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Deep Love, Lost in the End
NovelShort
Hoàn thành
The year Sophie James cheated, I spent a fortune buying compromising photos and posting them online, utterly destroying her reputation. To take revenge on me, Sophie plotted to strip me of everything ...
Chương (4)
第1章
The year Sophie James had her affair, I spent a fortune buying compromising photos and putting them online, ruining Sophie’s reputation.
To get back at me, Sophie plotted to have me sign a divorce settlement, threatening:
"As long as Seaside City has me,
You will never be able to come back."
I was forced to go abroad.
For five whole years, no one in Seaside City remembered that Sophie’s ex-husband was Liam Carter; they only knew Sophie’s true love was Ethan King.
But now, I was holding an invitation to an event in Seaside City, laughing as I turned to the people around me.
"Why don't I go in your place?"
After all,
Some things
Should be personally dealt with to finally draw a conclusion.
As I was about to enter the venue, a black Maybach pulled up in front of me. The person who got out blocked my way.
"Why are random people allowed in?"
The man’s eyes fell on me, smiling.
"Five years without seeing you, and I thought you really had the guts to die outside. But, it looks like…" He twirled his fingernails, "You can’t survive and want to come back begging for mercy?"
"Liam Carter."
Ethan King grabbed a business bag and threw it at me.
"How about you beg me a little, beg me, and I’ll see if anyone will still look at you." His eyes scanned me from bottom to top, landing on my face. "This! Crap—"
Before he could finish, I grabbed Ethan’s bag and smashed it hard over his head, pulling his hair and slamming his face into the car door with a loud thud. My blood boiled with uncontrollable excitement.
"Ethan King, five years ago, the one who called me Mr. Carter, begging me to take you in..." I leaned close to his ear, chuckling. "What happened? Did five years make you forget who’s the master and who’s the dog?"
"Or maybe, after crawling into Sophie James' bed and being ridiculed by the whole internet, you forgot what it means to have any shame?"
"Since that’s the case," I patted Ethan’s face, "Let me teach you."
I grabbed his hair again, swinging the bag back.
"You psycho!"
Ethan screamed.
Bodyguards rushed forward and grabbed my wrist, shouting.
"Who do you think you are?"
Someone grabbed my wrist and started pulling me away, and as they did, my scarred wrist was touched. I winced in pain but smiled louder. "Five years gone, and you’ve raised a bunch of loyal dogs!"
I turned, landing a punch in one bodyguard's face and kicking another in the groin. Watching them wince in pain, I snatched the baton from one of the bodyguards and walked toward Ethan.
"Ethan King,"
I weighed the baton in my hand, smiling at him.
"Forgot to tell you."
I lifted the baton.
"Now that I’m back, I don’t plan on letting you go."
I swung the baton down, and just as I did, I heard Ethan scream, "Liam Carter!"
"Sophie won’t let you off!"
"Sophie won’t let you off!"
"Sophie!"
The baton was snatched away, and before I could react, I heard Ethan’s almost desperate cry, "Sophie, save me! Sophie!"
"Five years!"
"Five years, and she still wants to kill me!"
"Save me!"
The baton was pulled forcefully away, and before I could understand what happened, I fell into a warm embrace. The person’s scent surrounded me quickly, sending a shiver down my spine, and their voice rang in my ears, calm and measured.
"Liam Carter."
"Five years gone," Sophie James' hands gripped my neck, meeting my gaze. "And you’re still this rash."
"Five years ago."
I looked into this face I hadn’t seen in five years, the same flawless face I’d seen in interviews, and all I felt was disgust.
第2章
"You still haven’t learned what you should and shouldn’t do?"
"Mm?"
With Sophie James was a group of business partners for this event, all of them standing a few steps away, none daring to come closer. They all watched as Sophie gripped my neck, speaking each word slowly.
"Apologize to Ethan King, beg for his forgiveness."
Her lips curled into a slight smile, the same as when she threw a plane ticket in my face five years ago.
"I won’t hold your sudden return against you."
My blood ran cold.
The baton clattered to the ground as she casually tossed it, the sound as clear as five years ago.
I vividly remembered the day I caught Sophie cheating, red-eyed, demanding an explanation. She had simply held Ethan in her arms and warned me.
"Ethan is different from you."
"He’s timid, don’t scare him."
