Chapter 9
At twenty years old, Aileen returned to the country without hesitation after Gerald said, “Ailey, the company is going bankrupt. I don’t know what to do.”
She infiltrated their rival company as a spy and stayed there for five years.
Instead of receiving news that Gerald would bring her out of the company, she received an invitation to his wedding.
No matter how many times she confronted him, he only ever replied, “Grandpa adores Hailey. I had no choice.”
Yet during countless sleepless nights, when he deluded himself into using Hailey as a substitute, his feelings started to become real.
Aileen recognized the tenderness in his eyes when he looked at me. She knew that look all
too well.
But everything had changed.
As she watched him wallow in grief over me, Aileen screamed hysterically, “Gerald, how could you do this to me?”
He only murmured, “Elly, I was wrong. I failed you.”
His calmness made her seem like the mad one.
Gerald arranged an extravagant funeral for me. The shock left his grandfather, Noah Prown, bedridden with illness.
Brown, Gerald’s father, had known everything all along. Disgusted by his son’s
weakness, he struck Gerald with his cane.
“Look at the mess you’ve made. If word gets out about you and that Aileen, it will tarnish
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Chapter 9
our family’s reputation, I’ll disown you!”
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A downpour brought the funeral to an abrupt end. As the crowd dispersed, only Gerald remained. He was kneeling before my gravestone.
He knelt through the night, drained of tears.
That night, he recounted the memories we had shared. Some were sweet, and some were affectionate. Others were filled with bitter arguments.
He wept with remorse, but I had no intention of forgiving him.
He hurt more than just me. His actions brought me nothing but suffering. I was not saintly enough to forgive him just like that.
But I refused to keep drowning in resentment. I wanted a new life, one free from the cage
he had built around me.
Half a month passed in a blur before a scandal topped the trending topics list.
[Gerald Brown Caught in Affair with Rival Company’s Secretary!]
The day he forced me to work as a maid, I sent Penny to secretly contact the press.
But I did not live long enough to see justice served.
Once the news broke, Aileen, who had been hiding in terror, was left with no escape.
The company she had infiltrated sued her. Subsequent investigations proved she had premeditated my murder.
She w
enced to execution, and she awaited her fate in prison.
erately begged the guards for one last meeting with Gerald.
looked gaunt and worn as they met. They were separated by a thick pane of glass.
Aileen pleaded, “Gerrie, how could you stand by and watch me die? Save me, please! I’ll do anything! I won’t pester you anymore!”
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Chapter 9
Gerald laughed bitterly.
“Save you? Because of you, I can barely save myself. How could I save you?”
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The Brown family’s stocks had plummeted, and their once–powerful empire was on the brink of collapsing.
He became a homeless drifter after he was disowned by his father and stripped of his family
name.
Before Aileen turned away in despair, she said her last words to him at the door, “I’ll hate you for the rest of my life!”
a
Gerald sat motionless. He was numb to such words. Or perhaps, he was simply too burdened by guilt to argue.
When Noah passed away, Gerald waited outside the hospital but was never allowed inside.
Earl relayed, “Your grandfather said what you did to Hailey makes you a hideous monster!”
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