Chapter 8
“Am I supposed to be endlessly grateful to you?”
That night was seared into my memory, the humiliation carved into me like scars that refused to fade.
Being forced to bark like a dog, to lick food off the floor. To endure the relentless flashes of cameras capturing my shame Hands I couldn’t count, touching, grabbing, stripping me of every last ounce of dignity
And he thought stopping it at the end erased all of that?
“Just because you put an end to it, does that mean the damage never existed? Then, by that logic, 1 can make you kneel, make you bark like a dog, strip you of every shred of dignity and as long as I stop it at the end, it never happened, right?”
Arthur paled. His lips parted, but nothing came out. He stammered, struggling to string together a single coherent sentence.
“… I didn’t mean it like that…
“I just wanted to talk to you! We were together for four years. Are we really going to end things like this? Without any closure?”
I let out a quiet, humorless laugh.
“Or what? Should I keep enduring the humiliation from you, your so–called friends and your precious foster sister?”
Arthur knew exactly who spread that video. He had known all along.
Knowing he was in the wrong, his tone softened.
“I really didn’t know at first. When I found out later, that’s why I brought her to apologize to you.”
“Not necessary”
I cut him off without hesitation and turned to leave, but he wouldn’t let me go.
Edison, clearly irritated, stepped forward, ready to drive him away, but I stopped him. Some things needed to be settled once and for all; otherwise, they’d only fester into bigger problems.
Arthur looked at me, silently pleading for some dignity in front of Edison.
But had he ever spared me mine?
Realizing I wouldn’t offer him an escape, he gave in. In his version of the story, he painted himself as a victim, too.
“Isla is my foster sister. As her older brother, I’m supposed to take care of her.”
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And he did, spoiling her, handing her everything she wanted on a silver platter
But his so–called “care” had never been just that of a brother,
The only thing stopping him from crossing the line was his last shred of hesitation over their legal sibling status.
Isla had been brought into the Evans family at ten, their sibling bond, at least in the beginning, had been real.
“But I swear, after getting together with you, I only ever saw her as my sister!”
“And that day with the injection, you really went too far! You were supposed to be Isla’s future sister–in–law, yet the first time you met her, you made her apologize and made her cry. Wasn’t that humiliating for her?”
“Isla is stubborn and sensitive. If she didn’t get revenge, she would’ve made herself sick from holding it in. And that medicine, I checked online and it really could help you forget that night. That’s why I bought it.”
“As for the video being leaked, that was Isla’s doing. But your parents handled it, sealed the footage and even had her arrested. She nearly went to jail and it cost a fortune to settle everything. No matter what, shouldn’t you have let go of your anger by now? Beatrice, stop making a fuss, okay?”
He reached out his hand, expecting me to take it, just like I had countless times before.
Disgusting.
“When you left that day, I was really panicked. Completely lost.”
His gaze dropped as if dragging himself back to a memory too painful to face.
When Arthur realized I hadn’t forgotten that night, he completely lost control. He destroyed the hospital room, then went home and shattered everything in sight.
For someone who had never lost his temper before, that kind of madness must have been terrifying.
When he couldn’t find me, he called nonstop. I turned off my phone, so he paid to track me, my records and my location; he hunted me down without restraint.
