Chapter 435/A Punishment Worse Than Death

Chapter 436

Meredith’s POV

The stench of antiseptics hit me first pungent, chemical, and harsh, choking my lungs as if trying to seal off my airway. I felt the skin of my face tighten with a strange, unnatural rigidity, as though a thousand delicate needles were crafting drops of fire beneath the coarse bandages.

I tried to open my eyelids, but the glaring white light beam positioned directly above stabbed into my pupils, forcing me to snap them shut instantly with a pained groan dragged from the deepest point of my throat.

(Where the hell am I?!)

I squeezed my scattered memory, but nothing stuck in my head except the terrifying sound of my head slamming against the edge of the table, and the harsh shove from Violet’s hand that had hurled me into nothingness.

A smooth, cold voice cut through the silence, softer than silk and far harsher than flint:

"Good morning, my dear sister."

My entire body shuddered on the bed. I turned my heavy head toward the source of the sound. She stood there, her posture perfectly erect, wearing a stark white coat that practically radiated a disturbing cleanliness in this suffocating room.

I raised my trembling hand with immense effort to touch my face, but my fingers felt nothing except thick layers of coarse medical bandages wrapped tight. I yanked my hand back in pure terror, as if I had brushed against a burning ember.

My throat constricted, a hoarse, cracked cry tearing from my raw pain:

"What did you do to me?!"

Violet took slow, deliberate strides toward the bed, her body swaying with absolute confidence while the friction of her soles against the concrete floor made a sharp, rhythmic sound ticking like a time bomb. She tilted her head slightly, examining my bandaged face with eyes completely void of any human emotion, before continuing in a voice dripping with venom:

"We performed a surgery on you."

My lips trembled weakly, my ragged breaths gasping for air:

"What surgery?!"

She ignored my question with absolute coldness, a malicious smile curling onto her thin lips that never reached her icy eyes, adding:

"My dear Meredith... looking like me was a curse that haunted you."

A bitter sludge gathered in my throat as Violet leaned her face down close to the level of the bed, her demonic smile widening:

"You tried so hard to copy me, even trying to steal my identity, but you never succeeded... You were nothing more than a pale shadow following in my wake."

My heart hammered violently against my ribs, threatening to split them open. I fixed my bleary eyes on her, screaming in sharp panic:

"What did you do to me, you fucking lunatic?!"

Her smile widened into a terrifyingly grotesque grin, her voice dripping with absolute triumph:

"I gave you a brand new face... I won’t lie to you, I hated that you looked like me, and that you were the stupider version of me. So I decided to change your face completely."

I lost my mind in that exact second. A burning wave of madness surged through my blood. I tried to hurl my upper body forward to crush her throat with my hands, only to slam violently against rigid restraints!

Fast shadows moved from behind me as male nurses in sterile scrubs appeared, slamming their steel grips onto my shoulders, brutally forcing my body back down against the mattress. They pulled the heavy leather straps tight around my wrists and ankles until the leather bit deep into my skin.

Violet watched me with absolute detachment, leaning her torso down slightly to hiss right into my face as if I were a laboratory experiment under a microscope:

"There is no room for causing chaos here, Meredith."

My hands balled into fists inside the restraints. I shrieked louder, burning tears struggling to stream beneath the bandages:

"I’m going to report you to the police!"

She tilted her head, letting out a dry laugh devoid of any warmth or mercy, asking with utter contempt:

"Really? Are you actually going to do that?"

I slammed my bound heel against the bed, roaring with pure malice:

"Yes!... And you’re going to rot in prison!"

She took another step closer, completely ignoring my outburst, replacing her tone with a terrifying stillness as she asked:

"Let’s move on to the main topic... Did you tell me that you sold my daughter? And that your husband used to abuse my son?"

My jaw trembled with sheer indignation. I shouted in a loud voice, stunned by her sheer nerve:

"Are you honestly holding me accountable for that right now?! Look at what you’ve done to my face!"

She locked her eyes onto mine with a horrifying rigidity, replying with a confidence fitting for the demons of hell:

"And I will do far worse."

The blood froze in my veins completely. I gritted my teeth in pure malice, forcing a shaky threat out from between my jaws:

"I’m going to kill you, Violet!"

She didn’t even blink, nor did she back down a single inch. Instead, she added with absolute coldness:

"Don’t threaten me with things you can’t possibly do... Now come on, speak."

My voice dropped into a ragged rasp, trembling with weakness and bitterness:

"You said you didn’t like children... You never once asked about them all these years, and now you want them?!"

She replied with icy composure, as if stating an undeniable scientific fact:

"I told you I don’t like children... Not that I don’t like adults."

I knitted my brows with difficulty beneath the tight bandages, hissing in utter shock:

"What?!"

