Chapter 637: Chapter 637

Odell looked at her profoundly, his lips held into a frown. Sylvia thought that all that stress from recent events must have gotten to his head which led to him acting this way.

She refrained from going on for fear that it might cause him to further lose his mind. Either way, she would find some way to get Isabel and Liam out of this place after she met them later. After it seemed like Odell had calmed down, she peered at his pocket.

Odell caught her stealing looks at his pocket and asked, “What are you looking at?” “Didn’t you just put a ring in your pocket?”

Sylvia asked. “Yeah.” Odell took it out of his pocket, assuming that Sylvia took interest in the ring. The street lamps along the side of the road cast beams of light down to where they were. Under such sufficient lighting, Sylvia could easily recognize the delicately polished, vintage sapphire ring that rested in the center of his palm. She immediately frowned. Odell was paying close attention to her reaction and upon noticing her change of expression, he blurted, “What's wrong?” Sylvia looked up at him with puzzlement and asked, “Why is this ring with you?” Odell narrowed his eyes and asked suspiciously, “Do you know this ring?”

Instead of answering him, Sylvia asked another question, “Did Tara give it to you?” Odell’s eyes gleamed with certain alertness.

“How did you know that she gave it to me?” Sylvia eyed the ring again. She explained without paying attention to the perplexed look in Odell’s eyes, “Because this ring used to be mine. | gave it to her because she liked it.” Nothing but silence for several seconds. After the brief silence, the man suddenly roared, “Stop!” The driver braked.

The sudden command frightened him. He promptly pulled the car to the side of the road.

Since there was not much traffic along the road, the entire road was filled with an eerie silence after the car stopped.

Though it was quiet, there was not a sense of peacefulness one would expect. Odell grabbed Sylvia’s face with an ominous look fixed on her. “What did you just say?”

He suddenly became so agitated that it seemed like his eyes were bulging and were going to pop out.

Sylvia had never seen him lose his cool like this and was slightly taken aback. Still, she managed to explain with composure, “I said this ring used to be mine, back when Tara and | were still good friends. | ended up giving her the ring because she told me that she liked it.”

“Is this ring yours?”

“Yes.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“A boy gave me the ring, but | didn’t know him.” Odell’s hands suddenly shuddered. He sharpened the pointed look in his eyes and questioned,” Why did this boy give you this ring?” Sylvia sensed something wrong with his temperament but still answered him truthfully, “I believe it was as a gift of gratitude for saving him. Right, | believe it was his mother who left this ring to him.”

“When was this? What do you mean by ‘saving’ him?” he continued interrogating, a bass-like tremor sounded in his voice.

“It was many years ago when | was only ten years old and lived with my grandparents in the old district. It was on a rainy night and | was heading out to buy some snacks. | passed by an alley and stumbled into a group of people beating up a boy no more than a few years older than | was. | remember being very scared at the time, but | was also worried that he would be beaten to death, so | cried out ‘Police! Police!’ to scare the group away. He already received a pretty bad beating by that point and | stayed with him for a long time. My grandparents ended up looking for me by the time the sun rose the next day. The boy gave me the ring before we separated.”

After Sylvia finished recounting the story, she looked into his reddening eyes. It seemed like he was experiencing a turmoil of emotions. Sylvia was startled by this behavior. “Odell, what's wrong with you?” He said, “Your mother died shortly after you were born. Your father and stepmother were never fond of you so you ended up staying with your grandparents.” “Yeah, what are you trying to say?” Her circumstance growing up was pretty much public knowledge.

He pursed his lips, and a certain raspiness transformed his voice. “It was raining that night. The boy told you about how he was.

abused by his stepmother, which was why you shared your story with him to show that he was not alone. Is that so?”

A baffled look appeared in her eyes. “You... How did you know?”

Odell clenched his jaw.

He quietly looked at her tender and innocent expression and noted how adorable she looked. He felt a rush to his head and had to take a couple of seconds before he could utter these words, “Because | was that boy.”