Chapter 763

“Didn’t your conscience bother you while you were doing all this?” Alex White’s
voice was tight. “Your mother was always so proud of you-would she still be, if she knew what you’ve done? How could she hold her head high if the neighbors found out? Would she even let you stay her son?”
Matthew Ross suddenly doubled over, hands cuffed and clenched over his head, his voice breaking, the sound raw and desperate, like a wounded animal.
“Alex, please, stop… please just stop
Alex White gritted his teeth. “Matthew, you still have a chance to make this right.”
“I’ve already been disappointed by you once. Don’t make me go through that again.”
Matthew started to sob, his words trembling as he cried, “Please, Alex, just stop, I’m begging you
Alex stared at Matthew’s hunched figure, watching his chest rise and fall with each shaky breath. He forced down the storm of emotion inside him and sat back, his expression composed.
He gave Matthew a moment—a chance to accept what he’d done and find the courage to own up to it.
Five minutes passed in tense silence before Alex finally spoke. “Matthew, you weren’t always like this. You can still come back from this, can’t you?”
At those words, something in Matthew seemed to shatter. He buried his head in his arms and sobbed, his cries echoing through the stark visitation room.
The officer standing nearby hesitated but ultimately didn’t intervene.
Alex said quietly, “All you have to do is tell the truth, Matthew. If you do, I’ll believe there’s still something in you worth saving.”
“Don’t make me regret helping you.”
Matthew let out a strangled sound.
Ten more minutes passed before he managed to calm down, his sobs slowly subsiding.
“Alex, even if I confess, there’s no going back,” Matthew rasped. He lifted his head -the whites of his eyes shot through with red, his face a picture of ruin.
Alex’s brow furrowed in concern.
Matthew gave a bitter, hollow laugh. “Pathetic, isn’t it? After everything I tried, after all the scheming, I’m right back where I started. They’ve been expelled, and I’ve ruined my own future. I’ve lost everything.”
He looked at Alex, his voice empty. “Do you think I’m an idiot? Just as hopeless as everyone at school always said?”
Alex’s reply was cold. “You were an idiot.”
Matthew didn’t flinch-he just gave a weary, self-mocking smile.
“But you weren’t always that way at school.”
Matthew looked startled for a moment, then dropped his gaze.
After a pause, he spoke in a ragged whisper. “This wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t a misdiagnosis. I did it on purpose.”
The weight of his confession filled the room, shifting the burden from one person to both.
Alex fought to stay composed, struggling to keep the panic and tension from showing as he locked eyes with Matthew. Suspicions were one thing, but facing the truth was always something else entirely.
Matthew began, voice hollow. “Back at school, you brought Isabella Austin to meet us. That day, we exchanged numbers. On graduation day, Isabella reached out to me.”
Alex lowered his eyes, feeling as if someone had wrung his insides into a knot. The pain was so sharp, it drowned out even the aches from his old car accident.
He thought, defeated, so it really was her.
It really was Isabella Austin.
Oblivious to Alex’s turmoil, Matthew went on, “She offered me a deal. If I diagnosed that old woman with late-stage bone cancer and got her into treatment at the hospital, she’d help Brandon and Helen Ross go abroad for college-she’d cover all their tuition and living expenses. I hesitated at first