He Brought His Mistress, I Brought My Lawyers Chapter 34

He Brought His Mistress, I Brought My Lawyers Chapter 34

Ethan stared at their joined hands. The light in his pupils dimmed, little by little.

Avery’s hand, so slender and warm, had been held in his palm countless times.

And now, it was firmly intertwined with another man’s.

His entire heart felt as if it had been seized by those clasped hands and uprooted, the pain nearly suffocating him.

At last, he understood.

The Avery whose world had once revolved around him could never be found again.

The Ethan of the past had naively believed that as long as he stubbornly refused to accept it, as long as he used every means to tie her to his side, Avery would keep loving him.

But now, she had torn up that marriage application with her own hands, and with it, every one of his insane fantasies.

Everything had been exposed.

Everything had collapsed.

He had been wrong.

Completely wrong.

Tears rolled down his face, striking the cold floor. Under the FBI agents’ watch, his knees weakened, and he dropped to the ground, facing Avery. His cuffed hands hung powerlessly, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

“I’m sorry… Avery…” he choked, sobbing so hard he could barely speak. “It was my fault… I lost you.”

His heartbreak and collapse were enough to move any bystander.

But Avery’s eyes remained without a ripple.

Ethan’s apology and love had both come too late.

If it had been a few months ago, perhaps she would have been heartbroken by his regret, perhaps even shaken. But now, nothing could go back. Just like the scar on her face that could never be erased, some injuries, once inflicted, could never be repaired.

Holding Julian’s hand, she did not look back. She strode out of the office.

After the arrest, Ethan Ward faced multiple felony charges, including interstate kidnapping and false imprisonment. With solid evidence against him, the Caldwell family’s legal team ensured justice was carried out, and he was ultimately sentenced to a long prison term.

The Ward family, once untouchable in Newport, saw its reputation destroyed overnight. It quickly declined from East Coast high society.

And Sloane Pike, the manipulator hiding behind a victim’s mask, was handled in a separate case for fraud and conspiracy. She, too, was sent to prison, paying the price for her greed and malice.

Two years later.

A piece of news landed on the homepage of *Vogue*:

“The Santa Fe Miracle: Designer Julian Reyes and Avery Caldwell’s Wedding of the Century.”

It came with a set of breathtaking photographs and stayed at the top of the site for three straight days.

The wedding was not held in a luxurious hotel or an old church, but in a modern, art-filled courtyard residence in Santa Fe that the two of them had designed together.

Avery wore a wedding dress Julian had personally designed, carrying her bouquet as she walked toward him. He stood in a suit, his eyes gentle with a smile. In the sunlight, the faint scar on her face had been cleverly adorned by the makeup artist with a fine line of tiny diamonds. Instead of damaging her beauty, it added a unique, resilient radiance.

The man who had promised never to let her down had not disappointed her.

In the two years they had been together, Julian had treated her with unwavering loyalty. He healed her wounds and rebuilt her trust in love.

Now, he knelt on one knee and put the wedding ring on Avery’s finger.

After he did, he kissed the back of her hand with devotion.

In an instant, thunderous applause erupted.

Amid overwhelming cheers and blessings, they kissed.

At the same time, in the common room of a state prison, the television was airing the society news.

A man in prison clothes sat quietly in the corner. The past two years had felt like a lifetime. Losing the woman he loved, the downfall of his family, imprisonment… all of it had stripped him of his former pride.

He lifted his head. His deep gaze fell on the two people kissing on the screen.

It was Ethan.

He watched the truly happy smile on Avery’s face, a smile she had never shown him, and saw in Julian’s eyes the focus and respect he had never given her.

After a long time, he smiled, a look of release on his face.

The exclusive love and protection Ethan had once failed to give Avery had now been fully made up for by Julian.

Perhaps this was all right, too.