"Liam, we’ve been together for so long, long enough that I can’t find passion with you anymore. As long as you behave, the position of my husband is always yours. If you ever harm Ethan, I will take your life."
Back then, I didn’t understand.
I thought Sophie loved me. I was certain of the bond we had through all those years of struggle, building everything from scratch together. I hired a private detective, got the compromising photos, and blasted them all over the internet. No matter how much they spent to suppress the trending topics, it couldn’t beat the price I was willing to pay to make Sophie and Ethan pay.
As I expected, Ethan was expelled from school, thoroughly disgraced.
But it also came at a great cost to me.
I still remember the day Sophie forced me to sign the divorce settlement, her voice as cold as ice.
"Your brother’s life is in your hands."
"Liam."
"How will you choose?"
Now,
"Sophie James."
"Five years gone," I met Sophie’s mocking face, smiling a smile worse than hers. "So, this is your way of catching up with an old lover?"
"If that’s the case, I’ve got a big gift for you."
I stabbed a knife into Sophie’s abdomen, watching her stunned face as I twisted the knife, feeling the blood stick to my hand. My smile grew wider.
"Sophie James."
"Do you like it?"
"If you do," I pulled the knife out, stabbing it again as Sophie grabbed the blade, cutting her palm. She seemed unaware of the pain, gripping the blade tightly, smiling back at me.
"Liam Carter, five years gone, and you’re still—"
"Good job."
Sophie kicked me in the chest, snatched the knife from my hand, and looked down at me.
"So eager to take my life."
"Sophie James," she stepped in front of me, pressing her foot into my wrist. The old scars on my wrist burned, making me wince. But I heard her say, "It’s a pity, I rule Seaside City."
"If you want my life," Sophie bent down and threw the knife at my feet, "You’re not qualified."
Ethan King rushed at us, crying like a madman, his tears flooding as he yelled at me.
"Liam Carter!"
"Five years ago, you designed those compromising photos to ruin my future, and now you want to harm me and Sophie? Sophie’s kind-heartedness let you off, just sending you away. How could you be so malicious? So malicious that you still want Sophie’s life!"
Ethan sobbed, blocking Sophie’s body, like a rooster protecting its chick, not caring about his image as he screamed.
"If I’d known, I would have never let you hurt Sophie when I softened my heart!"
"I swear I’ll—"
第3章
"You’re going to die!"
The little beggar who once begged me to take him in.
The rural child that Sophie James despised so much she wouldn't even spare him a glance is now an upper-class person who can yell at me without hesitation.
I watched Ethan King and then turned to Sophie James, whose softened gaze at Ethan King made me laugh aloud, clapping for them in praise.
"Actually," I smiled at Ethan King and Sophie James, "you two really suit each other."
"There's a saying, how does it go?"
I thought for a moment.
Then, I realized.
"Trash matches with a dog, what's it called again?" I looked at Sophie James, whose face had fallen: "Eternal love, hahaha."
"Isn't that right, Sophie?"
"Hahaha."
"You're asking for death!"
Sophie pushed Ethan away and tried to rush at me, but it gave me time to react. I grabbed the knife from the ground and lunged at Sophie James. The knife plunged deep into Ethan King's body, and as I saw Sophie’s expression crack, the calm person she once was lost control, screaming.
"Ethan!"
"Ethan!"
Ethan King turned pale, collapsing into Sophie James’s arms. His eyes remained soft, stroking her face, gazing at her with deep affection.
"Sophie."
"I’ve protected you."
"Sophie..."
Ethan King lost consciousness, and Sophie James, now out of her mind, lifted Ethan King and shouted, "Doctor!"
"Where’s the doctor?"
Before Sophie James rushed Ethan to the hospital, she turned to meet my gaze, filled with murderous intent.
"Liam Carter!"
"There’s something I wanted to tell you five years ago," Sophie James said, her eyes bloodshot as she looked at me. "Before you signed the divorce papers, I should have told you your brother was still alive."
"I lied to you."
Sophie turned away, leaving me with those words.
"Your brother had already died long before you signed the papers."
"Sign."
"All I wanted was for you to leave Seaside City."
Thunder rumbled across the sky.
Lightning split the clouds, and I thought I heard my brother’s weak voice calling me, "Big Brother," just before I saw the truck racing toward me. My brother pushed me out of the way with all his strength, then collapsed under the truck, his eyes soft as he reached out toward me, calling out to me.
