He Faked Poverty, Tricked Me Into an Abortion, All for a Bet Chapter 15

He Faked Poverty, Tricked Me Into an Abortion, All for a Bet Chapter 15

Now, the secret had finally been exposed.

But the outcome was nothing like Ethan had imagined.

He went to Erin’s hometown, but he still could not find her.

He could not find out anything about where she had gone.

Lost and defeated, he felt as though he were trapped.

A woman he had once considered weak and insignificant had vanished completely from his life after that day.

He knew Lucas must have helped keep her destination private.

But Lucas operated in a different business circle.

Once Erin left the city, Ethan had no useful connections in the coastal city where Lucas was based.

He stayed in Erin’s hometown for a week.

In the end, he had no choice but to board the flight home, exhausted and dejected.

What he would never know was that Erin and Lucas had boarded their own flight only one minute

before he entered the VIP lounge.

Some people would always meet again.

Others, once missed, would never cross paths again.

Two years after Erin left him, Ethan got married.

It was a business arrangement between two families.

There was no love between them.

He felt that something inside him had changed.

Or, more precisely, he could no longer feel love the way he once had.

Sometimes, he dreamed about Erin.

In some dreams, he confessed the truth to her, and somehow they married happily and had a child

together.

In others, Erin slapped him, screamed at him for deceiving her, and walked out of his life forever.

But in reality, Erin had chosen neither.

She had simply watched in silence as he continued pretending to be a man who loved her

Then she had quietly left.

After that, Ethan became increasingly obsessed.

He desperately wanted to know whether Erin hated him.

Or whether some small part of her still loved him.

Whenever he had time, he traveled to the coastal city and continued asking around for news of her.

He even occasionally ran into Lucas at year-end business summits.

But whether Ethan questioned him privately or confronted him directly, Lucas never gave him any

information.

“Who are you talking about? Erin? I don’t know her. Wasn’t she your girlfriend? If even you don’t know where she is, how would I?”

In the second year after Erin disappeared from his life, Ethan was involved in a car accident.

He had spotted a woman from behind who looked just like Erin.

He chased after her, running through the street and shouting Erin’s name.

As he crossed the road, a speeding car struck him and sent him flying.

He survived, but one of his legs was badly broken.

From then on, he walked with a permanent limp.

In the fourth year of his marriage, he got divorced.

His emotions had become increasingly unstable.

His wife had been willing to accept a loveless business marriage, but she was not willing to endure

his constant loss of control.

The divorce damaged the partnership between their two families.

The company’s stock price plunged, and its market value dropped significantly.

Lucas seized the opportunity and captured part of the Walker family’s market share.

Sometimes, Ethan felt an overwhelming urge to offer Lucas a deal.

What would it take?

What would Lucas demand in return for telling him where Erin was?

Ten years after Erin left, Ethan finally saw her again.

He was staying at a seaside hotel on business.

Erin stepped out of the elevator wearing sunglasses and holding the hand of a little girl.

The girl walked happily beside her, looking up as she talked.

Erin’s smile was still as gentle as Ethan remembered.

Ten years had passed, yet she seemed almost unchanged.

“Erin!”

In that instant, Ethan forgot about everyone around him.

He even forgot that he was leaning on a cane.

He limped toward her as fast as he could, his injured leg dragging his body off balance.

Erin turned in surprise.

Their eyes met.

Tears nearly spilled from Ethan’s eyes, and his voice broke as he whispered, “Erin…”

He did not truly understand why he had never been able to let her go.

Perhaps it was simply because she had left so suddenly.

He had never been able to accept that Erin had completely disappeared from his life.

“Mommy, who is that man?” the little girl asked curiously.

Ethan thought of the child he and Erin had lost.

If that child had been born…

If Erin had never left…

If only…

Countless possibilities flashed through his mind.

But Erin merely looked at him calmly and gave him a polite nod.

“It’s been a long time, Ethan.”

Her expression was so composed that no one would have guessed they had once been in love./

Perhaps they had never truly been in love at all.

A relationship that began with a lie could hardly be called love.

“You’re married?” he asked, his voice trembling. “How old is your child? Is your husband good to you?”

Erin smiled and nodded.

“I’m married. He treats me very well. Our daughter is six.”

“Mommy, I want to play in the water.”

The child had no interest in the complicated history between the adults.

All she wanted was to dig in the sand and splash in the ocean.

“Daddy said he was going to build me a sandcastle. Maybe he’s already finished it!”

“We should go,” Erin said with another nod. “Goodbye.”

“Wait!”

Ethan instinctively reached out to grab her.

But Erin stepped back and frowned.

She still had the same gentle presence, but there was no trace of the timid woman she had once

been.

“Mr. Walker, please don’t touch me.”

“I’ve been looking for you for years,” Ethan said hoarsely. “Lucas refused to tell me anything. I owed you an explanation back then. I’ve always wanted to tell you the truth…”

“You don’t need to explain anything to me. It doesn’t matter.”

“We were together for so many years. Did none of it matter to you?”

Erin’s voice was soft.

“No. It didn’t. So please stop looking for me. Lucas never hid me from you. I simply didn’t want to

see you.”

“Do you hate me?”

At the question, Erin smiled.

She lifted her daughter into her arms and walked away without looking back.

Ethan wanted to follow her, but he stopped when he saw Lucas approaching.

Lucas saw him too, but only gave him an indifferent glance.

When he looked at Erin and their daughter, however, his expression softened immediately.

He lifted the girl into one arm and took Erin’s hand with the other.

They were a happy family of three.

Standing alone nearby, Ethan looked utterly pathetic.

He knew this was the end of their story.

But it should not have been.

In his mind, the man standing beside Erin, holding the little girl in one arm and Erin’s hand in the

other, should have been him.

The more he thought about it, the more wrong everything seemed.

He began to believe he was dreaming.

This was a nightmare.

He only needed to find a way to wake up.

Ethan had always struggled with insomnia.

But that night, he fell into an unusually deep sleep.

In his dream, he returned to what he believed was the real world.

Erin lay lovingly in his arms and told him it was their tenth wedding anniversary.

After that, Ethan completely lost his grip on reality.

He began telling everyone that he was married and had a daughter.

He said his wife’s name was Erin, their daughter was ten years old, and the three of them lived a

happy life together.

On the day he was committed to a psychiatric hospital, he saw a food delivery rider pass by on an electric bicycle, wearing a helmet.

Ethan began screaming uncontrollably.

He shrieked that the delivery rider had destroyed the life that should have belonged to him.

He charged forward.

The rider had no time to avoid him.

The electric bicycle struck Ethan, and both men tumbled into the grass.

The back of Ethan’s head hit a rock.

Blood poured from the wound.

Ethan lay with his eyes open, staring blankly at the blue sky.

Then he smiled.

His fingers were still clenched tightly around the delivery rider’s helmet.

“Erin, I’m home. I brought you fried rice today. I even added an extra fried egg.”