Chapter 18
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After it was over, Nicole thought he would let her go, but instead, he took her to a filthy, chaotic alley where a group of drunken, dirty homeless men loitered. Outside the alley, a video camera was set up.
Seeing this, Nicole understood everything. No matter how desperately she struggled and pleaded, she could not soften Zachary’s heart.
“Zachary, please, I beg you, don’t do this to me, please…”
“Ah… help, help…”
The surroundings had long been cleared out, leaving no one to respond to Nicole’s cries for help. With a sick smile on his face, Zachary recorded the disgusting scene.
The homeless men covered Nicole’s mouth, slapped her several times, tore her clothes off by force, and entered her from behind, just as she had once forced Jasmine to describe.
After finishing the recording, Zachary handed it directly to a skilled hacker he had hired, instructing him to send it as a virus to every one of Nicole’s friends and relatives.
After doing all this, he couldn’t be bothered to witness Nicole’s tragic fate and kindly dialed the police.
“Hello, is this the police? I’ve discovered a contract killer, the address is at the end of Maple Road, New York.”
After hanging up, he turned and left.
The headlines on the drifting newspapers in the wind began to fade, the
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whimpering of stray cats crystallized in the ear canal. The galaxy spinning in her pupils gradually collapsed into a black hole, even her tears lost their reason to fall.
The homeless men, now satisfied, had left. Nicole was thrown aside like a broken doll. She had no home anymore–her father was arrested, the house was sealed, and she didn’t even have a chance to keep a little money.
Nicole never imagined that someone she had treated wholeheartedly could do such a thing to her. She lay beside the filthy pile of garbage, soulless and foolish.
The sound of police sirens came from the entrance of the alley. She knew it was Zachary who had called the police. After tormenting her like this, he was sending her to prison. For Nicole, this was even more painful than being killed outright.
Nicole no longer had the strength to struggle. She could only blame herself for being so captivated by the dazzling boy under the plane tree back then, for wanting him at all costs. Her life had been too smooth before–was that why she had to endure all this now?
She couldn’t understand. When the police arrived and saw her miserable state, they felt a pang of sympathy. But no matter how pitiful she was, the law is impartial–if you do wrong, you must be punished.
Back home, Zachary looked at the chaos erupting in his high school classmates‘ group chat on his phone and let out a twisted laugh, like a madman.
He knew he was sick, seriously ill, but so what? Jasmine was already dead, and it was his fault. Nothing mattered anymore; sooner or later, he would go to join her.
Not long after, the court delivered its verdict. Morgan was convicted of
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multiple crimes—tax evasion, bribery, involvement in organized crime, and intentional homicide. He was stripped of his political rights for life and sentenced to life imprisonment. All his assets were used to compensate the families he had harmed.
Nicole was sentenced to twenty years in prison for hiring a killer.
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The day the Walsh family was completely destroyed was also the date of Jasmine’s funeral.
The funeral was shrouded in a heavy sorrow. The sky was gray, and the clouds seemed to weep for Jasmine’s passing, pressing down on the venue with a suffocating weight.
Pure white flowers surrounded the coffin, their petals still glistening with undried dew, like Zachary’s silent tears.
The mourning banners fluttered gently in the breeze, the black characters on them telling of endless grief.
Jasmine’s portrait was placed in the mourning hall. In the photo, her smile was as bright as ever, but it was forever frozen in the past.
Zachary’s face was grave, silent tears streaming down as the air filled with grief, making it almost impossible to breathe.
He knew Jasmine’s original wish was for a sea burial, but he was selfish- he wanted to be buried with her.
In the end, he selfishly chose to bury Jasmine in the cemetery, so he could visit her often.
As night fell, only tranquility remained in the cemetery. The pure white flowers bloomed alone in the rain, as if telling of Zachary’s endless longing for Jasmine.
Zachary had planned to join her after finishing the company’s affairs, but
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on his way home from the funeral, he was involved in a car accident.
Perhaps it was fate. After doing so many terrible things, this was heaven’s punishment for him.
Lateefa Khanam is a spirited writer who finds freedom in horse riding. She cherishes her mare and the newborn foal, calling them her little happy family.
