Chapter 10
“You insisted on tide-pooling at midnight and got your foot cut by coral. I carried you three kilometers back to the hotel. You clung to my back whispering, ‘Elijah, I want you to spoil me like this forever.””
“Last New Year’s Eve, you promised we’d chase the northern and southern lights together. This Lunar New Year…” His voice cracked.
Tears splattered on the floor, abandoning his polished executive facade. “You talked about having a child with my eyes.”
“Maybe you forgot why I gave you ‘True Love Heart.’ After watching Titanic, you pointed at the Heart of the Ocean necklace, saying you wanted a timeless symbol of love. I flew straight to London and camped at Jiashide Auction House for three days…”
“The girl I’ve cherished with all my heart…” His bloodshot eyes locked onto mine. “Are you really leaving me?”
I shook my head slowly.
“Elijah, you remember so much, yet conveniently forget how much I hate being lied to.”
It reminded me of how Gerald had lied to my mother her whole life, lied until she died.
Elijah’s eyes turned bloodshot as he roared in despair:
“Sophia, for the baby’s sake! Give me one last chance! I’m the biological father!”
I drew a deep breath before finally saying:
“You don’t deserve to mention this child. If not for Larry, we’d have lost the baby long ago.”
Elijah froze, clearly bewildered by my words.
“Move. My wife gets sick at the sight of trash.”
Suddenly Larry swept me off my feet, cradling me securely into the car’s backseat.
INE
Larry’s tall frame pressed down immediately.
Outside the car window, Elijah frantically beat against the glass.
Larry ignored it, his tongue prying open my lips to deepen the kiss.
“Don’t get distracted,” he rasped, “just think of me.”
I marveled at the tenderness hidden beneath that kiss.
His scorching breath steadied before he volunteered an explanation.
“What if I said I’ve waited since your eighteenth coming-of-age ceremony for you to glance my way? Believe me?”
My heart skipped a beat.
Back then, he’d attended as a guest-aloof and detached throughout.
I only recalled him rejecting my toast, murmuring young girls shouldn’t drink.
“So all these years you’ve been…
11
His lips grazed my ear. “Waiting for a chance. Waiting for you to need me.”
Rain began pelting the car window again.
But this time, someone held an umbrella for me.
Elijah kept downing one drink after another.
Until the butler handed him Katia’s phone.
Only then did Elijah realize his affair with Katia had been exposed long ago.
The butler even pulled up surveillance footage from that small hospital.
I lay on the ground, covered in blood, being shoved, splashed with water, insulted…
While he was vacationing with Katia in the Maldives.
“The doctor said Miss Sophia didn’t have a single cent on her at the time…”
He has never been so acutely aware of how ridiculous and foolish he was.
He always thought he was pampering Sophia, believing himself to be the one giving her the greatest happiness.
But the truth?
He personally drove that mother and daughter to ruin!
зара
Boundless regret and hatred drowned Elijah.
“Bring Katia here,” he ordered through clenched teeth.
