Chapter 111: Chapter 98: Something to Look Forward To

Shane Sterling gently pulled the sweater off.

With his eyes closed, his sense of smell sharpened, and the small bathroom filled with her sweet scent.

Even without looking, Shane Sterling could imagine her: her skin glowing and fair, her expression shy, looking as delectable as a ripe fruit.

His lips followed the scent, moving slowly toward her until he was close enough to feel her breath, and then he stopped.

“Shouldn’t I get a little reward for helping?” Shane Sterling asked.

“What kind of reward do you want?”

Shane Sterling puckered his lips, making it clear he wanted a kiss.

The next moment, he felt a touch of warmth cover his lips. Before he could even feel a flicker of joy, his entire mouth and nose were enveloped… It wasn’t a kiss. It was her palm, pressed against his face.

“Young Mr. Shaw, don’t push your luck. You need to remember that until you draw a clear line with that Miss Quincy, you and I are still broken up,” Isla Prescott said.

Shane Sterling pecked a kiss right into the center of her palm.

The wet, ticklish sensation made Isla Prescott snatch her hand back.

“We’re broken up, yet you still let me take your clothes off?”

“Weren’t you the one who insisted on coming in to help?” Isla Prescott patted his shoulder. “Thank you for your altruism. If you’d like, I can have a commemorative banner sent to your company tomorrow. Now, you can get out.”

“You’re sure you don’t need my help washing up?”

“I’m sure.”

“All right. Be careful with your wound then.”

Keeping his eyes shut, Shane Sterling turned and left.

Isla Prescott closed the door. When she turned to the mirror, she saw that her face was as red as a ripe cherry.

The recent push and pull might have made it seem like she was leading, but Isla Prescott knew that Shane Sterling was the one in control. If he had wanted to, he could have opened his eyes at any moment, could have devoured her completely. But he hadn’t.

He hadn’t, and yet that restraint made her heart flutter more than any kiss could have.

With her hand injured, Isla Prescott didn’t dare use the shower. Instead, she filled a basin with some water and bathed the old-fashioned way, just like she did as a child.

When she walked out of the bathroom in her pajamas, Shane Sterling was standing by the window on a call. Seeing her, he grunted an “Mm,” and hung up.

“Are you leaving?” Isla Prescott asked.

It had happened several times already—him being called away by a single phone call right in front of her.

Shane Sterling looked at her. “Do you want me to leave?”

“If you really have to go, how could I possibly stop you?”

Shane Sterling walked slowly toward her. “That depends on how you try to make me stay.”

Isla Prescott let out a laugh. “If you really want to leave, I wouldn’t bother trying to stop you.”

Her eyes were clearly filled with grievance, yet tinged with a hint of finality.

Shane Sterling finally couldn’t hold back any longer and pulled her into a hug, carefully avoiding her injured hand.

“How could I ever bear to actually leave you?”

’God knows how long it took for me to get back to her side. If the situation didn’t forbid it, I wouldn’t leave her for a second. Even if she didn’t want me, I’d pester her until she did.’

Isla Prescott was held in his arms, sinking into the warmth of the familiar embrace. It was like stumbling upon an unfrozen lake on a winter’s night, the warmth seeping slowly through the folds of her clothes.

Her hands lifted behind his back, stiffened for a moment, and then fell silently back to her sides.

’If I hug him back right now, I won’t be able to control how the rest of the night unfolds.’

In the end, Isla Prescott just gently pushed him away.

“When will your entanglement with Genevieve Quincy actually be over?” she asked, looking him in the eye.

“One week,” Shane Sterling promised solemnly. “Just give me one more week.”

Isla Prescott felt as if a lamp in her heart that had been dark for so long was suddenly lit. What she feared most was an indefinite wait, but now, it was as if spring had finally turned beneath the frozen soil. She had something clear to look forward to.

Shane Sterling’s phone rang again.

Without a glance, he rejected the call.

“Go to sleep. I’ll wait until you’ve drifted off before I leave,” he said.

“What if I have insomnia tonight?”

Shane Sterling raised an eyebrow. “So you just don’t want me to go. In that case, let’s sleep together.”

As he spoke, he began wantonly pulling at his tie and unbuttoning his shirt.

Isla Prescott scrambled onto the bed and lay down. “No, no, no, I don’t have insomnia anymore! I’m the type to fall asleep in seconds.”

—

Of course, Isla Prescott couldn’t fall asleep in seconds. Her wound throbbed as if a saw was cutting into it. In the end, she had to take a painkiller before she could finally drift off.

It was the middle of the night by the time Shane Sterling left Isla Prescott’s place.

He went straight to the police station.

