His Favorite Poison Comes Back To Collect

I sighed helplessly, no longer wanting to waste my breath on them. Justin had blamed me in my past life for using my singing to entice him and for making Ruby contract a strange illness from anger.

I had tried repeatedly to explain that there was something highly suspicious about Ruby's condition, but Justin refused to listen to me. He would inflict another wound on my tail whenever he saw Ruby weep.

I explained that my marriage to him was out of love, yet he remained certain that I was merely greedy for the Gunter family's wealth.

I withdrew my hand at that thought and instantly jumped into the sea. I could hear Diana crying out in despair as the water engulfed me.

In the end, Diana clung to the last shred of hope and relocated to the island.

I was resting upon a coral reef when I encountered Justin again. He regarded me coldly and asked mockingly, "Didn't you claim that my business had nothing to do with you? Why did you return to this part of the ocean, then?

"You ought to know that whatever scheme you're trying to pull won't work on me, Celeste. I'll never love you in this lifetime, so you'd better give up on that delusion immediately."

I fixed my gaze on his face, which bore the grayish hue of impending death. It had only been three days, yet his condition had grown much worse. He should have had roughly two years of life remaining if we were to base it on his symptoms when we previously met.

It was just that because he got involved with Ruby earlier in this lifetime, her venereal disease accelerated his illness. He likely had less than a year left now.

I was just about to warn him since Diana had taken good care of me in my past life, but Justin suddenly slashed his knife across my tail, sending an agonizing pain that caused me to collapse into the water.

He splashed a bucket of saltwater directly over my injury, completely disregarding the fact that I was bleeding heavily. "You still want to pretend that you have designs on me, huh? If you look at me with those disgusting eyes again, I'll gouge them right out of your head!"

I was trembling all over from the pain. I fixed my eyes on him and said in a trembling voice, "You're right. I shouldn't have been so presumptuous. You and Ruby are truly made for each other—no one could be a better fit."

Justin's expression eased slightly. "It's good that you get it. Ruby and I have already gotten our marriage certificate, so if you dare say anything out of line to my mother again, I'll make sure you pay for it, Celeste!"

I gently shook my head as I noticed the ruthlessness in his gaze, thinking that Justin remained completely unaware that his days were already numbered.

I was lying on the reef the following day, wrapping seaweed around the wound on my tail.

Justin suddenly arrived with Ruby in tow, and all of a sudden, Ruby overturned my clamshell onto the rocks. She then smirked maliciously and said, "I'm so sorry for accidentally kicking it over, Celeste. You won't hold it against me, right?"

Justin scoffed and threw a diamond necklace at me. "That should be enough to pay for that worthless clamshell of yours. You should just take it and get lost, Celeste. Stop being an eyesore to Ruby."

I shot him an indifferent glance, ignored the necklace on the ground, and turned to swim away.

Justin yelled at me with a voice filled with disdain. "How ungrateful of you!"

He then turned to Ruby and said, "You can rest assured that I won't let this kind of money-grubbing woman be an eyesore to you again, Ruby."

That clamshell actually contained the deep-sea elixir that I had spent ten years collecting. I had refined it from mermaid tears and rare ocean treasures, letting it sit on the shore to absorb the essence of the sun and moon.

It was meant to significantly ease Justin's cutaneous desiccation disorder, but now they had flipped it over without hesitation, completely destroying his final lifeline.

I intended to look for a different part of the ocean to live in since I didn't want to have anything more to do with them.

Yet that afternoon, Diana suddenly appeared and kneeled right before me. "You have to save Justin, Ms. Merrow! He's in big trouble! His skin suddenly split and tore open—he was rolling on the floor in agony before passing out completely!"