"Stop, Anne!" Ruth exclaimed.
Anne had heard Ruth's voice from behind again while she was walking towards the escalator. She
stopped in front of it, with a frown upon her face.
Meanwhile, Emily saw Ruth turning back to search for them and with exasperation from not being able
to vent our her pent up anger, she said, "Oh, wow. The woman even dares to come back, huh!"
Faintly, Anne turned sideways to face Emily and talked to her as if by whispering, "Don't be bothered,
Emily."
After saying that, she walked forward again, ignoring Ruth who was behind her.
With the way that Anne had ignored Ruth, how could it not annoy her? Ruth sprinted to where Anne
and Emily were, got ahold of Emily's hand, and slapped her.
"Are you seriously out of your mind?" Emily said, utterly stunned at the way Ruth just slapped her
without a second thought.
Ruth had already taken action before Emily could even react.
The crisp sound of the slap was even louder than before. Obviously, she had hit her harder.
"That is enough!"
Anne quickly came to pull Emily away from Ruth just as she was about to slap her for the second time.
Emily, still absolutely flabbergasted, stood frozen and still had no idea how she was going to react to
what just happened.
With all haste, Anne slapped Ruth in the face.
Cherry was just following them from behind and was shocked herself to see that Anne had slapped
Ruth.
"Ah! ！ !" With a series of screams, having been beaten by Emily previously was the last thing Ruth
could bare. Then she got beaten by Anne again, which was such a shame for her.
She got so angry that she started stomping her feet with her fists clenched and without even thinking
twice, she tried to tackle Anne to the ground.
Still, she failed, since Anne was able to circumvent her sudden attempt to attack her. Nonetheless,
considering how strong she got, Ruth was able to rush her way towards the escalator and got down
there.
"Ah!"
Ruth, while screaming, had disappeared in front of them all.
Anne's heart skipped a beat and Emily had trouble catching her breath witnessing that. Everyone was
dazed for a moment and had no idea what just happened because things seemed to have escalated so
quickly. Cherry was the first one to take action. She dashed to the escalator and to her surprise, she
saw that Ruth had rolled to the bottom of the escalator.
There was blood everywhere.
Cherry screamed in fear and everyone went to see for themselves what caused her to be terrified.
Anne started hyperventilating. Emily's heart was pounding. She started grabbing onto Anne's clothes
as if she was holding on for dear life.
"Ruth!!! Oh, my God! This is your fault, Anne! You pushed her down the escalator!" Cherry screamed to
Anne's face.
She then went away from them and rushed down the escalator. Down there, Ruth was surrounded by a
group of people already discussing what they thought might have happened but no one made an effort
to call for an ambulance.
"It wasn't her fault! She didn't push Ruth!" Emily tried to defend Anne. Anne, not being able to speak,
kept shaking her head while staring blankly at the floor. How could it have been her? She did not even
touch Ruth.
Emily was still shaking and asked her, "Anne? Anne, what are we going to do?"
Emily had not a single idea what they would do. She did have a feeling they would get into a fight that
day but she never would have predicted for things to go down gruesomely!
After a few moments, Anne stared at the horrifying pool of blood at the bottom of the escalator, and
yelled at Emily, "Call for help now, Emily!!!"
Emily already knew what Anne meant by that and did as she ordered without hesitation. She
immediately took her phone out of the pocket of her pants and dialed 120.
"Oh my, Ruth!'
Inside the hospital, a hurtle of footsteps could be heard approaching from afar, accompanied by a
hoarse shout.
Anne sat and waited outside the operating room with her heart still racing and her hands and feet cold.
She saw familiar faces from a distance. She tried to look closely, and when she was able to make out
their faces, she realized that they were Ruth's parents. They went straight to the hospital as soon as
they heard about their daughter.
Emily got more anxious and held onto Anne's clothes. She started crying and shaking uncontrollably.
She kept thinking about the possibility of Ruth dying and that made her even more terrified. Despite the
fact that they did not have anything directly to do with Ruth's unfortunate accident, Emily still felt that
they were, in a way, responsible for it.
Anne gently grabbed Emily's hands and tried to calm her down even if she was feeling very nervous
herself and said in a low voice, "Everything will be fine, Emily. Don't be afraid. We will be okay and we
will get through this."
Anne's hands were sweating like crazy making it obvious that she was just trying to be strong for them
both so Emily tried to force a little nod in response.
"Wh-where did they bring Ruth? Where is my daughter?"
Linda, Ruth's mother, shouted upon bustling through the hospital doors. Her eyes were totally red and
swollen from crying too much.
The man who accompanied her, which could very well be Ruth's father, seemed to have been trying to
remain calm while he held her, but his face was heavy with sadness and confusion.
A few moments later, the man tried to calm her down and said, "Stop worrying too much. Our daughter
just entered the operating room.
The doctors are doing everything they can. She will be fine."
Seeing that, Anne couldn't muster up the courage to even stand up and talk to them. However, how
could Cherry not seize the opportunity?
She tried to force out a sniff and squeeze out a few tears before approaching Ruth's parents.
