Chapter 3

Even in this state, Vivienne showed no mercy, continuing her actions unabated.

"Ethan, don't blame me. If you must blame someone, blame your father for deliberately targeting your Uncle Gerald and dragging you into this mess."

She had been harsh with her son, and felt guilty about it, but she also placed the blame for this situation on me.

Seeing what had become of her son, I was wracked with anguish.

I had been blind and foolish in judging people, ending up in this state of complete ruin, and I accepted that.

But the child was innocent. Why did they have to involve him in this? If this continued, Melody would surely die.

Dane put on a show of protesting that this wasn't right, but he made no real effort to stop Vivienne.

Worse still, the pair were so focused on tormenting the boy that they failed to notice an alligator stalking through the pond in the distance, slowly approaching.

It must be the same one that had killed me. Dane clearly hadn't dealt with it.

As I watched the alligator draw ever closer to Ethan, I was powerless to do anything, left only to panic helplessly.

Now that I was a ghost, no matter how loudly I shouted, they couldn't hear me. Under the constant torment, Ethan had no choice but to confess under duress, admitting that he was the one who let me go, and apologizing profusely.

Just as Vivienne was pulling Ethan up, the alligator suddenly leaped out of the water, viciously biting into Ethan's shoulder.

Instantly, the water's surface was stained with a patch of red. Upon closer inspection, a large chunk of flesh had been torn from Ethan's shoulder.

Ethan let out an agonizing scream, appearing to be in excruciating pain.

Vivienne panicked and quickly embraced Ethan in her arms.

"How could there be an alligator in this pond? This shouldn't be happening. We've never seen one before. Where did it come from?"

Dane glared fiercely at the two men who had been guarding me, his eyes seeming to question them about what was going on.

"It must be a wild alligator from nearby that accidentally wandered in here."

His voice was shaky, and anyone with half a brain could tell something was off.

Vivienne quickly regained her composure.

"I get it now. This must be Archer's ploy to garner sympathy. He deliberately released an alligator to create the illusion of his death, hoping to make me feel guilty. But he didn't expect it would accidentally harm his own son instead." Dane chimed in from the side, feigning a look of sudden realization.

I couldn't believe she still suspected me at this point. How on earth could I have managed to bring in an alligator?

She woke up Ethan, who had passed out from blood loss, and questioned him again about whether I had released the alligator.

Ethan was terrified and just kept nodding and saying yes to whatever she asked.

Having gotten the answer she wanted, Vivienne finally called for someone to take Ethan to the hospital.

"Archer, you've hurt my son like this. When I find you, I absolutely won't let you off the hook!"

Probably afraid of being investigated, Dane said he wasn't feeling well and asked Vivienne to accompany him to the hospital. She naturally agreed anxiously.

As everyone dispersed, the place returned to calm. I kept praying in my heart that Ethan would be okay.

This fish pond was specifically bought by Vivienne to punish me. Once an alligator has tasted human flesh, it will keep eating people.

Fearing the alligator might attack someone else and affect the group's reputation, she called in some people to kill it.