The Man She Loved For Ten Years Let Her Father Die To Protect His Mistress Chapter 07

The Man She Loved For Ten Years Let Her Father Die To Protect His Mistress Chapter 07

“Adrian, how could you?”

Sienna’s pupils shrank. Her voice trembled no matter how hard she tried to steady it.

“I never wanted Evelyn to find out.”

She took a step closer, tears beginning to spill. “So what now? You regret it? You regret telling her

everything?”

Adrian said nothing.

There had been a time when her tears were his command.

A time when one tear from her would have unraveled him. But now he only turned away and reached up to

remove the damp towel from Landon’s forehead.

“Mom…”

Landon was sleeping restlessly, reaching for a ghost.

“Mom, will you come back… my tooth hurts so bad…”

A tear slid from the corner of his eye and disappeared into the pillow.

When Adrian still didn’t respond, Sienna grew more frantic.

Her words came out in a disjointed rush, sobs breaking through them.

“Adrian, I stayed with you for ten years without a name, without anything.”

Then she shook her head violently. “No. Longer than that. I was fifteen when I started following you around.

Seventeen years, Adrian. Seventeen.”

Her face crumpled. “I had six abortions. Wasn’t that enough?”

“I let Evelyn sleep beside the man who was mine for ten years. Wasn’t that enough?”

At last, guilt showed on Adrian’s face.

He lowered his voice and said, “I’m sorry, Sienna. I shouldn’t have said that.”

But the apology only made her look more shattered.

“You don’t have to apologize.” She laughed bitterly through tears. “I’m the pathetic one.”

Then she turned and fled the room like she could no longer bear to stay.

Adrian drew in a slow breath and forcibly stopped himself from going after her.

Not because he didn’t want to.

Because his phone buzzed.

The private investigator had sent him a message.

[Mr. Mercer, that video was edited. The office footage and the assault aftermath were not taken at the same

time. There was no surveillance inside the office. The single hidden camera angle she set up in advance

cannot prove that Professor Professor Wren assaulted her.]

[Also, regarding Sienna Vale: she did show symptoms of touch-deprivation disorder at first, but my

investigation shows she had already recovered in college, which would have been around twelve years ago.

She has no recent treatment records, and the medication she prescribed for herself contains nothing for

psychiatric treatment.]

Adrian stared at the messages.

Then his vision went dark around the edges.

A loud ringing filled his ears. His phone shattered on the linoleum, like the sound of tears hitting the ground

the day Evelyn knelt at her father’s grave.

Only one thought remained in his mind now.

He had to find Evelyn.

The next time I saw Adrian was three months later.

By then, I was doing rounds in a remote mountain reservation community, practicing the humble medicine

my father taught me.

The conditions there were rough. Healthcare was scarce. E

very trip was a battle against the terrain, pushing through the strain of high altitude, and sometimes making it over snow-covered passes just to reach the next settlement.

So I stayed.

Partly to teach.

Partly to treat the sick.

When I felt a burning stare fixed on me, I turned instinctively to see who it was, and found myself meeting

two pairs of eyes, one grown, one young.

Adrian and Landon.

They looked as if they had been on the road for a long time. Their clothes were worn and smeared with dirt.

Their faces were reddened by wind and altitude.

My fingers paused for the briefest moment.

Then I looked away.

Adrian stood frozen at the very back of the line, just staring at me as though he had forgotten how to move.

Landon tried more than once to come closer, but he didn’t have the courage.

It stayed like that until after the children’s nap period ended and the school bell rang.

The village children swarmed me, their laughter the only medicine I needed.

“Ms. Wren, are you tired? I can rub your shoulders for you.”

Their English was still clumsy and accented, but the affection in their eyes was real.

Warmth stirred in my chest. I had just started to reach out and ruffle one child’s hair when a voice suddenly

cut through the air.

“Get your hands off my mom! Don’t touch her!”

Landon had somehow rushed over in front of me.

His eyes were red, as if someone had stolen the one thing he treasured most in the world.

Adrian looked at me with a desperate, sickening hope.

I had imagined seeing them again.

Maybe we’d pass like strangers.

Maybe we’d look at each other with nothing but hatred.

But never this.

Never this clingy, wounded look, as if they were the ones who had suffered some unbearable wrong.