The heat had left Onn in October.
Betsy Russell stood drenched in the garden, shivering slightly from the cold.
The oncoming servants seemed to ignore her, respectfully guiding the doctor into the house.
Nobody cared that she too had fallen into the pool, nor did they consider what might happen to her.
Having been married to Jared Hughes for three years, Betsy had long come to understand that she held no standing within the Hughes family. Not even considered as important as the Hughes' dog, let alone compared to Chloe Lindsey, the woman who occupied Jared's thoughts every day.
When Chloe fell into the swimming pool with her, in a pool at its deepest of one and a half meters, her husband, Jared, plunged in directly to save Chloe and carried her into the room. He even had a doctor brought in.
The entire Hughes family, everyone, rallied around Chloe. Not a single person spared her a glance. To them, she was as inconsequential as the air.
Betsy kicked off her soggy high heels and returned barefoot to her room. She took a shower, changed clothes, and crawled into bed, succumbing to a deep sleep.
"Wake up!"
A cold voice sounded beside her, she felt her covers being lifted. With hazy eyes, she saw that it was Jared. Her eyes reddened with tears.
"Jared, how is Chloe?" Betsy sat up and asked, lightly massaging her temples. Seeing his upset expression, she explained hoarsely, "I didn't push her in."
Jared looked at her, his frosty eyes full of disdain, chuckling coldly, "Get up, follow me to the family plot."
Betsy came to her senses with a start, looking at Jared in disbelief as she fought the discomfort in her body, "What do you mean?"
"Apologize!" Jared barely gave her a glance before pulling her up and dragging her out as if she was nothing more than an object.
The anguish in Jared's heart was indescribable. He didn't want to speak to Betsy. Chloe already had a fragile constitution, and despite his swift action of getting a doctor after she fell into the pool, the child she had carried in her womb couldn't be saved.
That child represented the only bloodline of his elder brother, and now because of Betsy, the child was gone. Everything was gone.
Hearing Jared's words, Betsy froze. His words were like a bucket of chilly water dumped on her in the dead of winter, chilling her to the bone.
The Hughes Family's Plot was equivalent to a man-eating pit.
The last person who went into the Hughes Family's Plot never came out again.
"Jared, I really didn't do it, listen to me..." Betsy struggled in vain to free herself from Jared's grip, only to be held tighter, her face turning pale with pain.
"Whatever you have to say, say it to the Hughes family members."
Jared's icy voice drifted over from ahead.
Stumbling, Betsy followed behind Jared. Looking at Jared's distinct profile, it was such a handsome face she had insisted to marry despite all the opposition she faced back then.
But ever since she married him, he never cast her a single warm glance.
She initially thought that with three years of shared time, even the coldest heart could thaw, but she was wrong. Chloe was always in his eyes, his tenderness only reserved for Chloe, it seemed like he had given his entire heart to Chloe.
"Let go!" Betsy's face pulled into a cold smile, her voice indifferent, "I can walk by myself."
Jared glanced at Betsy, his dark eyes flashed with disgust. His lips were tightly pursed as he suppressed his rage, striding towards the Family Plot.
Watching Jared's figure walk away, Betsy truly felt that she had been a joke for the past three years.
Her bare feet, clad in a knee-length nightgown, took one step at a time towards the brightly lit Family Plot ahead.
He didn't even give her time to put on her shoes.She clearly remembered, just a couple of days ago, Jared Hughes, seeing Chloe Lindsey about to go out in sandals, crouched in front of her, personally put socks and shoes on her, and even reminded her to keep warm and take care of herself.
Betsy Russell sneered, as her presence in the Hughes family really was a joke.
Everyone from the Hughes family was waiting for her in the family plot.
"Kneel!"
Jared Hughes shot her a cold, ruthless glance that felt like a knife stabbing directly into Betsy Russell's heart, making her gasp for breath.
Betsy Russell's face was flushed from her fever, she glanced at everyone in the Hughes family, and everyone was looking at her like she was a demon.
She had done nothing wrong, why should she kneel?
Betsy Russell stood her ground and enunciated clearly, "I won't kneel!"
Seeing Betsy Russell's refusal to admit her mistake, Sir Hughes was so angry that he threw his cup on the ground near her and shouted, "Kneel!"
The broken shards of the porcelain cup cut into Betsy Russell's legs, making her gasp in pain.
Sir Hughes watched as Betsy Russell seemed completely unfazed by her punishment, and angrily reprimanded, "Betsy Russell, kneel and apologize!"
Fighting back the pain, Betsy Russell stood tall, fearlessly meeting Sir Hughes's gaze, "I didn't push Chloe, I've done nothing wrong, and I certainly won't kneel to apologize."
"She's incorrigible and won't admit fault! Someone, force her to kneel!" Sir Hughes was livid, pointing his finger at Betsy Russell.
"Indeed, Betsy Russell has gone too far. Not only has she harmed Chloe and her child, but she won't even admit her wrongdoings!"
"That's right. If we don't discipline Betsy Russell properly, I dread to think of the atrocities she might commit."
"Poor Jared Hughes, losing his chances of having a child to carry on his line."
...
The members of the Hughes family were looking at Betsy Russell as if she was a cancerous tumor, as if they wished to tear her into a thousand scraps.
Betsy Russell stood there calmly. Scanning the eyes of the Hughes clan, only Fanny Sabir, her normally kind mother-in-law, showed any concern for her. The rest wished her nothing but torment.
Fanny Sabir saw that Betsy Russell's foot was bleeding and felt distressed. She raised her eyes to Sir Hughes and said, "Dad, Betsy is still young, she has learned her lesson, so why don't we..."
A sharp gaze from Sir Hughes rendered Fanny Sabir silent, too afraid to continue speaking.
Seeing Betsy Russell's foot covered in blood, Fanny Sabir went up to Jared Hughes and whispered, "Jared, Betsy is injured. She's your wife, you should take her to rest..."
Jared Hughes's dark eyes grew colder, he sneered, "I have no such wicked and malicious wife!"
Betsy Russell looked at Jared Hughes in disbelief.
Jared Hughes turned his head and stared hatefully at Betsy Russell, and coldly said, "Betsy Russell, you brought this on yourself."
Whenever Jared Hughes thought of his brother's unborn child washed away in a pool of blood, the hatred in his eyes grew stronger. Holding Fanny Sabir, he moved aside. Any proximity to Betsy Russell made him uncomfortable.
Isa Hughes, who had always been on bad terms with Betsy Russell, walked up to Betsy Russell, raised her high-heeled shoe, and kicked her in the back of her knee, trying to force her to kneel.
Betsy Russell stood straight up, turned her head, and glared fiercely at Isa Hughes.
"Kneel!" Isa Hughes looked scornfully at Betsy Russell, her lips curled into a cold smirk, and proclaimed, "Grandpa is ordering you to kneel!"
Isa Hughes kept kicking Betsy Russell in the back of the knee. When she saw that Betsy Russell was still being stubborn, she slapped Betsy Russell in the face, then kicked her knee again, hard.