Chapter 93: Asher’s Desperate Past

Chapter 93: Chapter 93: Asher’s Desperate Past

"You... what did you do?" I asked, my chest tightening. I wanted to step forward.

His skin was too pale, a bloodless, ghastly white that formed a stark contrast with the dark red of fresh blood.

My breathing hitched, and a strange panic seized me.

"Don’t come closer..." He seemed afraid of me approaching, afraid of me seeing him like this.

He had just been calling for Cece in such a panic, as if terrified of losing something.

"Don’t come closer! Don’t look at me..." He suddenly lost control, his eyes rimmed with red as he turned and ran back to his room, locking himself inside.

Worried, I chased after him. I knocked on the door, but he refused to open it.

A trail of his bloody footprints remained on the floor, a shocking and gruesome sight.

’Since I was reborn, it seems I’ve never truly faced the reality of Sebastian Lancaster’s condition. I only knew he had a mental illness, that he was a madman, emotionally unstable, that he would kill, that he might be a murderer...’

’In my later interactions with him, I discovered that as long as he wasn’t provoked, his mood was relatively stable.’

’I hadn’t paid too much attention to his condition.’

’So now, seeing him appear before me covered in blood, I was still terrified.’

Assistant Foster had already been through this many times and had seen Sebastian Lancaster lose control on many occasions. He quickly called the family doctor, and they forced the door open from the outside.

I tried to follow them in, but Assistant Foster stopped me.

"You should probably stay out here. The Young Master... probably doesn’t want you to see him like this."

When he had an episode, he was in such a wretched state.

"What... what exactly is going on?" I grabbed Assistant Foster’s arm in a panic and asked in a low voice.

Assistant Foster was silent for a moment before speaking softly. "When the Young Master... loses control, he’s terrifying. He gets the urge to hurt people, but... he’s never actually hurt anyone else. He only hurts himself."

’People who are too kind, when they lose control during an episode, will continuously hurt themselves to maintain their sanity.’

’Asher... was just like that.’

I stood frozen, watching the assistant go in, watching the doctor give Sebastian Lancaster a sedative, listening to his suffocating and heart-wrenching screams.

’What kind of pain must it have been to turn a former genius into what he was now?’

’Even standing outside the door, I felt as if I could sense his pain and helplessness.’

’I almost unconsciously reached out, wanting to hug him.’

When I came back to my senses, I was bewildered myself.

’Why am I crying?’

Without realizing it, tears were already streaming down my face.

After the sedative, Asher finally quieted down and fell asleep.

Assistant Foster, who had been breathing rapidly with worry and panic, finally let out a sigh of relief.

He came out, looked at me, and seemed to want to say something but hesitated.

"Does this... happen to him often?" I asked in a low voice.

"Yes... often. It happens after he’s been provoked," Assistant Foster nodded.

’I thought about it. It must have been at the hospital today, when I told him I wasn’t Cecilia Caldwell. That must have been what set him off.’

"The Young Master is too kind by nature. Otherwise... he wouldn’t choose to vent by harming himself," Assistant Foster said in a low voice. "We clear the room of anything he could use to hurt himself, but today he smashed a water glass and used the shards to cut himself."

I froze, then lowered my head in guilt. "I’m sorry... I didn’t know. I was the one who brought that glass into the room."

’I didn’t know Asher would hurt himself. I had used the glass to mix some cold medicine and just left it there afterward.’

Assistant Foster didn’t say anything, just glanced at the time. "Would you be willing to learn a bit about the Young Master with me? After all, you two are husband and wife now."

Assistant Foster wanted to help me understand more about Sebastian Lancaster.

I looked up, my eyes red. "Okay."

Assistant Foster was silent the entire way as he took me to the abandoned orphanage.

"When he was nineteen, the Old Master had originally arranged for the Young Master to go abroad for his doctorate. But on that day, the orphanage caught fire. Someone maliciously locked him and Charlie in a room at the orphanage. They couldn’t escape; they were trapped alive inside. If... we hadn’t gotten there in time, the Young Master would have died too."

’I have a soul-deep fear of the orphanage. I’m terrified of this place, because this is where I died.’

’Thankfully, Assistant Foster took me to the east dormitory building of the orphanage.’

"Perhaps the culprit only meant to scare Asher and Charlie, but they didn’t expect the fire to get out of control. The flames spread through the entire dormitory floor. That year, a total of nineteen children died in the orphanage. Besides Asher and Charlie, the rest were all little kids, seven or eight years old."

’I knew that on that day, Asher and Charlie had only returned to the orphanage for some annual event. The children from their year who had been adopted were all supposed to come back for a coming-of-age ceremony.’

’The ones who burned to death were the little kids still at the orphanage, the ones who hadn’t been adopted.’

’Those children were so innocent.’

"When we found him, the room was already filled with thick smoke. It was impossible to breathe." Assistant Foster pushed open the door. It was scorched black, and the iron door let out a creaking sound.

My whole body tensed as I stood at the doorway. For some reason, I was trembling with fear.

The room was empty, containing only the frame of a burnt-out bed and walls blackened by smoke.

Even after so many years, you could still clearly see the scratch marks.

’They were the instinctive reaction of someone fighting to survive.’

I raised a hand to cover my mouth and sank to the ground, trembling all over. My stomach was churning violently.

’I could hardly imagine the pain and despair that Asher and Charlie must have gone through, locked in that room.’

’They must have cried out, struggled, the door wouldn’t open, flames burned their bodies, and the thick smoke nearly swallowed them whole.’

’The marks of their struggle on the walls seemed to tell the story of their despair.’

"Why... why didn’t you find him sooner?" I asked, choked with sobs, my heart sinking into that same despair.

"That day, the Lancaster Family also suffered a huge tragedy. On the same day as the orphanage fire, Mr. Marcus Lancaster—the Old Master’s most favored eldest son and the heir to the Lancaster Group—along with his current wife and children, were all killed in a car accident. The Old Master was lost in his grief, and a shadow fell over the Lancaster Family. Everyone forgot... that the Young Master was still at the orphanage and hadn’t returned."

Assistant Foster’s voice was hoarse, and his eyes were red.

"After the Young Master woke up, he went mad... He was in a state of frenzy, frantically running back to the orphanage. He refused to leave with anyone, saying he was waiting for someone... He said someone told him to wait at the orphanage, so he just kept waiting... and waiting, refusing to leave even as his wounds worsened. In truth, it was just a post-traumatic stress reaction. He could have gotten better with patient guidance and companionship from his family. But unfortunately, with Mr. Marcus Lancaster’s death, and under the instigation of Mr. Dylan Lancaster, the Old Master grew worried that the Young Master would bring a bad name to the Lancaster Family, so he had him forcibly committed to a mental hospital."

I looked up at Assistant Foster in shock.

’Asher... was actually forcibly locked up in a mental hospital?’

"For... how long?" The tears were uncontrollable. My body was shaking constantly.

’What am I so sad about?’

"One year and six months..."

’That one year and six months was Asher’s true Hell.’

’He escaped countless times, was dragged back countless times, and was abused countless times—electroshock, forced medication...’

’I don’t dare to imagine those experiences, those scenes.’

"I’m sorry for bringing you here without permission." Seeing my physical revulsion, Assistant Foster looked a little guilty.

"What... did he go through... in the mental hospital?" I looked up at Assistant Foster, my voice hoarse. "Can you take me to see?"

’I want to understand Sebastian Lancaster.’