Chapter 258
[ 511 words ]
Chapter 258:
Had all his gentleness and deception over the past few days been for my sake, or had it all been to protect the woman who had driven Harold to his death?
The minutes passed one by one, while the late afternoon light stretched long, misshapen shadows across the cold floor through the windows.
A little after three in the afternoon, the front door opened.
Ethan had returned.
𝖲𝖺ve 𝗒𝗈u𝗋 𝖿а𝘃𝗈𝘳𝗂𝘁𝖾 ո𝗼𝗏е𝗅𝘀 o𝘯 𝗀𝘢ln𝘰v𝖾𝘭𝗌.𝘤𝗼𝘮
He looked far more drained than he had the day before, his eyes red-rimmed and his jaw rough with dark stubble.
The instant he saw me collapsed against the couch, he stopped, and worry passed across his face. He came toward me straight away, clearly meaning to carry me upstairs.
“Why are you down here? The doctor told you to stay in bed,” he said softly.
My tone was unnervingly even. “Ethan, I need to ask you something.”
He stilled, drew back the hand he had reached out, and settled onto the arm of the couch beside me. “Ask me. I’m here.”
I fixed my eyes on his, watching every faint change in his expression. “How did Harold truly die?”
His gaze shifted, and he clung to that weak excuse again. “I already explained it to you. He’d been sick for a long time, and after he was admitted to the hospital that last time, he never pulled through…”
“Stop!” I cut in, my voice sharp with heartbreak. “I’ll ask you once more. Before Harold died, did he talk to Ivy?”
A graveyard hush swallowed the room.
Ethan remained silent for so long that I began to think he would go on deceiving me.
In the end, he shut his eyes and gave the faintest nod, heavy with admission.
In that instant, the strain that had been wound tight around my heart since morning finally broke.
Burning tears spilled from my eyes at once.
Nancy had been telling the truth.
Because of me, Harold had tried to send Ivy away, hoping to keep my crumbling marriage with Ethan from falling apart completely.
But that deranged woman had stomped on the last bit of hope he had left with the poison in her mouth.
Harold had gone to his death drowning in fury and grief, burdened by guilt toward me and hopelessness over what had become of my marriage.
“Do you regret any of it?” I looked at Ethan through violent sobs, my whole body trembling. “Do you regret marking me? Do you regret letting Harold spend his final moments worrying about us?”
Ethan reached toward my face to brush away my tears, his voice breaking as he spoke. “Lianne, I’m sorry… I was the one who caused this. I never should have hidden the truth from you…”
“Don’t touch me!” I shoved his hand away with all my strength, my eyes brimming with hatred that had sunk deep into my bones. “Ethan, this was not just you. It was both of us. You kept standing in front of Ivy to protect her, and I kept refusing to let go of this absurd relationship. Harold died because of both of us!”
I swiped my tears away hard, forcing myself back under control.
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