Revenge: Once His Wife, Now His Regret - Chapter 69: Chapter 69

At his words, Sally's hand, clutching her phone, paused slightly.
Her eyelashes fluttered, a strange emptiness settling in her heart.
She knew Sienna Ford would die today, but hearing the exact time, she couldn't help but recall what she and Lillian had been doing at that moment.
"It was bound to happen. You both need to try and accept it, Lillian and you," Jaxon's deep voice resonated again.
Sally's thoughts were interrupted. She turned to the man beside her, meeting his striking eyes. "I'm alright, mostly. It's Lillian who's not doing well."
"Is that so?" Jaxon asked, his expression unreadable. "Because it seems to me that you're not doing so great yourself."
As their eyes met, her eyelashes trembled more noticeably.
After a moment's hesitation, she replied softly, "Maybe it's just... being fresh out of prison and then going back there so suddenly... it inevitably brings back some old memories."
"Once, when I was visiting Sienna," Jaxon said, "I passed by the bars and saw an inmate being beaten. Several other prisoners were ganging up on her, punching and kicking. Her build... it was quite similar to yours."
As his voice faded, Sally instinctively lowered her gaze.
The scene from that day flashed in her mind. It really was Sally.
At the time, through the gap in her arms as she tried to shield herself, she saw a man slowly walk past.
And it was precisely because she saw him that the blows raining down on her seemed to lessen somehow. Her entire focus had been on him.
Jaxon leaned in slightly, his voice laced with a probing tone, "Do you think that person... could have been you?"
A flicker of visible disarray and nervousness crossed Sally's face, but it was gone in an instant, her emotions quickly reined in.
She managed a faint smile. "It must have been someone else. I rarely got into arguments with them in prison... "
Jaxon lowered his gaze to meet hers, asking seriously, "But I've heard that in a place like prison, even if you don't bother others, they'll come looking for trouble with you. Mrs. Zale, you seem so delicate. How could you possibly have stayed out of it all?"
"I may look delicate," Sally replied, her voice firm, her gaze unwavering, "but I'm not someone who's easily bullied."
Jaxon instinctively reached out, grasped her wrist, and lifted it. His fingertips gently brushed the scar there.
His striking eyes fixed on the scar, his tone laced with a complex emotion. "I saw this scar last time. I've been wanting to ask you, how did you get it?"
Sally followed his gaze, instinctively lowering her eyes. Seeing the scar on her wrist, she reflexively tried to pull her hand back.
That scar was from a scalding burn. The skin had broken open almost instantly.
For a long time afterward, she often had nightmares about being scalded. Each time she woke up startled, her forehead would be covered in a cold sweat.
That excruciating pain was something she never wanted to experience again in her life.
"It's in the past," Sally said. "I don't want to talk about things that are over. I'm not one to dwell on the past; I focus on the present and the future."
She struggled, trying to pull her hand from his grasp. But he only tightened his hold, giving her no chance to escape.
"Mr. Zale... "
Before she could finish, he interrupted, "After all you've been through, you must have suffered a lot in there, right? How did you manage to endure it?"
Sally looked up at him. "When hatred builds up enough, you find a way to endure," she said, each word deliberate.
As their eyes met, his expression was particularly complex.
He lowered his voice slightly, asking softly, "What really happened back then? Why did they send you to prison?"
Talking about the past brought back painful memories, assaulting her and making her extremely uncomfortable.
Jaxon could clearly feel the atmosphere around her plummeting.
"If you're so curious," Sally retorted, "why don't you go investigate it yourself!"
"I know that's not the truth," Jaxon's voice was heavy, even lower than before.
At his words, Sally quickly looked up, staring at him in disbelief.
But he released her hand, leaned back against the seat, and looked straight ahead.
After a moment of thought, he spoke again, "I know you might have been wronged. Just like with the clinic incident, you were framed, weren't you?"
'Framed.'
The word echoed in her ears. Sally's hands, resting by her sides, clenched uncontrollably at her fingertips.
An overwhelming surge of hatred rose in her heart, threatening to engulf her.
"Even if you don't say anything, I can pretty much guess what happened," Jaxon said, his tone casual, almost nonchalant. "But since you're unwilling to talk, I won't press you further. Just be more careful when you're around that woman in the future."
His unexpectedly comforting words drifted into her ears.
After hearing him, Sally's tightly clenched fingertips loosened slightly.
In all these years, besides Abigail and Howard Zale, no one else had ever suggested she might have been wronged.
And now, of all people, it was Jaxon.
"Thank you for the warning, Mr. Zale." Sally nodded slightly in his direction. "If there's nothing else, I'll be going."
She reached for the door handle.
"Howard's health has been very poor lately," Jaxon's deep voice came from behind her just then. "So, my older brother consulted a psychic, who said Father is facing a major ordeal this year. The psychic said a big birthday celebration is necessary for him to get through it. So, Brad's father has decided to throw a large birthday banquet for him."
Sally, hearing his voice, turned back to look at him. "Brad didn't tell me about this."
"That's why I came specifically to tell you," Jaxon said. "You must attend that day."
"Why?" Sally asked, her tone flat. "I'm about to divorce him. Everyone in Westmere knows that."
"Consider it for Father's well-being," Jaxon's voice was stern, not suggesting but commanding. "Whether you attend as his primary physician or as his grandson's wife, you must be there."
There was already a deal between them- he would help her get her property back, and she would treat Howard's illness.
She nodded instinctively. "Alright."
Just then, the phone in her hand suddenly rang.