When Amanda saw me, she immediately raised her little hand and hurled something at my face, she used Leslie's memorial photo to smashed my head open and made it bleed.
Dexter lounged on the leather sofa, he held Emma in his arms with a look of doting affection. He said, "Good job, Amanda. If you're still mad, smash her a few more times."
Instinctively, I grabbed the photo to look. Judged by the strokes, it was clearly drawn by Dexter himself. But he didn't even know Leslie had two moles on the right side of his face.
My grip loosened. The photo frame crashed to the floor, shattered into pieces.
Faced my bloodshot eyes, Dexter narrowed his phoenix eyes and smiled, "Leslie pulled a prank today that made Amanda get a shot at the hospital. I just set up this little shrine to cheer her up. Don't make a fuss."
I clenched my fists so tightly that my nails drew blood from my palms. I sneered, "Aren't you afraid you'll really curse Leslie to death like this?"
He paused, then crushed his cigarette and pressed it hard against my arm, branded a scar. He cursed angrily, "Victoria, what nonsense are you spouting? Only idiots like you care about this feudal crap."
"Some stinky priest once said I wouldn't live past twenty. Look at me now, strong as ever and with a net worth of hundreds of billions, right?" he mocked.
Emma cradled a frightened Amanda in her arms, the child sobbed pitifully. She said, "Victoria tricked Leslie into drugging Amanda, that was already too much. But now she even smashed the photo frame and cut my poor Amanda's hand. Huhuhu, my poor baby girl ..."
The wound was finer than a strand of my hair. But with just one glance, Dexter nearly lost it. He forced me to kneel on the shattered glass and yelled, "Apologize to my daughter now!"
This mortal body was incredibly weak, my knees oozed thick blood.
I struggled to straighten my spine, I bite back tears with a bitter smile, "But Leslie really is dead. He died in the carousel."
Silence fell instantly.
Dexter had never seen such lifelessness in my eyes. His hand loosened slightly, but when he heard the mother and daughter cried again, he gripped even harder, almost crushed my shoulder blade.
He mocked, "Shameless. All this just to avoid an apology? You're lying Leslie is dead? If he were, why hasn't anyone reported it to me?"
"Fine, since you say he's dead, I'll just burn his room down." With that, he stormed upstairs to our son's bedroom and tossed in a Cartier lighter.
Flames instantly spreaded from Leslie's children's books.
"No!" I cried out. The blaze stung my eyes.
Leslie's final lingering soul might be hid in those very belongings!
I stumbled up the stairs, grabbed a bedsheet to smother the flames, collapsed among the embers as most of my skin burned.
Amanda followed behind, she clapped and laughed, "Wow! Fireworks! I want to see more!"
"If Amanda likes it, then let's burn it again." Dexter smiled indulgently and lit the fire again.
A wave of intense fury and hatred surged inside me, made me cough up a mouthful of blood. But right now, I was just a powerless mortal.
Father once told me, when weak, endure the shame. When the time comes, made them paid a hundredfold.
I crawled before Amanda, I begged in a pitiful voice, "Amanda, I was wrong. I apologize on Leslie's behalf. Please don't hold it against us."
For once, Dexter frowned. In his eyes, I was never the kind of woman to swallow her pride.
He irritably rubbed his thumb and dragged me to Emma's feet and said, "You need to apologize to Emma too. You nearly harmed our precious daughter. Hurry up and lick the dust off Emma's shoes."
They must've had several rounds earlier in the day. Aside from ashes, the tips of her shoes also had traces of something white and murky.
