"You fucker!" James got up and was about to spew insults when he realized
that Dustin was already gone. Damn it! That kid's lucky he got away, or
I'd have taught him a lesson!"
"He can't run away forever! After doing something like this, I'll make su
re he stays in jail for the rest of
his life!* Florence gritted her teeth.
"That's right! You can't let him go!" Julie and the others quickly agreed
. Dustin had gone too far!
"Hmm
Just then, Dahlia began to wake up.
"You're finally awake!" Florence lit up. "How do you feel?"
"What are all of you doing here, Mom?" Dahlia rubbed her aching temples,
her memory was a mess.
"Lyra called and told us that you might be in danger, so we hurried here.
Thank God we made it in time, or Dustin would have raped you!" Florence
got angry again.
"Dustin?" Dahlia frowned, seeming to have recalled something. She asked,
"Where is he?"
"Don't worry. We chased him away." Florence reassured Dahlia.
"That's right. We called the police too. We'll catch that asshole!" James
nodded.
"Why would you arrest
him? He was the one who saved me!" Dahlia blurted.
"What? He saved you?" Everyone was shocked to hear that. Exchanging incredulous looks with each other. confusion was written across their face
"You're kidding, right, Dahlia? He can't be the one who rescued you. We clearly saw him touching you and was about to do something nasty!" Florence obviously didn't believe Dahlia.
"She's right, Sis. He tried to take your clothes off while you were unconscious!" James fanned the flames.
"We can all testify that Dustin was the one who did it!" Jullei and a few
others agreed.
Dahlia shook her head frantically, which made her alcohol–
ridden head heavier.
"Who else could it be? There were only two of you in this room when we ca
me in," Florence said.
"It was Matt Laney, that bastard!" Dahlia struggled to organize her memories.
"You must be drunk, Dahlia. Matt's a decent man. There's no way he'd do something like this."
"Sis, did Dustin slip you a drug? Is that why you're so confused?"
"I heard that some drugs can cause hallucinations. That must be why your
memory got jumbled up."
One after another, the people in the room refuted what Dahlia said, makin
g her doubt herself.
"Did I really remember wrongly? But how could that be?" she thought. Staring at her injuries, she had a hard time believing that Dustin was the one who did this.
"Hey, there's a phone here, and it's recording a video." Julie spotted the phone on the television cabinet and brought it over.
"It must be that asshole's!" Florence fumed. "He was even planning to record himself assaulting Dahlia! How disgusting!"
"There's no way that
brat can defend himself now that we have this evidence!"
"We have to put that guy in jail!"
The crowd began to hurl insults at Dustin.
"It can't be. Dustin wouldn't do that Dahlia shook her head, unable to accept that.
"Why are you still defending him, Dahlia? Why do you still have feelings
for that asshole? I'm telling you, Matt's the better man for you. He's le
agues above Dustin! I'll show you Dustin's true colors right now!" Florence yelled and began the playback, showing exactly what happened. By the time they reached the middle of the video, everyone had frozen in dismay.
"Matt Laney?" Florence was rooted to the spot as she stared in disbelief
at the man violently assaulting Dahlia
in the video.
Everyone else's jaws had dropped as well. Never in their dreams would the
y have imagined that the person who kidnapped Dahlia and tried to assault
her would be Matt, a respectful man from a noble family.
How could this be possible?
However, the video was right before their eyes. It turned out that the despicable person had been the "decent"
man, Matt, instead of Dustin.
Everyone's faces began to burn in shame as they recalled what they had said just now, and they fell silent.
"I told you it wasn't Dustin, but none of you believed me! How about now?
Who's the despicable person? Who's the hypocritical asshole now? I'm sur
e all of you should know." Dahlia cried exasperatedly.
"I might have made a mistake, but so what? You two were once married, so
it's his duty
to protect you. We didn't ask him to do that! Besides, why didn't he explain himself? We wouldn't have misunderstood if he had." Florence insisted
stubbornly, having no intention of apologizing.
"Explain himself? Dahlia chuckled mirthlessly. "Would you have believed him if he had?"
"That's up for us to decide, but it's his fault for not explaining. He ha
d it coming!" Florence defended herself.
"That's right! He deserved it! James agreed. So what if they misunderstood a loser?
"All of you are incorrigible!" Dahlia was utterly disappointed.
She staggered to her feet and bumped past the two of them to run out. She
wanted to stop Dustin from leaving. Unfortunately, by the time she reached the hotel entrance, he was already nowhere to be found.