelChapter 512: Chapter 512: You Owe Me a Life
Looking at Felix Ford’s pleading expression, Melody Summers couldn’t help but sneer. "You have the gall to say that to me?" she scoffed. "You orchestrated all those terrorist attacks and killed so many people. You’re asking me to let you go now, but did you ever let them go?!"
The brainwashed cultists, the innocent people who died in the attacks, the pregnant women who were brutalized... Crime after crime, Felix Ford was guilty beyond measure. Death would be too good for him!
Melody Summers’s gaze was icy. Felix Ford shuddered, and a cold sweat began to bead on his back.
Before his rebirth, Felix Ford had been nothing more than a common refugee, constantly on the run. Afterward, he tasted power, reveled in the thrill of holding lives in his hands, and got a rush from sowing chaos. He simply couldn’t control himself...
Moreover, after his rebirth, he’d always seen himself as the master of the world, the Son of Destiny. The lives of ordinary people meant nothing to him, which was why he could kill without a shred of guilt.
Now, seeing the murderous intent in Melody Summers’s eyes, Felix Ford was terrified.
He steeled himself and begged, "I-I know I was wrong. Please, just let me go... I swear I’ll repent. I swear there will be no more Mr. Caelus! I’ll go back to being the ordinary person I was in my last life!"
Hearing Felix Ford’s pleas, Melody Summers remained completely unmoved, just watching him with cold eyes. ’This man killed so many innocent people, and now he wants to go back to being a normal person...’
’On what grounds?!’
Felix Ford peeked at Melody Summers’s expression and actually tried to play the sympathy card. "Look, miss, we were both reborn. You could say it’s fate. For the sake of us both being reincarnators, just let me go! ...Besides, I’m a victim too! I was murdered in my last life..."
"Shut up!" Melody Summers cut off Felix Ford’s specious argument with a frown, turning her gaze to Sylvia Lancaster, whose face was a mask of despair.
Sensing Melody’s gaze on her, Sylvia Lancaster instinctively shivered.
She carefully watched Melody’s expression and, mimicking Felix Ford, began to beg in a low voice. "...Melody Summers, I’m not like Felix Ford. I never hurt anyone. Can you please let me go...? I promise, I won’t say a word about any of this. If you let me go, I swear I’ll leave Anworth right away and never come back for the rest of my life!"
"...You never hurt anyone?!" Melody Summers was so incensed by Sylvia’s words that she let out a bitter laugh.
’The victim is standing right in front of her! How dare she say she’s never hurt anyone?!’
Sylvia realized this too. Her heart trembled, and her face flushed then paled. Finally, she forced herself to say, "...Alright, I wronged you in our last life. I’m guilty. I’m so sorry..."
At this, Sylvia looked up at Melody and pleaded, "...But-but in this life, you have everything! You have a family, your pocket dimension, and all these houses... I have nothing left! I’m already this miserable, can’t you just let me go? Please, I’m begging you!"
Melody didn’t answer her. Instead, she changed the subject. "Sylvia Lancaster, there’s something I’ve always wanted to ask you. In our last life, after I returned to the Lancaster family, I didn’t do a single thing. So why were you always targeting me?"
Melody could never understand it. They were strangers back then, and the Lancaster family had more than one child. Why did Sylvia harbor such intense animosity toward her?
Thinking back on her actions in their past life, Sylvia’s right eye twitched violently.
After a long moment, she lowered her head and spoke in a slightly hoarse voice, "Because... I was jealous of you... I was supposed to be Mom and Dad’s only daughter, the sole heiress of the Lancaster family. But then you came back, and everything changed..."
"You looked so much like Mother; everyone said the two of you were the real mother and daughter... Mother even gave you that antique couture gown from her dowry. She said that when you wore it, you looked exactly like her when she was young..."
"Even Ethan Sutton... We had known each other for years, and I thought he had feelings for me. But one time when he was drunk, he actually told a friend that you were much more beautiful than I was, and that it would be a good thing if his marriage partner could be switched to you..."
"And Father... One night, I overheard him talking to my eldest brother. Father said that even though you were raised in the countryside with few educational resources, you still managed to get into a top-tier university. You were truly their daughter... He also praised an emergency plan you created, saying it was no worse than what my brother, who actually studied business management, could do..."
"At that moment, I just kept thinking that as long as you stayed with the Lancaster family, sooner or later, everyone would come to love you. When that happened, what place would be left for me...? I was so, so scared..."
"I didn’t want to lose my family. I just wanted Mom and Dad to love me like they did before... The only thing I could think to do was to drive you away, to find a way to ruin their image of you..."
Sylvia couldn’t go on. She bit down on her lower lip so hard that it started to bleed.
"Oh." Hearing Sylvia’s confession, Melody felt nothing. She just asked in a cold voice, "So if they liked me, there would be no place for you? What kind of logic is that? Who made a rule that a family can only love one daughter?"
"You felt so insecure, so afraid of losing favor, yet you only knew how to target me. Why didn’t you go after Simon Lancaster and Silas Lancaster? They’re the sons, the ones who can actually inherit company shares! If you had the energy to scheme against me, you might as well have had them both killed. Wouldn’t the payoff have been much higher?"
"To put it bluntly, you’re the type who bullies the weak and fears the strong! And you have the nerve to paint yourself as some poor, insecure victim. Why are you so dramatic?"
As Melody’s verbal assault continued, the color drained further from Sylvia’s face.
Melody smiled again, but her words were like a knife twisting in Sylvia’s heart. "Actually, if you had really left the Lancaster family, your mother, Lily Adler, would have surely found you. You could have been reunited with your real parents."
"You probably don’t know this, but your birth mother, Lily Adler, truly loves you. For your sake, she even schemed against Clara Hayes. And from what I’ve observed, Hector Hayes and Raymond Hayes treated you well, too."
"It’s just a shame that you coveted someone else’s family and, in doing so, lost the chance to reunite with your own. Now look at you. You really have nothing! Are you happy now?!"
The moment Melody finished speaking, Sylvia could no longer control her emotions and broke into quiet sobs.
After a moment, she lifted her tear-streaked face and said to Melody through gritted teeth, "I regret it... I really do! Can’t you just let me go? I’ll give everything back to you, I don’t want any of it! Please, just let me go!"
Melody was unmoved. "You owe me a life," she retorted. "How do you plan on paying that back?"
Sylvia’s expression turned grim at her words. She choked out, "What... What are you going to do to me...?"
Thinking of what she had done in her past life, Sylvia felt a chill run down her spine.
’Back then, she had instructed Flynn Adler to deliver Melody to Hector Hayes’s bed. Hector had said that after he was done with Melody, he would throw her into a refugee camp and let the refugees ravage her to death.’
At the thought, Sylvia’s heart sank like a stone.
’Now that she was in Melody’s hands, how would Melody get her revenge?’
’Would Melody do the same thing she did and throw her to the refugees...?’
The more Sylvia thought about it, the more terrified she became. Her eyes filled with fear, and she was too scared to even speak.
Melody saw right through Sylvia’s thoughts and curled her lip in disgust. "Give me a break," she said coldly. "Don’t sicken me. I would never stoop to your disgusting methods!"