"Big Brother."
"It hurts," I crawled desperately to my brother’s side, holding him as I neared breaking, but my brother gently gripped my hand and said, "But I protected you."
"It was worth it."
That day, I lost my only close relative in this world.
My brother fell into a deep sleep, forever separated from me by the thick hospital door, as Sophie James dragged me, throwing me outside the room. She pointed to the brother lying asleep in the room, asking.
"Liam, do you know why your brother ended up there?"
"Wasn't it because he saw the compromising photos?"
"Liam, did you ever think that before you hurt me, the one you hurt the most was your own brother?"
"Liam, sign the papers."
Sophie James threw me to the ground.
It felt as though all my strength had been drained, and I collapsed, staring at the agreement. I heard Sophie say, "Sign the papers, and I guarantee your brother won’t die."
"As long as you agree to leave Seaside City, I’ll promise to take care of your brother."
But later.
I had just boarded the plane when I received a video from Ethan King. In the video, my brother was hastily buried, without even a proper gravestone, and Ethan’s voice was filled with mockery.
"Liam, this is what happens when you cross me."
第4章
"The car accident was never an accident," Ethan’s voice pierced my heart, and the sharp vines of pain grew in my chest, twisting with every word: "It was just Sophie’s way of teaching you a lesson, but she didn’t expect your brother would risk his life for you."
"Who’s to blame?"
"Blame yourself."
I went mad, trying to rush off the plane, wanting to return to Seaside City, but I realized the cabin was already filled with Sophie’s eyes watching me.
I couldn't escape the plane, I couldn't return to Seaside City.
I spent five years abroad.
Five long years.
I watched those vines grow into a towering tree, and with every breath I took, the pain nearly suffocated me. I didn’t expect the signature to be a lie as well. I wanted to rush at Sophie James, but I was pinned to the ground by bodyguards, helplessly watching as Sophie hugged Ethan King and left.
I screamed in madness.
"Sophie!"
"I’ll make you pay!"
"Sophie! I will kill you!"
"I will kill you!"
Countless bystanders laughed and mocked: "He’s just a madman! Who doesn’t know that in Seaside City, Miss James calls the shots!"
"I heard about that incident," one person whispered. "They say Miss James took care of Liam Carter’s brother in the harshest way—grinding him to dust after he crossed her. Ethan even did a live stream about it."
My head rang with a buzz.
I heard someone say,
"Wow, grinding him to dust? So ruthless?"
"Otherwise, what? Miss James said, whoever made Ethan unhappy, she’d make them a hundred times more miserable, even if it’s her own husband."
"But Miss James made her fortune thanks to her ex-husband, didn’t she?"
The voices grew fainter.
Heavy rain poured down.
I was drenched in the downpour, as though the world itself had turned into a storm. The mocking words—grinding to dust, the live stream—looped in my phone, and Ethan's voice from five years ago echoed.
"I don’t want Sophie to love me this much, but Sophie said, anyone who crosses her will pay ten times more."
The box with my brother’s ashes was easily opened.
I hoarsely screamed, "No!"
But no one heard.
I had no choice but to watch as the box was cruelly opened, and Sophie James tossed a handful of ashes into the air. It felt like my brother’s warmth, the warmth replacing the cold rain, giving me a painful sense of warmth.
"No!"
I screamed, madly, "Please, don’t do this to my brother!"
The ringtone yanked me back to reality, and through my tears, I cried to the person on the other end, "I will have my revenge! I will make Sophie pay! I want Ethan dead! I want them both dead!"
Ethan, however, wasn’t really badly hurt. He was just pretending to be weak, wanting Sophie’s attention. He looked at her, not caring about his own wounds, just to stay with her, and smiled.
"Sophie."
"After this is over, let’s get married, okay?"
Even after five years.
Sophie lavished him with all her love, but she wouldn’t give him a formal title. No matter how much he begged, he could never get that recognition.
He held Sophie’s hand.
"I don’t want to miss this."
"Sophie," Ethan’s voice cracked, "I just want the right to stand by your side officially."
Ethan acted like a bird in her arms, softening Sophie’s heart. Before she could reply, I kicked open the hospital room door.
Covered in blood, dirt staining my clothes, and the knife in my hand, I met Sophie’s stunned face as I heard her speak.
"You really won’t die—"
My heart couldn’t finish speaking.