Chapter 223
Valerie recoiled in disgust, struggling violently against him. “Don’t touch me!”
Aiden, as if provoked, pinned her down heavily, gritting his teeth as he loomed closer. “You won’t let me touch you? Yet you were getting all cozy with that pretty boy!”
Valerie let out a bitter laugh. “It was just a coincidence running into him!”
“A coincidence?” Aiden let out a cold, mocking laugh, his large hand gripping Valerie’s chin painfully, making her wince and instinctively struggle. “What are the odds, running into your ex in this foreign land, laughing together at a street food stall? Really?”
Valerie gritted her teeth and sneered. “Yeah, what a coincidence! Seems fate just loves throwing us together!”
“Fate?” Aiden scoffed coldly, reaching out to place his hand on her abdomen. “Then what about this baby? Is it your fate with him, or with me?”
Valerie stiffened slightly before realizing he was talking about the fake pregnancy she had casually mentioned. With a mocking laugh, she said, “There’s no fate with anyone. I was never pregnant. That was all a lie.”
Aiden’s face darkened abruptly. “Fate? Have you forgotten whose wife you are? Whose woman are you?”
Valerie was forced to meet Aiden’s menacing gaze, her nose stinging as tears streamed down her face. “Yeah, that’s right! Nelson and I were in love. If it weren’t for you, we never would’ve ended up like this. You barged in and stole me away, you…” Before she could finish, Aiden abruptly cut her off.
Aiden pinned her down with overwhelming force, silencing all her protests.
Valerie fumed inwardly, ‘How dare this man do whatever he pleases! And now he has the nerve to act like nothing happened!‘
Valerie’s nose stung with emotion as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks once again.
Aiden wrapped his arms around her and murmured softly, “I’m exhausted today, too.”
Valerie curled her lips in disdain.
‘Of course you’re tired, too busy with that other woman, aren’t you?‘ she thought bitterly.
Aiden, unaware of what she was thinking, murmured softly, “The project wasn’t going well. I didn’t get back until past ten.”
He gently brushed away her tears with a kiss and murmured, “As soon as I got back, I found another woman in our room.”
Valerie felt nothing but disgust.
She thought bitterly, ‘Does he really think I’d buy such a pathetic excuse?
‘Are you saying nothing happened with Sydney? Was she just putting
on a show all by herself in there?
‘Those heartfelt cries of “Aiden,” each one so sweetly vulnerable, even I, as a woman, could barely stand it, let alone you.’
Valerie pressed her lips tightly, refusing to speak.
Aiden gently kissed her cheek and said softly, “Then Kelly and I searched everywhere for you…”
Valerie shoved him away, her face cold. “I don’t want to hear it!” she snapped. “Nothing happened between me and that man!”
“I believe you,” Aiden blurted out without thinking. “I was just… angry, angry that you could smile so happily in front of him. At that moment, I just…
Aiden rarely explained himself to anyone, but now he longed to bare his heart to her, only to find the words stuck in his throat.
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Chapter 223
He opened his mouth as if to speak, but words failed him and he slumped weakly against her. In a broken whisper, he said, “I’m sick. When I was a suffered from severe manic episodes.”
Valerie stared at the ceiling, sniffing quietly.
She had always known about it.
In her previous life, at the Clark family;s party, when Aiden caught her embracing Nelson, he completely lost control and did something truly terrifying
He broke Nelson’s leg and locked her up.
But in this life, he had always seemed perfectly normal, so much so that Valerie had almost forgotten about his condition.
Aiden leaned against her and murmured softly, “I’ve never cheated on you…”
Valerie wanted no part of this conversation. She closed her eyes, pushed him away, and turned away from him. “I’m going to sleep now.”
A sharp pain stabbed through Aiden’s heart.
‘She doesn’t believe me,‘ he realized with painful clarity.
The thought pierced his mind like a steel needle, agonizingly deep.
Aiden grabbed Valerie’s hand, his head throbbing as if it might split open. Forcing the words out through the pain, he said, “I’ll pull up the hotel’s security footage for you, Valerie. I’m twenty–six years old, and you’re the only woman I’ve ever been with.”
AD
