Chapter 9 One Life for Another

Annie originally planned that three months later, she would no longer be in this world, and by then, Carl would only have a handful of ashes left to sleep with her.

Now he had shortened the time to three days, which was difficult for her to accept.

Before she could say anything, Carl suddenly let go of her.

Annie took the opportunity to catch her breath and swallowed back the words that were about to come out of her mouth.

Anyway, she needed to get out of here tonight first before saying anything else.

"Baby."

Carl bent down and kissed her cheek hard. "I'll go back now. I'll come pick you up in three days."

Annie covered the cheek that he had just kissed and felt extremely nauseous inside.

But in front of Carl, she still pretended to be obedient and nodded meekly.

Seeing how well-behaved she was being, Carl finally let go of her and walked towards the door.

Just as he reached the doorway, he suddenly stopped in his tracks again.

"Oh, one more thing."

He turned around and gave Annie a meaningful look. "Your good friend's name is Fiona, right?"

Annie's face tried its best not to show any emotion, but it immediately darkened when she heard Fiona's name mentioned by him. It seemed like he already knew everything about Fiona.

The feeling of having one's secrets exposed made Annie very uncomfortable indeed.

She asked coldly: "What about it?"

Carl smirked lightly. "Nothing, just reminding you to stay at home obediently, waiting for me instead of wandering around everywhere, okay?"

Although Carl didn't explicitly threaten her with those words, Annie understood them loud and clear - if she dared run away, then he would cause trouble for Fiona.

The feeling of powerlessness that cannot be escaped once again swept over...

She released the fist that was tightly clenched earlier on.

"Don't touch her. I'll wait for you at home," Annie said expressionlessly.

Carl blew her a kiss. "Baby, you're so obedient."

Disgusting!

Annie closed the door forcefully and locked it before walking quickly into the bathroom.

She turned on the tap, lay down in the bathtub, picked up a bath ball and frantically scrubbed every inch of skin that Carl had touched or kissed.

Even when she was red and peeling from all that scrubbing, Annie still felt unclean.

She washed as if her life depended on it until that nauseous feeling slowly dissipated. Only then did she calm down.

Carl threatened Fiona. She couldn't escape even if she wanted to. If she didn't come up with a solution soon enough, then he would definitely play her to death in three days' time.

Annie thought about this for a long time before finally going back to her bedroom wrapped in a towel. She picked up her phone and thought about calling the police, but when she remembered Carl's methods of influence, she gritted her teeth and held back once again.

It wouldn't matter much if both herself and Carl died together since they wouldn't live much longer anyway, but Fiona was different -she was getting married soon...

She couldn't let Fiona get involved because of one momentary impulse.

Annie stood there for quite some time thinking things over before finally opening up her contact list and finding Brandon's number, which had been blocked by herself earlier on.

When she saw his familiar name appear on the screen, her heart began pounding uncontrollably.

He was the only person who could stand against Carl, but he didn't want anything to do with her anymore... If she called him now, then maybe he would think that she was pestering him again...

Since Annie had already chosen to leave gracefully, then there wasn't any point disturbing him further...

These past few days, Annie went out to make copies of her keys and also went to the hospital to get some medication.

The attending physician suggested that she be hospitalized and wait for a suitable heart donor, but Annie refused.

Her congenital heart disease had been improved somewhat after undergoing artificial bypass surgery. However, since being kicked in the chest twice five years ago, there were signs of failure again. She was constantly receiving infusions and medications, but they couldn't control the onset of her illness.

A few months ago, symptoms of late-stage heart failure, such as oedema and difficulty breathing, began appearing once more.

Annie knew that her time was up, so she didn't hold out much hope for finding a suitable heart anymore.

The medicine she took only suppressed pain and swelling...

She thought to herself - having loved cleanliness and beauty all her life, surely it wouldn't do if she died looking too ugly?

After taking a handful of pills at random, Annie put the pepper spray and electric prod, which she had bought earlier, into her bag.

She couldn't think of any good ideas, so all she could do now was face Carl head-on. Even if it meant one life for another... No one would have it easy.