Noah looked back at Joseph sharply, unmoved by the intimidation Joseph was giving him.
"I should be asking you, where have you been to let Shirley be tortured like this!" Noah threw both of Joseph's hands off from his shoulders.
Joseph furrowed his brow in confusion, he had returned home because he was curious as to why Shirley had urged him to tell her about the mana stone.
And now what Joseph found when he returned home was Shirley's terrible condition like this.
"You'd better go check on Shirley, she's in a really bad state right now." Noah restrained himself and chose to let Joseph check on Shirley.
Joseph thought that what Noah said made sense, so he turned away from Noah and walked over to Shirley who was still lying weakly on the bed.
As Joseph examined Shirley's condition his face took a turn paler, like something was bothering him.
"Tell me what really happened to Shirley," Joseph said later.
"I only know that Shirley was locked up in an abandoned warehouse in your mansion, I don't know the rest. It seems like Shirley's maid knows more about this," Noah replied, then glanced at Ivy who was also there.
Joseph also glanced at Ivy who had called out to her, "Tell me what happened."
With a trembling body Ivy said everything she knew such as when she realised Shirley was missing, but she also didn't know exactly what happened to Shirley.
After hearing that, Joseph held his head which was suddenly dizzy when he heard Ivy's explanation to them.
The look on Noah's face was not much different from Joseph's at this moment, not expecting that Shirley would be treated so badly like this.
"I knew that Rosemary didn't like us much, but I didn't expect her to be this brave to Shirley." Joseph felt lost when he finally realised what his sister had been through.
"So how is Shirley doing now?" A worried Noah couldn't resist asking Joseph.
"Very bad, she's starving and dehydrated. And the stress is taking its toll on her," Joseph explained pensively.
Joseph thought about telling his father about this, but he couldn't just do it because he hadn't discussed this with Shirley.
It would be a mess if Shirley actually had a plan about this and Joseph made things worse.
"Oh my! Is it that bad? Your stepmother is really something," Noah replied, shaking his head in disbelief.
Ignoring Noah's words, Joseph began to concentrate and his hands began to glow a transparent green and began to mutter a healing spell to Shirley.
"Go and make some porridge for Shirley," Joseph said, turning to Ivy who was behind him.
"Yes, young master!" Ivy quickly left Shirley's room to carry out Joseph's orders.
After Ivy left, Joseph opened his voice again, "Thank you for coming to help Shirley. I don't know what would have happened to her if you had been a little late."
"No problem, Shirley helped me before, so it's only right for me to help her." Noah's gaze still did not move from Shirley.
"And from what I've heard, it seems like you have a closer relationship with Shirley?" Joseph turned to Noah this time.
"You could say that. You can ask Shirley about it later," Noah replied ambiguously, feeling it was not his place to explain this matter to Joseph.
Joseph rolled his eyes lazily when he heard Noah's answer, then he remembered something important at the moment.
"Shouldn't you be with Charlotte right now. I saw her going crazy when I came in earlier," Joseph said in confusion, he had no idea what was going on.
"You're right, I had forgotten about that. I have to go so they don't get suspicious." Noah just remembered that Charlotte must be waiting for him at this time.
So that Charlotte would not know that he had found Shirley, Noah chose to leave there to meet Charlotte.
Joseph didn't hold Noah back and let him go, after all he didn't really like his presence here either, because he sensed something suspicious about him.
. . .
Shirley felt her body floating in a black space that looked like a black hole to her. As far as Shirley could see she could only see emptiness around her.
"Where is this?" Shirley muttered softly.
Then, Shirley saw one by one her previous life begin to play out before her. She saw flashes of her bad memories of her past life again this time.
There was a moment when she was a child when she had just been adopted by her adoptive parents. At first she was treated well, but when she did not meet their expectations, she began to be treated badly and was often locked in a dark room.
Shirley's tears involuntarily fell again when she caught a glimpse of that memory. Then, the memory quickly spun and displayed the memory of Shirley's life before she was possessed.
One thing Shirley realised when looking at those memories was that her life with the real Shirley was more or less the same.
In fact, their fate of being betrayed by their partners could be the same. Shirley began to think that she could have possessed Shirley's body because of the similarities in their lives.
"This time I will live your life well, so you don't have to worry." Shirley closed her eyes and engraved that promise in herself.
. . .
When Shirley opened her eyes the first thing she saw was the familiar roof of her room. Shirley breathed a sigh of relief when she realised that she was back in her room.
Although Shirley herself did not know how she could return to her room like now.
As Shirley was about to get up from her sleeping position, she felt a hand holding her back from doing so. And when Shirley turned her head, she saw Joseph's figure there.
"Brother? Why are you here?" asked Shirley in confusion when she saw her brother there.
"If I'm not here, then you're already dead." Joseph forced Shirley to lie back down.
"I see, so you found me." Shirley nodded her head in understanding, it was her brother who saved her.
"Can't say that. Noah found you, I only treated you," Joseph replied, shrugging his shoulders indifferently.
When she heard that, a memory tucked away in Shirley's head began to emerge and she slowly recalled what happened in the warehouse.
Shirley was so silent that she could not even say anything at the moment, she did not think that the memory was genuine and not just a dream.
"How are you feeling right now?" Joseph diverted their conversation as he saw Shirley was pensive.
"It's much better than back then." Shirley said with no intention, at least she could rest easy now that Joseph was home.
"Thankfully, father will be home tomorrow, so you can rest easy." Joseph finally became serious this time.
"Really?" Shirley's face brightened when she heard that.
However, Shirley's joy immediately vanished when she realised Joseph's words, she felt like Joseph already knew what happened to her.