"I'll keep the promise I made you. I will have this baby safely."
The more Evelyn thought about it, the more absurd the whole situation seemed. Still, she had no intention of burning her bridges.
But that didn't mean she wanted to get any more involved with Ryan Sterling than she had to.
In fact, she didn't need Julian to remind her of what he'd just said; Evelyn was already well aware of it herself!
The Ryan Sterling of today was no longer the childish prankster who loved to tease her.
His overseas investment firm, Z&L, was constantly making business headlines. Even Evelyn, all the way back home, couldn't avoid hearing about it.
Just as Julian had said, with his current assets and handsome face, there was surely an endless line of women wanting to be with Ryan Sterling.
'I won't let myself have any such fantasies!'
Right now, she just wanted to work hard, make money, and give her mother and brother a better life.
"'You'll keep it?'" Ryan Sterling challenged, seizing on the flaw in her statement. "How can you guarantee that? What is your word worth?"
"..."
"I'm giving you two choices. Either you do as you're told, pack your things, and move in with me, or I'll tell everyone about us."
Evelyn's eyes widened, her brow furrowing. "Telling people won't do you any good either!"
"Don't you worry about that. This wouldn't be the first time I've cut off my nose to spite my face." He smirked. "Choose."
"..."
'What kind of choice is that?'
...
After driving away, Julian didn't want to go back to the old family house to get chewed out again, so he just drove aimlessly.
The night wind was exceptionally cold, lashing against his face like it wanted to pierce his skin.
He lost track of how long he'd been driving, but in the end, as if on autopilot, he pulled up to the house he had shared with Evelyn during their marriage.
Number 129, Siren's Cove.
This was the one place Julian never wanted to return to.
If not for his mother's nightly video check-ins, he would have preferred to lie about working overtime and just spend the night at the office.
Julian had moved out the day Evelyn was arrested, so now, only her belongings were left in the villa.
The little knickknacks she loved to buy, her clothes neatly folded in the closet, and...
On the bathroom counter were her toothbrush, her towel, her wooden comb, her hair tie.
Julian's hand stiffened.
Suddenly, he swept all of it into the trash can!
"You're the one who ruined my life! And you still try to argue your way out of it!"
But just throwing those things out wasn't enough. Julian tore through the house, throwing out her clothes, everything in her storage cabinet, and even a succulent that had withered from lack of water, tossing it out pot and all!
Until—
He opened the refrigerator and saw it was full of hangover remedies and stomach-soothing soups, all carefully packaged in individual bags by Evelyn.
The fire in Julian's dark eyes died in an instant, leaving them dim and hollow.
After a long pause, not knowing how to heat it up, he just grabbed a bag from the refrigerator and started drinking it cold.
The familiar taste flooded his senses. It wasn't bitter in the slightest. If anything, it had a subtle, sweet aftertaste.
He was more than halfway through the bag before he snapped back to his senses, throwing the rest of that soup—and all the others—out with a vengeance!
"I love Jane! Only Jane! If Evelyn hadn't chosen me back then, Jane never would have ended up like that! She wouldn't have died! We should be the ones living happily together right now!"
"That's right, it's all Evelyn's fault! Her being nice to me was just her trying to atone for her sins! How can I go soft on her? I can't let her get away with it!"