Chapter 483

Tonight, Silverlake Harbor was ablaze with lights, and the town was destined for a sleepless night.

Emeric, a passionate collector, was in a towering rage this evening, smashing a few antique vases worth millions to pieces. In an instant, priceless porcelain lay in ruins on the floor!

Three ladies stood rigidly before Emeric. Myra clung to Suri’s hand in panic, while Aviana’s heart was in turmoil.

“So you all knew.”

Emeric trembled all over, rage boiling in his veins, You all knew and kept it from me for three years, a whole three years?!”

“Emeric, we kept it from you because we didn’t want to see you suffer, to be heartbroken.”

Suri tried to speak calmly, her voice low, “Your health hasn’t been good these past few years, Such news would have been too much for you to bear.” Emeric, towering and imposing, swayed and then bitterly laughed, pointing at them with eyes full of fury, “You, what a way to please me, keeping Evadne and Thaddeus’s marriage from me? Her honor ruined, and you kept it from me? This is what you call for my own good?!

“Emeric! Don’t take it wrong; that’s not what Suri meant!”

Myra tried to hold back tears and explain for Suri, but Emeric interrupted her with a harsh tone, “Ha, of course, after all, you’re not her birth mother; how could you truly care for Evadne? All those times you played the happy family in front of me, was it all just an act? If she’s not born of you, how could you possibly cherish her!”

“Emeric! How can you say that?!”

Aviana, with a fierce glare and narrow eyes, stepped in front of them, and was promptly held back by Suri, “I’ve been with you for nearly twenty years, and Suri and Myra have been with the Ashbourne family even longer! Pretending for a year or two is one thing, but who could keep up such a facade for twenty years? Evadne can no longer bear children; do you think we don’t feel that pain?! We were more heartbroken than you when we found out.” As she spoke, Aviana, a woman who hardly ever shed tears, even when she took two bullets to save Emeric and almost lost her life, only bled and never wept, was now overcome with grief, crying a river.

“When Evadne had that accident, fearing that you, that the Abernathy family would replace out, she hid in a small clinic in Elmsworth for a whole month. During that month, it was the three of us who took turns caring for her. To cure her, Suri even went back to the Bright family, kneeling at the doorstep begging Mr. Bright to treat Evadne.”

Emeric’s pupils contracted sharply, his heart clenched tight.

He knew Suri, knew she had severed ties with the Bright Group, always prideful and untainted by the world. Yet for Evadne, she had knelt before them – what strength of spirit it must have taken, a pain more unbearable than death itself.

“We know it’s wrong to keep this from you. But back then, besides hiding it for Evadne, we had no better solution.”

Myra couldn’t help but cry as well, “Emeric, what’s the use of being angry now? Even if you drive us all away, what Evadne has lost can’t be restored.”

How can it not be restored?! I don’t believe it!

A roar shattered the heavy atmosphere.

Arnold, eyes bloodshot and filled with murderous intent, burst in, Cassius right behind him, fearing his usually hot–headed younger brother might do something drastic.

“I’ll resign. I’ll quit! I’ll take Evadne all over the world to seek treatment. I’ll take her to get cured!”

Arnold’s eyes were red with tears, a portrait of heartbreak and defiance, “I refuse to believe. with such advanced médical science, that Evadne can’t be healed!”

“Arnold, don’t be rash!”

Cassius held his shaking shoulders firmly, “The district attorney’s office is the dream you’ve worked for all your life; you can’t just give that up!”

“But Evadne.”

“We, and the ladies, will replace a way for Evadne. And Debby and her husband, they hold high positions and have their own connections abroad; they might be able to replace better doctors for Evadne than we can here. She will get better, she must.”

Cassius struggled to hold back his tears, but by the last few words, he was choked with emotion.

“What can I do?“,

Arnold was panic–stricken; for the first time in the thirty years, he got so panicked. He paced back and forth, muttering to himself.

“Fine, then I’ll go and finish Thaddeus!

He turned to run out but was fiercely held back by Cassius.

“Enough! That’s enough!”

The broken, hoarse voice pierced everyone’s heart. They looked up to see Evadne standing stiffly halfway up the spiral staircase, her usually radiant face now pale and lifeless, devoid of its former vitality. The sight was heart–wrenching for all.

“It’s been three years; the past is nearly three years gone! I’ve long stopped caring! Why do you keep bringing it up; why do you keep talking about it!”

Evadne’s eyes were a furious red, nearly hysterical, “Does a woman have to have children? Can’t I live without them?! I don’t like children. I hate children!! never wanted them, never! I forbid you from troubling Thaddeus again; the kid’s loss has nothing to do with him! It was an accident!”

