Zoey saw Laurence every day. According to him, he'd be in Southgrove for some time. As time passed, Zoey's neighbors started recognizing his car and knew who he was there for. He had visited Southgrove twice the previous year, and they had seen him around the area several times. Back then, he had told them he and Zoey were a married couple. But now, another man had moved into Zoey's house, so it was clear to her neighbors they had faced marital issues and were likely divorced.Zoey felt it didn't look good that Laurence came over to her house every day. But he was stubborn and behaved as though he did not understand her. He did not feel like a disruption in her life, not in the slightest, and would appear at her house like it was the most natural thing to do. The only thing he took care never to do was bring up Robert. Zoey had felt uneasy when he brought up the case, so she didn’t believe he would forget about it so easily. Laurence was used to Zoey ignoring his presence and felt
Laurence made it sound like he was giving Zoey a choice. She felt he must be lacking in empathy. Why else was he capable of manipulating her to achieve what he wanted? She had tried to talk sense into him, and had sternly told him off, but nothing had worked. She felt nothing but fatigue when dealing with him. She had no desire to give in to his wishes. Time and time again, he used her weak spots to twist her arm whenever he liked.There were times Zoey had half a mind to do the same to get back at him, but she didn't know what his weak spots were. Was it Sarah? But Zoey had no way of getting to her. And Zoey couldn’t bring herself to inflict any harm on anyone else. At times like these, she hated her upbringing for teaching her to be a good person. If only she was as merciless as Laurence was, she’d be able to do anything without care for morality or legality. She struggled to free her arm from his grip and looked up at him indifferently. Her voice was adamant, "I will not break up
During the trial, Robert insisted he had been framed for something he didn't do and that the audio recording had been artificially created, so it was not valid evidence.He didn't put too much thought into things and had expected everything to run smoothly as the lawyer had promised. He was gullible to assume that as long as he did not plead guilty, he could escape legal sanctions under the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”. However, he didn’t know that the court considered recanting testimonies an aggravating circumstance. He did not cooperate and behaved haughtily, insisting he knew nothing and the incident had been nothing more than a regular traffic accident. Robert placed too much trust in his lawyer. He’d originally intended to make it out alive, but with his lawyer's persuasion, he was led to act greedily and refused to serve a single day of jail time. If anything, he was one to keep his word. He kept his lips sealed and did not mention Jasmine's name once throughou
Jared seemed willing to put effort into maintaining a relationship and enjoyed sharing his thoughts and emotions with his partner. He was always ready to express his feelings and enjoyed intimate interactions. As he never hid his emotions, Zoey did not have to figure out what he was thinking. His social circle was simple and clear of any messy affairs that Zoey had to deal with. She felt very relaxed around him. Besides, Jared never stood her up or made her wait for him unnecessarily.Zoey thought she had long forgotten about past incidents, but somehow, they still occupied her mind occasionally. Like how Laurence always failed to show up on their dates and only thought to inform her he wouldn’t be able to make it to the concert she had been anticipating for months just minutes before it started. She had waited for him idly in the foyer in the pouring rain that night, and always having to wait for someone wasn’t a pleasant feeling. Now that she thought about it, she should have made l
Zoey was relieved to hear the doctor’s words. Of course, she wanted her child to be healthy. She was always careful whenever she went for prenatal checkups and never dared let her guard down.When they left the consultation room, Jared was still in shock. All the weeks they had spent together and he had never noticed Zoey suffered from hearing difficulties. She seemed perfectly normal and wasn't any different from anyone else. He stuttered a bit before deciding to keep his mouth shut. He shouldn’t probe. That'd be rubbing salt in her wounds. But no matter how he thought about it, he could not come up with any other plausible external factors that could lead to loss of hearing apart from prolonged exposure to loud noises, forceful impacts, or explosions, and all three of them sounded unthinkable.Northwell wasn't a small town, so it had strict controls and regulations on loud noises. The smallest bit of noise resulted in neighbors reporting the disturbance to authorities. Besides, i
"Of course! Who wants to hear hurtful words?” Zoey exclaimed, watching Laurence’s taut expression. She scoffed, "You aren’t so deluded as to think that you have been speaking nicely in the past, are you?" She expected Laurence would refute her by telling her that the truth was always hurtful, but unexpectedly, he did not.A moment of silence later, he said lazily, "If you like sweet talk, I can do that too." Then as though having a change of mind, he continued, "But what use is there of sweet talk?" Indeed, what was the use of sweet-talking? Nothing but empty promises that would never come true.Laurence's condescending gaze fell on Jared again. He guessed Jared must have made Zoey many promises, one of which would be marriage. But was he sure he'd be able to marry her? Who could say for certain? The only reason Laurence had been able to put up with Jared hanging around Zoey recently was because he was sure there was no way they could end up together. Or, more specifically, he was
The two hadn’t met in a long time, and even without saying a word, they both put on intimidating airs. Shawn had exquisite facial features that gave him a sharp look, and Laurence had no intentions of reining in his domineering attitude. His calm façade could not hide his bone-piercing gaze.Initially, he had been able to joke about Zoey having her choice of men, but as time went on, the thought of Zoey's past with Shawn infuriated him so much that he lost sleep thinking about it at night. It was a thorn in his side that pained him each time he thought of it, and every time he did, his hatred for Shawn grew. It bothered him so much. How could it not? He had told Zoey it was all in the past, but what else could he do? He had to make the best out of the situation. He wasn’t left with much choice, was he?Shawn had caught a lasting cold that refused to go away and he coughed intermittently. Though his throat was sore, his voice still sounded fine. He demanded, "Why are you hounding he
"Even she thinks something happened between us. I didn't tell her the truth. I lied. She probably still thinks she'd betrayed you to this day." It got increasingly arduous for Shawn to speak. He struggled to catch his next breath, and his eyes were bloodshot. With a final burst of energy, he pushed Laurence off of him. He felt like his throat had been slit open. A metallic tang gushed up within him. "I thought you'd divorce her after that. But I waited so long, and you never did. The tolerance you have for her exceeded my expectations. I planned on never telling you this so it can bother you the rest of your life. But I thought about it, and there’s no need for it anymore." Shawn's throat itched and hurt. He coughed violently until he bent over, and even then, with his face unbelievably pale, he lifted his face to look Laurence in the eyes. "Laurence Scott, you do not deserve her love." He did not realize the bitterness in his voice or the iciness of his gaze. He was so envio