Chapter 354 MY SWEET Cousin
After I explained everything to Lewis, it felt like a heavy stone had finally been lifted off my chest.
Keeping that secret from him had been eating at me for so long that I could barely breathe under it anymore. Lewis was not happy with how things turned out, but he looked like he had accepted it. At this point, there was nothing else we could do except move forward one step at a time.
It felt like all of this had already been written into our fate.
Lewis’s plan to exchange our lives had been exposed at the last moment, and I had stepped in and ruined it. In the end, nothing really changed. Fate was still fate. Some things could not be rewritten.
Maybe this was my destiny.
To die too soon in every lifetime.
I used to carry so many regrets, but after finding him again, all of those things felt small. Right now, we were still together, and for me, that was enough. The only regret left in my heart was that I might never have enough time to give Lewis a child.
I could not help wondering what our baby would have been like.
If I had been given more time, I would have wanted one. A child made from both of us. Something that would stay behind even if I could not.
When we returned to the living room, Amber had already gone back to her room to sleep. The family doctor was tending to Vito’s wounds. Whitney stood quietly beside a potted plant, looking lost in thought.
The sound of my footsteps pulled her back.
She turned the second she saw me, her eyes going straight to my wrist.
“Elena, you’re hurt, aren’t you?”
Her voice broke at once. “This happened because of me, didn’t it? How could you be so foolish? You cut yourself. What if something had happened to you? I wouldn’t want to live either.”
Whitney knew Amber too well. She knew someone like Amber would never let her go over a few simple words. If Amber had been easy to deal with, Whitney would not have spent twenty years trapped beside Vito.
Things that looked effortless were rarely effortless at all.
Someone always paid the price in silence.
Not wanting her to feel worse, I smiled gently and said, “It’s okay. It didn’t even hurt. I just accidentally nicked myself.”
Vito gave a cold laugh from nearby.
“You really went that far, didn’t you?”
I smiled back at him. “Not as far as you.”
He smirked. “Ha.”
“Ha-ha,” I returned.
The air between us turned sharp at once, like sparks were flying where our eyes met.
Then Yael’s timid voice broke through it.
“Elena, can you help me apply some ointment?”
I had nearly forgotten about him.
Before I could answer, Lewis flexed his wrist and said evenly, “Elena’s hand is injured. I’ll do it.”
I turned to look at him.
His fingers cracked softly, and the look in his dark eyes did not seem like the look of a man preparing to gently apply medicine. It looked more like he was planning to press salt into every wound instead.
Yael clearly sensed the danger too.
“That’s okay,” he said quickly. “No need.”
Lewis smiled faintly.
“Nonsense. We’re family. As your cousin, I should help my dear little cousin.”
The way he said cousin made a cold shiver run down my spine.
The whole thing felt ridiculous.
Lewis was really about to tend to Yael’s injuries while calling him his cousin with that tone?
He picked up the jar of ointment and walked toward Yael.
“Where are you hurt?”
Yael had only just started lifting his shirt when Lewis suddenly covered my eyes with one hand.
“Elena, be good and step outside. Don’t look at anything filthy.”
I almost laughed.
His jealousy was so petty it was cute.
“Okay,” I said obediently.
I took Whitney’s hand and led her out with me. She probably had a lot she wanted to say anyway.
The second we stepped outside, a loud, pained “Ouch!” rang out behind us.
I could not help wondering if Lewis had reopened Yael’s wounds on purpose just to teach him a lesson. Then I remembered the scene at the Gardner residence, when Lewis had sliced off someone’s finger without blinking.
Sometimes I forgot.
To me, Lewis was an angel.
To everyone else, he could be a demon.
Still, I hoped he would not go too far. Yael was pitiful in some ways. But then again, he had dragged me to that island, starved me for days, and made me kneel for an entire day.
A little suffering would not kill him.
I had always believed right was right and wrong was wrong.
As we walked down the hallway, Whitney kept looking at me with quiet sadness.
“Elena, this is all my fault, isn’t it?”
“It’s not your fault,” I said softly. “I chose this. Don’t be sad. A small injury for me is worth your freedom. That’s a fair trade.”
I did not tell her my time was already running out.
Being able to do something useful before the end was already a kind of victory. If I could save Whitney, then I would have no regrets.
She looked at me with red eyes.
“Elena, why did you walk into my life? I never wanted to drag you down with me.”
Still the same crybaby she had always been.
When she was little, she used to burst into tears over the smallest thing. Our brothers would take turns comforting her, but I had always been the one she clung to most, the one she listened to best.
But those days were gone now.
Out of our three brothers, only Greg was left. And as for me, I was no longer the sister she used to know.
I lifted my hand and stroked her cheek gently.
“Because I promised I would never let go of your hand again,” I said. “Whitney, you’re only twenty-five. You still have a long road ahead of you. Remember how happy you were watching that show that day? After the chip is removed, I want every day of your life to feel like that.”