“Where is the butler? Mr. Lyle?! Didn’t I tell you to keep her in her room and not let her out?!”

Emeric, holding back tears, roared, “Take her back to her room!

“I want to go back to Elmsworth! I want to see Thaddeus!

“You can dream on! Over my dead b*dy will you see that beast again!”

Father and daughter, who had shared laughter and anger for the better part of a lifetime, were now bitterly torn apart.

Tears glistened in Evadne’s eyes as she stared blankly for a moment before bursting into a hollow laugh, “Emeric, are you truly so heartless? You’ve had your string of flings, and all I’ve ever wanted was Thaddeus. You are still not allowing it, aren’t you?”

“Evadne.” Cassius felt a pang in his chest, seeing his sister so emotionally unstable.

“And are you not afraid of the day when a father buries his child?

The room gasped in shock, the ladies clapping hands over their mouths in horror.

“Evadne! Don’t! That unfaithful Thaddeus isn’t worth it!” Arnold blurted out, his words tumbling over each other in panic.

“Ha, you think you’re scaring everyone, Evadne?Emeric narrowed his eyes, his jaw clenched tight, though his heart ached so fiercely it made it hard to breathe, “I know my child better than anyone. You wouldn’t dare end it all. If you really wanted to die, you had plenty of chances – when you lost your baby, when Thaddeus divorced you. You think I’ll soften now?”

Evadne nearly ground her teeth to dust.

Emeric had hit the nail on the head; she wasn’t going to end her life, she was just trying to scare him. And the old man wasn’t budging an inch. This time, Emeric was truly fed up with her antics.

“Slow down. My time on this earth is short enough as it is. I might not be able to even wear shoes by myself again after today. And you, you want to go before me? I doubt it.”

“Dad, stop it! You know Evadne doesn’t mean it. Why say such hurtful things?” Cassius’s eyes dripped with disquietude; he was unable to stand the sight of them hurting each other.

Inside, Emeric’s heart was breaking, but his voice was cold and harsh, “For some worthless man, she’s willing to turn her back on her own father. Why should I care about her feelings?

In the end, Evadne was dragged back home. Her room was locked, and her cell phone confiscated – she was cut off from everyone.

The whole Ashbourne family was stirred into action. Had it not been for her brothers racing back to be by her side, Thaddeus might have faced a global manhunt!

After a fiery argument, Emeric was spent, leaning heavily on Cassius and Arnold as they helped him back to his room

“If either of you so much as thinks about defending him, save your breath and get out!”

Arnold was so angry he could have bitten through steel, “Defend him? I’m not the one with a decade–long blood clot in my brain!”

Cassius, with a cool furrow of his brow, said, “You’re overthinking it. I have no such intention.”

“Hmph, at least you have a shred of conscience.”

Then, with a thunderous boom – a lightning bolt lit up the night as bright as day.

Emeric looked out the window, seething, “If there’s any justice, a bolt should strike down that bastard!”

Cassius and Arnold exchanged a speechless look.

“Chairman Ashbourne!”

Dylan rushed over, drenched in sweat, “Chairman Ashbourne, Mr. Thaddeus Abernathy is here: He’s at the front gate right now!”

The Ashbourne men were taken aback.

The storm in Skyrim that evening was more ferocious than in Elmsworth. Thaddeus stood unwavering before the closed gates of Silverlake Harbor, his suit buffeted by the howling wind, a chill seeping into his very bones.

He had called Evadne countless times, to no avail – she had switched her phone off. He was there, consumed by a bitter mix of guilt and remorse, desperately wanting to see her, yet feeling a great void of despair pulling at his heart, as if it were plummeting into an abyss.

Would he never get the chance to see her again? Drenched to the bone, Thaddeus waited until his phone’s last sliver of battery died, not knowing what he was waiting for.

Then, through the rain–purified air, came the sound of heavy boot steps. Thaddeus instinctively looked up, his heart contracting at the sight a gun barrel pointed right between his eyes.

Thaddeus, you’ve caused my sister so much pain; you deserve to be shot dead.”

There stood Bennett, with the grim beauty of a soldier – his right hand gripping the gun, the brim of his army cap dripping with rainwater, adding a cruel edge to his angry eyes.

“Evadne was our princess, and because of you, her life is in ruins!”

Bennett’s voice roared through the rain, the marksman whose hands never shook was trembling now, his grip on the gun unsteady, “What can you offer as restitution? Your life seems fitting!”

Thaddeus’s eyes were the color of ash, void of any desire to resist. Death held no fear for him. His only fear was that his love for Evadne would be forever unfulfilled.

“Bennett, what in God’s name do you think you’re doing?!”

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