WCMBI - Chapter 263: Time Has Come

Upon glimpsing Ian's visage, exuding exuberance, Monica felt a shiver course through her entire body. Although his countenance appeared affectionate as ever, at this moment, it bore an uncanny and eerie aspect.

"I-Ian, what does this mean?" she asked, her voice quivering.

"This is the place I desperately wanted to come with you. Do you recognize it, Monica?" Ian replied.

"But where is this?" Monica couldn't hide her suspicion, yet she clung to her last glimmer of hope and cast her gaze outside the carriage for the first time since boarding.

"Good heavens!" What lay directly before her eyes was not the anticipated location. The carriage had come to a halt right on the edge of a dizzyingly deep gorge. She trembled and inquired with a quivering voice, "W-What is this perilous place?"

Ian narrowed his eyes in response to her question and retorted, "You truly have no idea where this is?"

"How am I supposed to know such a place!" A vexed tone unwittingly escaped Monica. It was only natural, considering she had embarked on this journey expecting a different destination altogether.

"You really don't know?" Ian mumbled with a sense of bewilderment before bursting into a wry chuckle.

"Ugh.. You claim ignorance while sending innocent people to their demise!" he continued.

"What are you talking about?" The word "demise" inadvertently triggered a name in Monica's mind, and she whispered, "Melissa..."

Seizing her arm with a fierce grip, Ian leaned in, his face contorted with madness as he murmured, "That's right. You burned Melissa alive right here, and she fell."

Of course, Melissa hadn't died, but having endured suffering akin to death and miraculously survived, it was no different from being dead. Thus, Ian saw no need to inform Monica of Melissa's survival. That wasn't the crucial issue.

"But why did you come here?" Monica asked, bewildered.

Ian beamed brightly and replied, "To set everything right again."

"What do you mean!" Monica finally grasped the gravity of the situation and struggled to break free from Ian's grasp, but to no avail. She cried out to the coachman in desperation.

"Please, help me!"

The coachman, with a vacant expression, slowly turned his head in response to her agitated words. With a completely vacant face, he said to Monica, "You have a very beautiful face."

"Is now the time for such insipid remarks?"

"How do you think my face looks?"

"Do you really have to ask such a question at a time like this?"

"When, if not now, would you ask? It is rather you, madam, who should have shown curiosity towards me! Do you have any idea of the torment I endured in the subterranean dungeon? All of this is because of someone!"

As Monica faced Ian’s palpable rage, she fell silent. Amidst the helpless situation, a dull thud echoed through the air as the whip struck the carriage.

[Thunk, thud] Though unable to discern the source of the sound, Monica sensed it boded ill. Trying to break free from Ian's grasp, she shook her body vigorously, but he remained motionless, gazing at her with an impassive face.

"Ian... This is not right. How could you do this to me?"

"Then, how could you do it to Melissa!"

His voice, brimming with anger, struck her ear, and his tears, falling in rapid succession, sprinkled her heart with a cold feeling. Ah, Ian was still attached to Melissa. His feelings for her would remain unchanged. Belatedly realizing this, Monica was shocked anew.

He shed tears yet spoke derisively to the dazed Monica, his eyes gleaming with scorn.

"For a mere annoyance, you pushed Melissa, who had done no wrong to you, off that cliff. And you set her ablaze while she was still alive."

"No, that's not true."

"Even with all the evidence and circumstances pointing to you as the culprit, you persist in denying it?"

"But you told me to do it!"

He interjected into their conversation, rising to her feet. Slowly approaching Monica, she began recounting everything she had heard.

"You always slandered Melissa. You called her a vulgar omega and blamed her for stealing your man. You said she was less than a bug and deserved to die. And not only that, you repeatedly said her mother deserved the same fate, with death being the punishment for her sins. I heard it clearly, and I, too, played a part in your schemes."