"Mrs. Sun, I'm sorry I failed to take good care of your daughter. I'm so, so sorry."
She cried bitterly. While sitting on another corner of the hospital, Anne saw Cherry's tearful face and
suddenly felt hard-hearted.
There was actually something to do with her, but she didn't have much reaction.
Standing next to her, Emily was very scared. Seeing Ruth's parents coming, she trembled even more
fiercely, and tears started flowing from her eyes again.
While turning around and looking at her, Anne didn't say a word.
"What happened? How did she fall off the escalator?"
Ruth's mom started choking with sobs. Her dad couldn't stay silent any longer and asked Cherry what
happened.
At the time, Cherry slowly stopped crying. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Sun. We never expected things to go down
like this," she told Ruth's father.
She started crying again but she didn't get to explain what exactly happened.
As Anne was just about to stand up and explain herself, Emily clutched her arm.
Emily looked at her with her eyes full of tears while shaking her head saying, "Anne, no. Don't do it."
Anne knew what Emily meant. Once such a thing had happened, it would be difficult to get rid of it. Be
that as it might, Anne still thought to herself that if she just kept sitting there and didn't bother saying
anything, wouldn't that make her nothing more than a heartless person?
She wanted to try speaking up again but Emily kept shaking her head, trying to stop Anne from doing
so. At that point, Anne decided to keep thinking it though and waited. Once the operation was over, she
decided she would take her part of responsibility.
"Stop crying, Miss. Cherry. Tell me what happened? How did my daughter fall down the escalator?
Cherry kept silent and that made Linda anxious so she grabbed her in the arm and asked her again,
"What happened?" She started crying and shaking hysterically. "If something happens to my daughter,
how can I live on?"
Hearing this made Emily tremble again. She was really scared this time. It was hard for her to imagine
how painful Linda would be if something really happened to Ruth.
"Don't be afraid. It's okay," said Anne in a low voice, holding Emily's hand tightly.
"Actually..." Cherry muttered.
She already knew it was time that she kick Anne out of her life. This matter was so serious that she
believed that there was no way for Anne to get out of it.
"Actually what?"
Linda asked, "Just tell me!"
"Ahh, Mrs. Sun, here is the thing. I went shopping with your daughter and met up with my cousin.
Then…"
Halfway through, she thought of looking around and finding Anne.
Coincidentally, Anne raised her head then and caught a glimpse of Cherry, at the same time. It startled
Cherry when she saw that Anne seemed calm, judging by her eyes.
How could Anne be so calm in this situation?
Even she could not help but feel all sorts of terrified at the moment. She did not fake a cry but she was
indeed scared.
Deep inside, though, she really hoped that Ruth would not make it, because in this way, Anne would
never stand a chance to flop to the top.
"I never expected that Ruth would hate my cousin so much. The two of them had a dispute beside the
escalator. Then when the argument got heated, Ruth tried to reach out to hit my cousin but my cousin
ended up pushing her down by accident."
Cherry continued while bursting into tears.
Upon hearing that, Emily was on the verge of breaking down. What was Cherry talking about? Ruth
rolled and fell down the escalator by herself. Why would Cherry ever say that it was Anne who pushed
her?
At this critical moment, even if she was afraid, Emily couldn't help but stand up. She wanted to confront
Cherry, but her body was pulled by Anne.
"Emily, leave her be," Anne said.
"But, Anne, she is literally framing you up right now!" Emily said, full of anger.
Anne had already been used to Cherry's plots, hadn't she? At this point, she was pretty sure Cherry
was going to try to turn everything against her and put the blame on her.
"Are you saying that this woman pushed down our Ruth?"
After hearing Cherry out, Linda immediately set her gaze upon Anne, who was sitting next to her, and
that made her enraged and anxious.
She was thinking that her daughter was in her deathbed fighting for her life while the alleged culprit was
still sitting there even looking calm.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Sun. Anne didn't mean to do that. I apologize to you on behalf of her!"
Cherry shouted, grabbed Linda's hand and knelt down. The loud noise shocked Emily.
What was Cherry doing? She really was such a great pretender.
Unable to hold back her anger, Emily pulled away Anne's hand, ran to Linda and explained, "Mrs. Sun,
it's not like that. Your daughter, Ruth rolled down by herself, instead of being pushed by Anne!"
Cherry knew that Emily would definitely come out to talk at that time. Without hesitation, she cried out
again.
"Emily, I know you want to speak for Anne, but it has happened. Anne can't deny it! Mrs. Sun, I beg you
to forgive Anne. She really didn't expect such a thing to happen!"
Emily answered her, "Cherry, how can you lie like that?" She was so distressed and confused. "I know
you hate Anne, but can you really keep making stories up in serious situation like this, Cherry?"
She was so anxious. When she turned around, she saw Anne still sitting there as if nothing was
happening.
Emily did not know what else there was to do. Seeing as Linda seemed to have believed in Cherry's
testimony, she couldn't say another word anymore even though she wanted to kept explaining.
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