He Faked Poverty, Tricked Me Into an Abortion, All for a Bet Chapter 09

He Faked Poverty, Tricked Me Into an Abortion, All for a Bet Chapter 09

“Someone’s calling you. Go ahead and answer it,” Lucas said casually.

I hesitated for two seconds before picking up.

“Erin!” Ethan sounded thrilled. “Guess what good news I have for you?”

“I have no idea,” I replied softly, staring at his back.

“One of my friends won the lottery, and he’s willing to lend us fifteen thousand dollars! Isn’t that a surprise? Aren’t you happy? Your grandmother’s surgery is taken care of!”

As he spoke, the friends beside him covered their mouths one after another, their shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.

Ethan was speaking loudly enough for Lucas to hear.

Beside me, Lucas seemed to let out a scornful chuckle.

“Thank you,” I said calmly. “But I don’t need it anymore. I’ve already found the money.”

Ethan froze.

“What?”

I ended the call.

At that moment, the valet pulled Lucas’s sports car around.

“Get in, poor thing.”

Lucas opened the door for me himself.

Everyone nearby turned to look at us.

I raised my head and met Ethan’s eyes.

He stood frozen for two seconds before instinctively walking toward me.

I looked away and got into the car.

“Erin?”

At first, he called my name quietly, as though he could not believe what he was seeing.

When I ignored him, he quickened his pace and shouted louder.

“Erin!”

“Do you know him?” Lucas asked me.

“No,” I replied calmly.

Lucas stepped in front of Ethan.

“Mr. Walker, she’s already agreed to come with me.”

“What the hell are you talking about? She’s my girlfriend! Erin, get out of the car! I can explain!”

“But she says she doesn’t know you.” Lucas smiled as he blocked his path. “Right now, you sound

like some lunatic making up stories. Calm down.”

With that, he climbed into the car and started the engine.

Ethan pounded on my window, trying to make me get out.

I simply stared straight ahead.

I had already poured too much of myself into him.

At that moment, I finally let him go completely.

Lucas followed me back to the apartment.

He had probably never been somewhere so run-down before.

He kept looking around from the moment we stepped inside.

I opened the door and went into the bedroom to get my luggage.

When I came back out, he was holding a framed photograph of Ethan and me.

“You said you didn’t know him, but the two of you look pretty close to me.”

He waved the frame at me..

“I lied to you. Mad?”

“Not really. I told you, I’m not that petty. And I don’t hold a woman’s past against her.”

He looked at me again.

“Is that all the luggage you have?”

“Yes.”

After thinking for a moment, I found a bag and gathered all the photographs from the cabinet.

I planned to throw them away in the dumpster downstairs.

“You’re leaving just like that?”

“Yes. The longer I stay, the more likely something is to go wrong.”

If Ethan rushed back and ran into Lucas, the situation would become unbearably awkward.

I did not want to hear his explanations or face his questions.

I only wanted to stay as far away from him as possible.

The farther, the better.

“By the way, did Lena tell you?” Lucas asked.

“Tell me what?”

“My main business isn’t based here. It’s in another coastal city.”

Lucas stayed several feet away from the dumpster and watched as I threw the photographs inside.

“Are you asking me to go with you?” I asked.

“That wasn’t my original plan. At first, I was only interested because I was feeling nostalgic. It had

been a long time since I’d met anyone as pitiful as you.”

His tone remained completely casual.

“But you managed to make me even more interested tonight. So, do you want to come with me?”

I hesitated before asking a couple more questions.

“Would we be leaving immediately? I want to go home and visit my grandmother first.”

“Where is your hometown?”

I gave him the general location of the remote area, then added, “But I’m not from the town itself We live in a rural community, and it takes another hour by bus from the nearest town.”

Lucas sucked in a breath.

“Every detail makes you sound more like a real hard-luck case.”

He rubbed his chin.

“Fine. I’ll go with you.”

I stared at him in shock.

“I grew up in the city. I’ve never seen what real country life is like. You can show me around.”

He flashed me a wide grin.

All I could see were his perfectly straight white teeth.

At that moment, I suddenly felt that perhaps my life could still get better.

There were people like Ethan in this world, people who treated another person’s feelings like a

game.

But there were also people like Lucas, whose words could be cruel even as he casually reached out

to help someone.