Chapter 9
“The ninety seventh time-Jessica pushed me down the stairs and I miscarried, but you forced me to drop the charges.”
“The ninety-eighth time-you knew my birth mother and Jessica were my triggers, but to hurt and control me, you brought her right to my face and let me be tormented.”
“The ninety-ninth time-I was bleeding from my head over Grandma’s belongings, but you left holding Jessica.”
“The hundredth time-I gave you Warren Corporation because I loved and trusted you, but you turned my trust into a knife to stab me with, and covered up the fact that Jessica killed my grandmother.”
I watched Lucas stagger back two steps, almost losing his balance, and smiled faintly.
“One hundred times exactly, Lucas. How do you expect me to convince myself to forgive you?”
Lucas’s eyes were bloodshot, his voice choked with tears.
“No, Vivian, you don’t understand. Look at these.”
He pulled out a stack of photos-every single one of his affairs.
“I-I chose these girls because they looked like you.”
“I’m just sick, but I never stopped loving you.”
“This one has your nose, this one has your eyes, this one has your expression, and-”
Faced with his hysteria, I remained completely cold.
“Enough. I don’t care about any of this.”
Lucas’s face filled with panic, like a drowning man who’d finally lost his last piece of driftwood.
“Vivian, you’re the only one I’ve ever loved, from beginning to end. I never changed my heart.”
“I was scared-I couldn’t control myself.”
“This past year, you’ve cared less and less about me, that’s why I brought Jessica around. She’s the one who deserves to die-she deliberately pushed you down the escalator and caused our baby to miscarry.”
I shook my head gently.
“Lucas, you watched me suffer in despair but never felt sorry for me. You just wanted to keep me caged by your side. But how can beautiful flowers bloom from such pain?”
Lucas collapsed completely, falling to the ground.
“I’m sorry, Vivian. I didn’t know you were in so much pain.”
“I’m sorry!”
I looked at him and shook my head with a smile.
“It’s all in the past.”
All that pain was in the past.
“Vivian, please give me one more chance. Let’s start over.”
“Start over?” I laughed again. “What makes you think you deserve to start over with me?”
“Without the Warren family’s support, how long can you hold out against Peter’s business attacks?”
“And all those half brothers of yours from around the country-they’re all back, aren’t they? Without the marriage alliance with the Warren family, do you think the Sinclair board will still support you?”
“Six months at most, and you won’t even be able to stay in the capital. Do you think you’re worthy of me?”
“Most importantly, I don’t love you anymore. Even looking at you makes me sick.”
After saying this, I turned and went home.
Behind me was the sound of Lucas’s remorseful sobbing.
But none of it mattered to me anymore.
After that day, I never saw Lucas again.
When Jessica was dragged back to the slums by her drug-addicted birth father, she came to beg me.
She knelt in front of me, crying.
“I know you don’t like me, but can’t you save me for the sake of blood relations?”
Looking at the handprint on her pale face, I felt no sympathy whatsoever.
“Jessica, when you were feeding poison to my grandmother, did you think about blood relations?”
“She was so good to you. She told you not to be afraid, she accepted you as part of the Warren family, she said she’d protect you. And what did you do?”
“You were even smiling when you poisoned her.”
“If you had shown even a hint of sadness, reluctance, or remorse back then, I would have protected you like a sister.”
Three years later, Peter and I went abroad on vacation.
I had money and leisure-I didn’t want to get married at all, so Peter could only accompany me traveling around the world.
While checking in for our flight, my phone buzzed with a news notification.
[Former Elite Reduced to 60-Year-Old Tycoon’s Boy Toy-Wife Catches Them in Bed!]
Such a shocking headline successfully caught my attention during the boring check-in process.
When I opened it, I saw Lucas’s familiar yet strange face.
Gone were the arrogance and high spirits-he looked utterly weathered.
I stared for a long moment.
Peter noticed me spacing out and leaned over.
“What are you looking at?”
I casually put down my phone.
“Just boring news.”
