He Abandoned Me On Snowy Mountain Chapter 07

He Abandoned Me On Snowy Mountain Chapter 07

The word fiancée hit Ethan like a physical blow, freezing him in his tracks.

He let go of my wrist instantly, stumbling back a step.

His eyes darted wildly between Brooks and me, wide with sheer disbelief.

“You’re lying…” Ethan’s voice shook violently.

“How could Hazel possibly be with you… When did this even happen…”

Brooks let out a cold scoff, effortlessly pulling me flush against his side.

“Mr. Sterling has quite a short memory, doesn’t he?”

“Three years ago in Aspen, if I hadn’t dragged Hazel back from the edge of that cliff, she would’ve been dead.”

“When you abandoned her to save someone else, did you ever stop to think whose wife she might end up becoming?”

Color drained completely from Ethan’s face.

A collective whisper rippled through the surrounding crowd.

Brooks’s identity was no secret in these elite circles.

As the sole heir to Vanguard Elite, he had walked away from billions to lead an outdoor expedition team in the Rockies for a few years.

Now that he had returned to take over the family empire, he was the most powerful man in the city.

Meanwhile, Ethan’s company, neglected for the past two years, was already teetering on the verge of collapse.

In front of Brooks, Ethan didn’t even have the courage to raise his voice.

“Hazel, tell me it’s not true,” Ethan pleaded, his eyes locked on mine, drowning in pure despair.

“You’re just doing this to get back at me for leaving you behind, right? You’re just angry…”

Looking at his pathetic display, I felt absolutely nothing.

“Ethan, you highly overestimate your importance.”

I casually adjusted my cuffs, my voice entirely deadpan.

“Revenge takes effort. And you’re simply not worth my time anymore.”

“These past three years, I’ve lived a great life-so great that I almost forgot your name.”

With that, I looped my arm through Brooks’s and turned toward the VIP section.

I didn’t give Ethan another glance.

Once the gala wrapped up, Brooks and I walked out of the hotel together.

The night air was crisp, and Brooks immediately draped his suit jacket over my shoulders.

“How was my performance back there?” he asked, throwing me a roguish smirk.

“Thank you for stepping in, Mr. Vanguard,” I replied, smiling as I pulled the jacket tighter around myself.

We were just good friends and close business partners.

The fiancée label was nothing more than a convenient shield to get rid of Ethan.

When we reached the underground parking garage, I spotted Ethan’s car parked in the distance.

Amber was standing by the passenger door, sobbing uncontrollably.

Over the past three years, Ethan had finally uncovered the truth about what happened on the mountain.

Amber’s altitude sickness had been faked, her car sickness had been faked, and even that night she supposedly got drunk was just an act she paid a bartender to help her pull off.

She had calculated every move just to prove that she mattered more to Ethan than I did.

When Ethan found out, he completely broke down.

Yet, he didn’t kick her out; instead, he kept her around just to torture her with icy neglect.

It was as if watching her suffer could somehow alleviate a fraction of his own guilt.

“Ethan, please forgive me… I was just so terrified of losing you…”

Amber clutched at his sleeve, stripping herself of every ounce of dignity.

Ethan leaned heavily against the car door, holding a lit cigarette, his eyes entirely hollow.

Seeing us approach, he violently crushed the cigarette butt.

He threw off Amber’s hand and marched directly toward us.

“Hazel,” he rasped, blocking our path.

“I know you came back to acquire Sterling Holdings.”

Sterling Holdings was the biggest rival to Ethan’s family business.

“If

you just come back to me, I will hand over every single share of Sterling Holdings on a silver platter.”

His eyes were bloodshot as he laid out his very last card.

Looking at him, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“Ethan, do you honestly think that if the compensation is high enough, I’ll always come crawling back?”

“You’re wrong.”

I pulled open the car door and looked at him coldly.

“When I loved you, you were everything.”

“Now that I don’t, your entire net worth isn’t worth a single piece of gravel on a rocky mountain road.”