She fixed her dark green eyes deep into mine, continuing with unyielding firmness:

"Yes... I couldn’t accept them when they were small, but now they are grown, and I have come to claim my children."

A broken, hysterical laugh burst from my lips amidst my excruciating pain, my words dripping with mockery:

"Do you honestly think you’re a mother, for God’s sake?!"

She stared down at me with hollow eyes, completing in a quiet tone carrying a shadowy threat:

"Do you know, my dear sister, that there are so many things you know nothing about? But I will save that for another day."

I gritted my teeth in pure venom and malice, hissing a promise:

"I will make you pay for every single thing!"

Violet turned around smoothly, walking with measured steps toward a thick white curtain on my left side. She looked back at me and said, "I brought someone to keep you company in your solitude." She peeled the fabric back slightly with her fingertips, revealing Stuart’s tilted head resting on a medical pillow with his eyes closed, while the rest of his body remained hidden behind the cloth.

My heart slammed to a halt in my chest, the air cutting off in my throat.

I hissed in overwhelming shock:

"Stuart?!"

She turned back to me with a strange expression, a sickly, pale smile radiating pure evil on her face, saying:

"Don’t worry... I never told him that you cheated on him with Morgan."

My pupils dilated in sheer terror. I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying to wake him:

"Stuart!... Stuart!"

He didn’t move an inch. His closed eyelids didn’t even flicker. I whipped my face toward her in pure panic:

"What did you do to him?!"

She replied while staring at his motionless face:

"He had a few health issues... so I fixed them for him."

I screamed wildly, tears scorching my raw wounds:

"You bitch!... What did you do to him?!"

She commanded dryly, returning to her spot beside the bed:

"You just underwent a difficult surgery... Don’t overexert yourself."

I thrashed wildly against the restraints, shouting:

"I’m going to make you rot in prison!... I’m filing a lawsuit against this cursed hospital!"

A dry laugh echoed off the deaf walls:

"You think you’re in a regular hospital, Meredith? You’re underground, my dear... This is my private facility, and not a single soul knows it exists."

The terrifying truth began to nail itself into my mind like iron spikes: a secret underground facility, my face stolen from me in cold blood, and Stuart lying motionless right beside me!

My gut twisted in pure horror, my raspy voice trembling:

"Tell me... what did you do to Stuart?!"

She tilted her head harshly, uttering:

"I don’t think you can handle what happened to him."

I burst into a sobbing scream:

"You fucking monster!... What did you do?!"

She said with terrifying coldness:

"Did you think that while you and your husband abused my children and sold my daughter, you would escape my punishment?!"

I went back to screaming toward the curtain in a throat-shredding frenzy:

"Stuart!... Answer me!"

Violet looked down at me with absolute detachment, as if talking about broken pieces of furniture:

"He’s asleep... He can’t answer you."

Poisonous thoughts exploded in my head, and I decided to strike her in the filthy way possible, spitting words dripping with malice and venom:

"Your whore of a daughter is sleeping in men’s arms right now!... Sucking their dicks! And your son has probably turned into a junk addict rotting in the alleyways!"

Her green gaze locked onto me with absolute, motionless coldness, void of any reaction, replying in a terrifyingly calm voice:

"Your dear husband didn’t mention that to me."

I stared up at her in disarray, my lips parting weakly:

"What?!"

She continued in a low voice, dripping with lethal composure and danger:

"My daughter is adored by Thomas’s son... named Robert."

I froze dead in place, an icy chill sweeping through my limbs... (Robert?! The son of the wealthy, paralyzed Thomas?!)

Violet continued, taking a step back toward the curtain:

"And my son... it seems he found a way to save himself."

I shook my head in violent refusal, shouting bitterly:

"They will never accept you!... They will never love you, Violet!"

She replied with absolute dismissal:

"I don’t care."

She caught the edge of the white curtain with her delicate fingers, and with an unreadable, dead look, she yanked the cloth back in one decisive motion, stripping the barrier away completely!

In that exact second... the world stopped spinning, and the blood froze solid in my veins.

Stuart wasn’t asleep... There was no complete body of a man named Stuart!

All four of his limbs were completely amputated at the joints—no hands, no feet! And his torso... a shock struck me that paralyzed my mind as I saw a horrific longitudinal incision extending from the top of his neck all the way down to his lower abdomen, its edges crudely stitched together, revealing his empty hollow completely stripped of any organs inside!

Violet caught the edge of her coat with her fingers, whispering in a soft voice carrying pure death:

"I sold his organs... After all, that’s my line of work, my dear sister."

The air was sucked entirely from my lungs. The corners of the room dimmed and shook violently. The coldness of death crept up from my limbs to squeeze my heart, and Violet’s voice faded like a distant echo at the bottom of a dark well, until I passed out and surrendered to nothingness.