Normally, visitation hours at the police station were strictly limited to daytime on weekdays. But Justin Wyatt had already arranged everything. As soon as Shane Sterling walked in, the officer on duty led him to see Damian Prescott.

Damian Prescott, who had spent the entire day terrified after his arrest, had just fallen asleep when he was woken up, leaving him even more alarmed and uneasy.

“Officer, what’s going on? It’s the middle of the night.”

The officer didn’t say a word, simply handcuffing him to a chair before leaving.

A moment later, a tall man walked in through the doorway.

Damian Prescott looked up at the man, finding him familiar. After a moment, he finally recognized him. “Young Master Lockwood…”

It had been ten years. The first time Damian Prescott had seen this man, in front of the Lockwood Family estate, he had been a slender youth, as delicate as a bamboo shoot. Now, his frame had completely filled out. His shoulders were broad enough to shelter one from any storm, and the immaturity in his eyes had been replaced by a calm, sharp intensity.

“Young Master Lockwood, you have to be the judge here! I’m Zoe’s biological father, how could she plot against me! Save me! Please, save me!” Damian Prescott pleaded, desperate enough to clutch at straws.

Shane Sterling sat down opposite Damian Prescott and lowered his head to light a cigarette. The flare of the lighter illuminated his profile, outlining his rugged features.

“Who told you my surname was Lockwood?” His voice was deep and resonant, filled with a crushing sense of pressure. “And as for that rotten name, Zoe… if you dare say it again, I’ll tear your mouth apart.”

“You… You’re not Young Master Lockwood? But I clearly saw you walking out of the Lockwood Family estate back then…”

“Just because I walked out of the Lockwood estate, that makes my surname Lockwood? By that logic, when you’re rotting in prison, will your ancestors have to move their graves overnight just for you?”

Damian Prescott was stunned for a few seconds. “Then who are you?”

“Who I am is none of your business. Now talk. Who sent you to Meritopia?”

Damian Prescott’s eyes darted away. “No one sent me to Meritopia. I just missed my wife and daughter, so I came to see them.”

“So you do remember you have a wife and daughter. Quite a good memory you’ve got.” Shane Sterling tilted the cigarette he was holding, the glowing tip nearly touching Damian Prescott’s face. “Since your memory is so good, why don’t you try and recall what I told you back then?”

Damian Prescott could feel the searing heat from the flickering embers and trembled in fear. “You… You told me to crawl back to wherever I came from and never show my face in Meritopia again.”

“Your memory really is good. So, who sent you?”

The cigarette tip drew closer and closer, aimed directly at Damian Prescott’s left eyeball. He didn’t dare blink; if he moved even slightly, his eyelashes would surely be the first to burn.

’Is there no law and order in Meritopia? This man can actually threaten people inside a police station!’ Damian Prescott thought in despair. ’But then again, this man could show up in a place like Arcadia Heights, could summon a group of thugs with a single phone call to drag him to a deserted place for a beating, and could get the on-duty officers to bend the rules for him in the middle of the night… He had to have a powerful background, probably with connections on both sides of the law.’

A wise man knows when to yield.

Damian Prescott no longer tried to hide anything. “I don’t know who he is, either. I only know he’s a man, tall and skinny, with a light-colored birthmark on his chin. He gave me a hundred thousand and told me to come to Meritopia to find Zo… oh, no, it’s… it’s…”

“Isla Prescott.”

“He told me to come to Meritopia and cause trouble for Isla Prescott. I remembered how you beat me and ran me out of Meritopia back then, so of course I was scared. But then he told me that Isla Prescott had already been kicked out of the Lockwood Family, and that they wouldn’t protect her anymore. He told me not to be afraid of any ’Young Master Lockwood.’ I… I was just desperate for the money, so I came.”

A tall, skinny man with a light-colored birthmark on his chin.

Shane Sterling already knew who it was.

’As expected, one of Genevieve Quincy’s people.’

’It’s good that I can confirm it was her. I wasn’t planning on letting her stick around anyway.’

Having gotten the information he wanted, Shane Sterling couldn’t be bothered to spare Damian Prescott another glance. He stood up to leave.

“Hey, sir, wait a minute,” Damian Prescott called out to him, asking urgently, “I only scratched my daughter’s arm. Is that really considered attempted murder? I won’t get a long sentence for that, right?”

“I don’t know how long your sentence will be.” Shane Sterling turned back with a mocking smile. “All I know is, once you’re inside, the good times will begin.”

“Good times?”

“Think about what else I told you.”

Damian Prescott thought back and was instantly filled with terror. This man had also said that if he ever showed his face in Meritopia again, he would get a beating every single time he was seen.

“Don’t tell me…”

“There will be people inside to give you a warm welcome.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep