Chapter 617 A House in Ruin
The stone path was damp with early morning dew, golden sunlight filtering through the leaves overhead and scattering soft glimmers across the pavement.
Yunice and Tommy walked side by side down the path.
Wyatt scoffed from a distance. “Barely a few days apart and guys are already lining up to steal my wife."
“Yunice, are you settling in okay at school?” Tommy chatted casually.
“It’s alright,” Yunice replied.
“I heard you guys were out weeding in the herb garden yesterday? That professor of yours is something else. Loves messing with people,” he said, chuckling.
“Yunny!”
Right then, her two roommates came running over.
As soon as they spotted Tommy, their faces turned suspiciously red, and they immediately straightened up. “Mr. Tommy.”
Tommy gave them a polite nod. “You girls chat. I’ve got something to do.”
The second he walked off, both girls’ eyes lit up like stars. They excitedly grabbed at Yunice’s sleeve.
“Yunny, how do you know Tommy? Do you even realize he’s one of the top students here? He’s crazy smart!”
Then, whispering with eyes full of gossip, one added, “Is he your boyfriend? I’ve never seen him this close with any girl before.”
Lena, standing nearest, suddenly noticed a faint red mark on Yunice’s neck. She blinked and hesitated. “Is that… a hickey?”
Jennie gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth. “Yunice, did you get a hotel room last night? Was it with Tom-”
They both looked like they’d stumbled into the juiciest gossip ever.
Yunice stayed calm. “You’re overthinking it. I’m married. It’s been over a year now. I am four years older than you guys, after all.”
That was indeed around the right age for marriage. And technically, university students were allowed to get married.
Still surprised, they couldn’t help digging. “So Tommy is…”
“I used to volunteer off campus,” Yunice explained. “He happened to be volunteering at the same place. That’s how we met.”
“Oh…” The two didn’t suspect a thing and moved right along into another topic – marriage.
Being younger, they still held a kind of awe and curiosity about it. “Do you have kids?”
Yunice shook her head.
“Don’t your in-laws pressure you?”
Wyatt had tried to, but she’d refused.
“Having kids is a huge deal,” Yunice said. “And I still have school.”
“True,” they nodded. “We’re in medicine – we’ve got to at least get a Master’s or PhD before we can land a good job. It’s gonna take at least five years before you graduate, and then you’ll start working. Your husband’s family is okay waiting that long?”
They had all made it clear to their families when they chose Medical University: careers first, no pressure about marriage or children.
Jennie added, “And with how tempting things are at school, and you being so pretty, isn’t your husband worried some guy will steal you?”
They’d heard those stories plenty of times – married students ending up with someone else on campus.
Just last week, a case like that had blown up on the student forum.
Yunice thought about Wyatt. After being with someone like him, none of the young, awkward guys on campus could even catch her eye.
Back at the Saunders residence, Lily returned home in fear.
The house was eerily quiet – no sign of Peggy, no sound of Timothy.
Lily clutched Owen’s sleeve. “Owen… where are they?”
Owen didn’t say a word. He just led Lily through the house.
She followed him into one room and found Peggy tied to a bed, clothes disheveled.
Then he took her downstairs to the basement.
There, Timothy was locked inside a cage, a sock stuffed in his mouth.
Lily’s face went white. She staggered back, hands trembling as she covered her mouth. “Owen, you’re insane. Do you even realize what you’re doing?!”
If someone walked in and saw this, Owen’s life would be over. And so would her one and only hope.
But Owen looked dead inside. “What else was I supposed to do?”
Lily was panicked. “But what if someone realizes Timothy’s gone and reports it to the police?”
Owen squatted by the cage, locking eyes with Timothy’s furious stare. “He’ll never tell them who his accomplices were.”
As soon as he said that, he jammed an electric baton hard through the bars.
Set to the highest voltage, the shock made Timothy scream in agony, his body convulsing. A foul-smelling liquid trickled down his legs and pooled on the floor.
Lily froze as the screams echoed in her ears. She clasped her hands over her head, overwhelmed.
“How did it come to this? How did everything go so wrong…”
Her once peaceful life had turned back into the living hell it was six years ago.
“Owen, stop! Stop it! You can’t keep shocking him. If you kill him, you’ll be a murderer. I’ve already lost Elsie – I can’t lose you too. God, why is this happening? Why did a perfectly good family fall apart like this? Why do I have to suffer through all this?”