NovelEnglishChapter 422 No matter how desperately he struggled, the bodyguards dragged him away.
His anguished cries echoed through the cemetery, lingering in the chilly air-a sound that tugged painfully at the heart.
Sean checked his watch, then turned to Amara. "Amara, it's tfor us to go." She nodded, her gaze drifting to the photo of Claire on the headstone. "Mom, Dad and I will csee you again soon." Ethan wandered aimlessly down the street, his mind a tangled haze. His steps were unsteady, his eyes vacant, haunted by the memory of Claire's black-and-white portrait on the gravestone.
He kept mumbling under his breath, a broken mantra: "No way... I don't believe it... Claire must still be alive. You're all lying to me..." Everything around him blurred into insignificance. He drifted along the wide avenue with no destination, lost in his own world.
Then, suddenly, a girl in a white dress caught his eye.
Her features her eyes, her smile-looked so much like Claire's.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtEthan's pupils widened in shock and a wild hope flashed across his face. "Claire? Claire—!" He took off after her, frantic, but the girl was already slipping into the back of a sleek black Bentley.
The engine roared to life, and the car pulled away, leaving Ethan far behind.
He ran after it, pushing himself to the edge, his vision swimming with tears.
He cried out, voice hoarse and desperate: "Claire, don't go! Please, just look atone more time! I was wrong, I promise I'll never treat you like that again. I'l protect you, I'll cherish you, I'll give you everything-just please, stay..." But no matter how he begged, the car never slowed.
Passersby glanced at the scene with uneasy curiosity, seven staring as if he'd lost his mind. Ethan didn't notice. His world had narrowed to that vanishing Bentley.
Suddenly, his foot caught on the curb and he tumbled to the ground.
His palms scraped against the asphalt, his knees throbbing with pain, but he barely noticed. He reached out toward the direction the car had disappeared, as if he could somehow grasp that last, fleeting shred of hope.
Ethan sat there for a long time, slumped on the sidewalk as the crowd shifted around him, faces coming and going.
He had no idea how long he stayed there before finally, slowly, he pulled himself up.
By the tEthan made it home, night had already fallen.
He shuffled to his front door, still dazed, only to spot a familiar black Bentley parked outside.
A man in a black suit leaned casually against the car. As Ethan approached, the man straightened and spoke in a quiet, measured tone. "You're finally back." Ten years had passed. Both men had changed in subtle ways, but Ethan recognized him instantly-Brian Cole.
After what Brian did to Claire, he should have paid a far steeper price, but Sean had only driven the Cole family into bankruptcy, sparing Brian and his parents any further retribution-for Irene Cole's sake.
Brian's expression was as cold and guarded as ever, his features shadowed by a trace of lingering sorrow. Ethan's face hardened. "What do you want?" Brian gestured toward the house behind him. "I'd like to buy your family's house."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe Cole family had clawed its way back from ruin, thanks to Brian's business acumen. Over the last decade, he had rebuilt their fortune perhaps not to its focalglory, but he was now a millionaire in his own right.
Ever since the Cole family's resurgence, Brian had wanted to buy Linwood Manor.
But with Ethan in prison, he'd had no choice but to wait.
Claire had lived in this house for three years. Brian just wanted to be close to the place she'd called home, ET! hoping to find traces of her life there.
Ethan let out a cold, bitter laugh. "You really think I'd sell you the house Claire lived in?"
A flicker of pain crossed Brian's face, almost too quick to notice. "Ethan, for the past ten years, I thought about her every sin single day. I just want to start over somewhere she once was.
I want to feel closer to her."
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