He Came Back Ten Years Too Late Chapter 09

He Came Back Ten Years Too Late Chapter 09

The breathing on the other end hitched, then the caller hung up.

I could only laugh at the absurdity.

So this was the laughably flawed prediction that had made Ethan abandon us ten years earlier.

He’d given up on me and our child because of it.

Ethan was furious now. At last, he understood.

The so-called call from the future had been nothing but a lie.

If the caller had really been from the future, they’d have known I was already dead.

Then why warn Ethan not to bring me home?

There was only one explanation.

The caller wanted to use the same trick to make Ethan abandon me again.

Ethan stormed back to Cassidy’s hospital room.

“You’re back, Ethan?”

Cassidy stepped toward him, reaching for his arm.

Ethan stepped sharply aside. His eyes were ice-cold.

His stare made Cassidy’s heart begin to pound.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Did you arrange that call ten years ago?”

Ethan’s voice came out raw, as if sandpaper had scraped it clean. Every word carried tightly restrained fury.

Cassidy’s face went white.

“How could you think that? You were the one who said it came from the future.”

“You mean it could see the future?”

Ethan laughed coldly.

He seized her wrist with enough force to nearly crush the bones,

“If it could really see the future, why didn’t it ever say Jazz would die?”

“Because you and your father set it up. He knew he owed you, so he helped you take everything from Jazz as

Compensation.”

“And while you got close to me, you kept provoking Jazz so the prediction that she’d hurt you would come

true.”

Cassidy went paler.

She hadn’t expected me to die.

Now the panicked call she’d made had told Ethan everything.

She closed her eyes.

“Yes. I had someone make that call. So what?”

“That life was supposed to be mine! That old bastard owed my mother and me.”

“His daughter got the life that should have been mine. Why shouldn’t I take it back?”

Ethan stared at her in disbelief.

“So you caused your father’s car accident? You’re insane! And your mother was the other woman. How can

you claim Jazz stole your life?”

“And if Jazz hadn’t saved you back then, you’d have been dead.”

Cassidy threw back her head and laughed.

“But I hated that superior look on her face more than anything.”

“Why should we share the same blood and yet she gets to shine while I’m stuck in her shadow?”

“I had to prove I wasn’t inferior to her. So I took you from her.

Cassidy reached for him, her voice softening into a coax.

“You don’t need to stand there looking so full of regret.”

“If you really loved Jasmine, how could you believe that so-called prediction so easily?”

“You were tired of Jasmine being strong and demanding. I only gave you a push. You love me, don’t you?”

Ethan stared at Cassidy and felt the cold sink to his bones.

He’d always believed every mistake was fate’s doing.

He’d thought fate had decreed he’d fall in love with Cassidy.

The truth was that the two of them had tricked him from the very beginning.

They’d made him destroy the person he should have treasured most in this life.

He released Cassidy abruptly and stumbled back several steps.

Seeing his expression, Cassidy stared for a long moment, then began laughing hysterically.

“Why are you acting like this? That old bastard acted the same way.”

“He promised he’d make it up to me, but only a year after sending Jasmine away, he regretted it.”

“So I crippled him. I wanted him to know that the only daughter he could rely on was me.”

Cassidy walked toward Ethan one slow step at a time, a strange smile on her face.

“You’re the same. You have to stay by my side forever.”

Then Cassidy suddenly pulled out a knife and lunged at him.

The bodyguards rushed in from the hallway and restrained her before she could reach him.

Ethan didn’t look at her again. He let her screams fade down the hall.

He leaned against the wall,

then slowly slid down to the floor.

“Jazz, I was wrong.”

“I was so wrong. Please come back to me, okay?”

I stood where I was, unable to name what I felt.

All I knew was that the force binding me there had weakened a little.

After that day, Ethan had his lawyers gather every piece of evidence against Cassidy.

That was also when he learned Cassidy had never been pregnant.

Not ten years ago, either.

The day Cassidy went to prison, the force holding me weakened again.

Ethan also went to see my father.

The father I’d once thought was as dependable as a mountain had wasted away to skin and bones.

He was almost unrecognizable.

But that day, he stared into the empty air where I stood

and called out thickly,

“Baby girl.”

I didn’t answer.