Chapter 8
I slowly rolled down the car window and glanced at him casually.
Over the past few years, he’d endured so much hardship that his once–smooth skin had become dry and rough from the wind.
Without money for skincare, his face was covered in stubble, making him look well over thirty.
To avoid gossip, I didn’t dare speak with him much.
“Do you regret your choice now?”
I’ll admit I had a vindictive streak–the humiliation of that broken engagement at the party still haunted me.
My family had even paid a fortune for a therapist to help me get over that shadow.
So when he nodded in humiliation, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“That’s not right. Didn’t you want to pursue true love? Didn’t you long for freedom? Now you have everything you wanted.
Besides, you used to despise rich people the most, thinking they were all dirty and corrupt. Being broke should suit you perfectly, shouldn’t it?”
Xavier gripped the car window tightly, as if it were his last lifeline.
The cold wind howled past, making me shiver involuntarily as his disheveled hair whipped wildly in the breeze.
His last shred of dignity scattered with the wind.
Suddenly, Xavier looked at me and began apologizing profusely.
“I’m sorry for my impulsiveness back then. I was too young and foolish, but you’re a generous person. Please give me another chance, okay?
We can get engaged again. Once I take over the Harris family, I’ll never mistreat you. You just need to be my wife peacefully.
I promise to cut all ties with Zoe completely and never let you suffer any grievance again.”
He banged his forehead against the car window, embedding small stones into his flesh as drops of blood seeped out.
I couldn’t bear to watch anymore and quickly rolled up the
window.
Fearing I was about to leave, he scrambled to his feet and tried to reach through the window to grab me.
Startled, I quickly locked the car doors, staring at him through
the dark tinted glass.
“You’re not worthy.
I don’t understand who gave you the courage to say these things.
Back then, you swore to break off our engagement and even humiliated me publicly.
Now that you can’t survive, you want me to help you and get engaged again.
What do you think you are?
Do you think I’d marry a bastard like you?
Why? Just because you’re shameless?”
Xavier’s face flushed red with desperation. “I really regret it. I regret not cherishing you back then.
It’s all that bitch’s fault! She ruined me like this. I was wrong.”
“So what?” I asked coldly with a sneer.
“I don’t care what happened between you two or why you ended up like this, because I stopped caring about you long ago.
This is the price you have to pay for your stupidity back then.”
With that, I drove away in my new Maserati, leaving Xavier shivering in the cold wind.
He chased after the car like a madman, desperately trying to outrun my vehicle, looking completely deranged.
I sighed deeply, unable to bear watching him suffer anymore, so out of pity, I contacted a mental hospital for him.
However, I never expected that my act of kindness would only make his already difficult life even harder.
Later, I moved away from that neighborhood and started a new life.
Five years passed in the blink of an eye, and now I was married with a loving husband and an adorable daughter.
One day, while watching TV with my daughter, I unexpectedly saw Xavier on a legal education program after not seeing him for so long.
He was holding a cleaver in each hand, cornering three strangers at the edge of a rooftop.
In the footage, a pregnant woman looked skeletal, and two elderly people appeared disheveled–I could almost smell their sour stench through the screen.
“You ruined my life! I want you all to go to hell with me!
I’m a wealthy young master of the Harris family–everyone called me a genius. My life shouldn’t be like this.
I should have graduated from college smoothly, married my fiancée, inherited the family business, and had children.
Instead, you’ve been ordering me around like an animal, treating me terribly!
But it doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t want to endure, this miserable life any longer. I’m sending you all to hell right now!”
With that, Xavier lunged at the three people frantically. Even though the police injected him with a tranquilizer as quickly as possible, the momentum carried all four of them over the edge.
My daughter and I screamed in unison. Then the camera switched to show the safety airbags that had been set up below.
All four people landed safely on the protective cushions. Though they all fell unconscious, they ultimately survived.
The host of the legal program began speaking earnestly to the
audience.
“Although all four people who fell survived, the woman who was seven months pregnant unfortunately miscarried.
The other three became vegetative and permanently paralyzed
from the waist down.
Impulse is the devil. Only by controlling our emotions can we protect our family’s happiness.
We must believe that no matter what setbacks we face, as long as we hold onto hope, we will eventually…”
The TV continued playing, but my daughter hugged my arm tightly and pointed at the screen with her little finger,,asking innocently, “Mommy, will this man regret doing this?”
I looked deeply at my daughter and gently shook my head.
“I don’t know, but I remember this man once firmly told me when he was seventeen that he would never regret it.”
couldn’t help but fall into contemplation. “If time could turn back, would Xavier make the same choice again?”
The answer remains unknown.
After all, there’s never a way back in life.
[The End.]
