Chapter 25 Don’t Empathise with a Murderer
It was impossible for Rosalie to pass up such a great opportunity. She wanted to find me too badly.
“Stop where you are!” Rosalie chased after him and called out for Stephen to stop.
I followed them in panic and yelled at Zeke, “Keep up! You have to protect her! I’m begging you.”
Zeke snapped back to the present and chased after them. The two of them followed Stephen,
+8 Pearls
Stephen walked with difficulty. Evidently, he was running as hard as he could. The blood flowing down his calves was a gruesome sight to behold.
His pants were short, torn, and incredibly short. I had no idea where he had gotten them.
In fact, I’m a little curious. If he was a Colton, and his family treated him well and respected him as a master of the house, how could they possibly allow him to live on the streets?
He was probably disliked by the Coltons, too.
I was clueless about the sort of environment Stephen grew up in, nor did I want to empathise with a psychopathic serial killer. No matter what he’d been through, it was wrong to kill.
“Are you hurt?” Zeke frowned and tugged on Stephen’s arm. He asked, “Where are you taking us?”
Stephen looked like he was in shock. In a panic, he broke free from Zeke’s grip, causing him to fall to the ground. He crawled up from the ground and continued his forward run.
His shoes ran off, and the soles of his feet were filled with unsightly scars. He appeared to have burned his skin after stepping on some hot coals.
I was shocked as I looked at Stephen, who fell to the ground after running a few steps. What on earth had he been through?
“What happened to his feet?” Rosalie was also shocked as she looked at Stephen, who had to insist on getting up after falling. His feet were badly burned. Every step he took must have been in hellish pain, right?
What did he insist on showing them?
“Those wounds are burn marks.” Zeke frowned. After Stephen fell again, Zeke walked over and extended his hand towards him.
Stephen looked at Zeke, but he didn’t reach out. He was used to being alone.
Getting up from the ground, Stephen continued to limp forward. On the road, the soles of his feet left bloody traces.
Rosalie frowned and asked, “How did he burn the soles of his feet?”
“I had a suspicion that he was a murderer before, so I followed and investigated him,” Zeke spoke in a deep voice.
When I realised he had suspected Stephen, I looked at Zeke in shock. I replied, “He is! He’s the murderer! You need to investigate him again! Do it again!”
“Stephen is a poor soul. He grew up in an orphanage. His grandfather never acknowledged him as his grandson, so he had no desire to bring him back home. It’s probably karma; all of his children and grandchildren have died. The old man couldn’t continue the bloodline all by himself, which reminded him of Stephen, who was in the orphanage.”
Zeke followed Stephen. He lit up a cigarette as he walked.
“I know a servant who was employed by the Coltons. That person claimed that Stephen was very resistant after he went home, always trying to run away. Stephan was withdrawn and acted strangely. He was often irritable and had a tendency to inflict harm on others. In order to prevent him from running away and disgracing the family, his grandfather used many methods, such as breaking his legs, imprisoning him, and locking him up in the basement as if he were a beast and forcing him to leave a descendant for the family.”
9:12 AM
Chapter 25 Don’t Empathise with a Murderer
+8 Pearls
“You mean… Rosalie covered her mouth in shock and stared at the limping Stephen. “Did his grandfather intentionally burn the wounds on his feet to keep him from fleeing?” she questioned.
Zeke didn’t say anything, but the look in his eyes was filled with pity.
So what if he was the heir to a wealthy family! The strange and withdrawn Stephen was not a human but a machine for breeding offspring for his grandfather.
Russell Colton had designated a woman to bear him a child, after which he could permanently vanish from Baytown.
1 followed Zeke and gave Stephen a complicated look.
“Don’t empathise with a murderer!” My voice was a little hoarse. “Maybe this man is pathetic, but the women he murdered were even more pathetic.”
I didn’t know what Stephen was trying to accomplish by using me to trick Zeke and Rosalie out of the house. I wasn’t sure if Stephen had any help, but it was always safer with Zeke around.
It was unclear how long I had walked; Stephen had stumbled back to the abandoned orphanage.
I looked around in shock. I vaguely remembered back in the street, where someone was dragging me to this orphanage.
Did Stephen want to show them the crime scene?
“What’s here?” Zeke frowned and looked around warily.
Stephen ignored Zeke. He pushed open one dormitory door after another with force.
There was nothing.
I thought he was pretending to be crazy. Finally, in an abandoned dormitory on the second floor, I saw a figure in a red dress.
The back of the figure looked a lot like mine. She was in a red dress, just standing there as if she were looking out the window.
I was breathing heavily, and my whole body was shaking.
But I wasn’t sure if that was my body.
