Alistair said, "Even though there's no evidence, something doesn't feel right."
"The Jian family lives in an expensive, prime area. If a kidnapper goes there, it should be for ransom, right? What kind of idiot kidnaps a wealthy heiress just to sell her to human traffickers? How much money could they possibly get?"
"I looked into that bastard. He was just a petty thug, first-time offender, said he was in debt, pressured by creditors, couldn't come up with the money, and thought of someone he knew who dealt in trafficking."
"He said selling her was less risky than ransom. What nonsense! If you really wanted to minimize risk, you'd kidnap a poor person. Kidnapping a wealthy heiress? That's just brainless!"
"He had no connection to Zoya at all. Plus, when Lily had her accident, it was Zoya's father's death anniversary. She was in a bad mood, and Layla was with her the whole time. She has an alibi."
"So, as things stand, Zoya seems innocent, and Lily must have been hallucinating due to the trauma."
But that wasn't the end of it. Whenever Lily saw Zoya, she went berserk, almost on the verge of a breakdown. Rumors spread like wildfire.
People said that Lily had been sold into the mountains, trapped for half a month. No matter how she escaped, her purity was gone, she must have been violated.
Lily's parents tried to quash the vicious rumors immediately, protecting her from further harm, but they believed them.
At the time, Royce hadn't yet lost interest, but he believed those rumors too, to some extent.
Facing malicious speculations from outsiders, the well-meaning but painful inquiries from her family, and Royce's hesitations... Lily went to the hospital alone.
That "hymen intact" certificate was her way of proving her innocence.
It was also the final blow to her dignity.
Edmond could never imagine how desperate she must have been to use such a drastic measure to try and save herself from that catastrophic disaster.
How tragic.
A young girl, having suffered so much humiliation and harm, still had to prove her innocence.
But even then, the people watching from the sidelines didn't let her go.
They started to question the authenticity of that certificate, maliciously speculating that she had undergone a 'surgical repair' to fake it.
They used the sharpest fangs to spread rumors, the most venomous fingers to type slanders, waging a bloodless war against an innocent girl.
How tragic.
Lily had done nothing wrong, yet she had to endure such judgment.
Even if she had lost her purity, so what? At least she survived, and survival was the most important thing.
Compared to her life, mere physical integrity was nothing.
Unfortunately, the long tsunami of scandal against Lily only began to subside after her family forcibly sent her abroad.
When Edmond was twenty-five, he was involved in a staged car accident.
After that accident, he intended to give up the internal power struggle within the Zhou family, planning to leave after avenging the car accident.
But Lily's incident changed his mind.
Even if he couldn't openly love her, he wanted to leave her an escape route.
She wanted to marry Royce, so he decided to become the head of the Zhou family, using his life-saving debt as her backing.
When she went for treatment, he found her the best doctors, invested heavily in new drug research that could benefit her.
When she wanted to return home, he cleared the rumors, making sure no one dared to touch her senior year scandal.
But new wounds are easier to heal than old scars.
Even though he paved a broad path for her, he couldn't heal the scar in her heart.
Her high-profile display of pride and arrogance was merely a cover for her inner sensitivity and fragility.
She liked to laugh.
But she wasn't happy, not at all.
Because she had never come to terms with her past.
How could she? That experience, that certificate, was a mark of shame carved into her bones, her greatest fear for life.
Edmond would never touch her scars actively.
He would wait, wait until she was willing to share her heart with him, to let him touch it.
...
In the restaurant, the romantic and soft saxophone changed to a soothing and gentle violin.
A warm palm covered her lightly trembling hand with a scorching touch. Lily snapped back to reality, her whole arm jolting as she looked up in surprise.
She hadn't expected Edmond to suddenly hold her hand.
Instinctively, she tried to pull back, but Edmond held on tight. He asked, "Don't like the cake?"
Following his gaze, she looked down to see the whole brownie she had poked into a mess. She froze. When had she done that? "Oh, no, I do like it."
Not knowing how to explain her chaotic thoughts just now, she chose not to.
Edmond didn't ask further either. He let go of her hand, handed her his whole brownie, and took her mutilated one.
Watching him eat the half-cake she had destroyed, Lily felt inexplicably hot in the face, wanting to speak but holding back.
She had taken a bite of that cake when it was first served. He probably didn't see that, right?
Definitely not, or he wouldn't have eaten it.
After the cake, they walked out of the restaurant side by side.
Lily sneaked a glance at him, saw his calm expression, and brought up the earlier topic again.