Chapter 19N
His parents and friends never carried much weight in his heart.
But my betrayal, the woman who had entangled with him for nearly twenty years, was like a blade carving through his heart. So he chose to drag me down with him, pulling me into the abyss of pain he had crafted, like a dark spider’s web spun in hell.
Only when he witnessed me in the most excruciating agony did he feel what he thought was love in its purest, most complete form.
If he couldn’t love with all his heart, then he would hate with all his heart.
Thayer had a file on his computer, protected by a system as secure as a national secret vault. Inside were recordings and images of me in moments of utter despair.
He would tremble watching that raw, unfiltered suffering as if it nourished something deep and twisted inside him.
But what he didn’t understand was that emotions need to be nurtured.N
After five years of torment, even the strongest bond could be worn away, leaving nothing behind–no love, no hate, just emptiness.
Thayer clawed at his own skin with such force that blood streamed down his body. He collapsed onto the cold bathroom floor, covered in wounds.
His mind involuntarily conjured up the image of me, tearful and locked in the bathroom on our wedding night.”
The nausea and disgust that had overwhelmed him just moments ago vanished and in a twisted, inexplicable way, he reached a disturbing peak of emotional release.
Like a
Like a drunk, he stumbled to his feet, face flushed red.
“If I just… if I just apologize properly… Althea will forgive me. She will… she definitely will.”
Avoiding the depraved scene outside the study, he paid no attention to the hateful glare in Aveline’s eyes.”
He even threw out a cold, careless line. “Don’t hurt the child in her womb.”
Thayer stumbled out of the house, his steps unsteady and climbed 3,000 stone steps on foot, bowing his head to the ground with every step.
He did this to earn a new safety charm and with blood streaming down his forehead, he knocked on his father’s forehead.§ “Dad, tell me the truth.”
Looking up at the soft white clouds drifting across the sky, he suddenly recalled the pitying gaze in his mother’s eyes.§ “Thayer… if one day you truly want to know the truth about that day, go ask your father.”
Back then, he had stubbornly believed in the results of his own investigation, refusing to heed the warnings or guidance of those around him because he never truly believed in love that was pure and untainted.
I had been too good and the love I gave was too perfect. He was intoxicated by my affection, floating in bliss, yet the dark and despicable voice inside him kept whispering, again and again. This wasn’t real.
So he chose to seek love in the only way he knew–the way he had learned as a child, when his father would raise a stick and beat him, only to say afterward that it was because he loved him.
That was love. How could it ever be something gentle or beautiful?}
Love was meant to be bloody. It was supposed to be lined with thorns.
He believed that he and I were destined, to hold each other in an embrace that bled, to be pierced by pain, to have our blood mix together
and then rot away together in the Alcott Family.
–
But when he looked into my eyes and found no trace of himself left there, he suddenly wanted to ask, what really happened that day?” Outside, the clouds drifted slowly.}
Harvant let out a long, weary sigh. At last, he admitted to what his wife had once said.
“You Alcott Family people… you’re pathetic. You only know how to cherish love after it’s been lost.”
“You were one… and now your son is too.”
That woman never looked back once when she left home but before she did, she calculated their son’s fate, who was only ten years old at the time.
Even though he had pleaded with his father to promise me, the childhood sweetheart,§
to his son- it still wasn’t enough to stop the same tragedy from repeating.W
“It was just a petty trick played by a rich girl desperate to become Mrs. Alcott. The Alcott Family took care of it a long time ago. This–this is the evidence she used to bribe the media.“{
Haryant handed over a folder.
Inside were detailed records. how that woman had bribed journalists, how she had laced something with drugs- only for me to mistakenly consume it instead.
In the end, her scheme backfired completely. Not only did she fail to trap anyone, but she was also banished from Junaria by the Alcott Family.!!
Thayer seemed to see me again in a daze. I was crying pitifully, clutching his sleeve, pleading my innocence over and over again, but he stubbornly refused to believe me. Swallowing the blood that surged up his throat, Thayer continued to ask his questions.
