They Called Me Heartless, So Reborn, I Watched Them Self Destruct Chapter 10

They Called Me Heartless, So Reborn, I Watched Them Self Destruct Chapter 10

By the time I graduated from college, the Miller family had completely fallen apart.

Ethan never made it into the prestigious Federal Aviation Research Center.

Several well-paying tech companies and engineering consulting firms considered him, but their background checks and demanding in-person interviews exposed the same problem.

His physical condition simply couldn’t handle the kind of workload their R&D positions demanded, often sixty-hour workweeks.

One by one, he failed their physical and job-fit assessments.

In the end, he had no choice but to take a teaching job at an elite STEM prep academy that catered to wealthy families. He taught AP Physics and competition prep to high school students aiming for top colleges.

At first, things went well.

He had a strong academic foundation, and he was good at explaining complicated concepts.

But his temper kept getting worse.

When students were slow to understand something, he became impatient.

When parents pushed him about their children’s grades, he lost his temper.

Then, one day, he completely snapped during class and screamed at one of his students.

Another student secretly recorded the incident and uploaded it to TikTok.

The video racked up tens of thousands of views almost immediately.

Faced with the public backlash, the academy fired Ethan that same day.

My mother begged everyone she could think of for help.

Eventually, she came to me.

This time, she was smarter.

She didn’t yell at me.

She asked me to meet her at a coffee shop.

When she sat down across from me, I noticed how much more gray there was in her hair.

“Claire, you’re studying law now. You know people. Do you think you could help Ethan find a decent job?”

I stirred any coffee.

“What Ethan needs is treatment and professional mental health support, not someone pulling strings to get

him hired.”

Her eyes immediately filled with tears.

“He refuses to see a therapist.”

“That’s his choice.”

She held it in for as long as she could before finally asking, “After everything he’s been through, you really don’t feel sorry for him at all?”

I looked up at her.

“Mom, did you ever feel sorry for me?”

She froze.

“I had a high fever that wouldn’t go away during my senior year of high school. You still made me drag myself to school to deliver Ethan’s registration paperwork for his national competition.”

Her lips trembled.

“When I got an opportunity to study abroad in college, you told me the family needed to save its money for Ethan’s overseas program. You told me to give up my spot.”

I looked directly at her.

“Every time I needed you, you told me to be more understanding. To be the mature one. To put family first.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“That was all in the past.”

“Yes. For you, it was.”

I kept my voice calm.

“For me, it was the reason I stopped looking back.”

She covered her face and cried.

A long time ago, I would have softened.

I would have handed her tissues. I would have told her it was okay. I would have found excuses for her in my own head.

This time, I simply pushed the tissue box across the table toward her.

The way I might have pushed it toward any other client.

When she finally stopped crying, she revealed the real reason she had asked to meet.

“Ethan’s follow-up care and rehabilitation are putting a huge financial strain on us. Could some money every month?”

I smiled.

“There it is.”

Her face went pale.

you contribute

“We’re not trying to force you. You’re doing well now. What’s so wrong with helping your family?”

I pulled a document from my bag.

“This is an agreement I drafted. If you and Dad are genuinely struggling financially, I’m willing to fulfill whatever legal obligation I have to support my parents, based on the amount required under applicable state

law.”

I slid the document toward her.

“But I will not pay for Ethan’s medical treatment, living expenses, debts, or any of the emotional fallout surrounding his situation.”

She looked at me as though I had stabbed her.

“What am I supposed to be to you? A stranger?”

“You were the ones who made me one first.”

I pushed the document closer.

“You don’t have to sign it. But if you come to my school or my law firm again to cause a scene, I’ll seek a protective order and take legal action for defamation.”

She stared at me.

“Claire, how did you become so cold?”

I met her eyes calmly.

“I’m not cold. I finally learned how to have boundaries.”

After that meeting, my mother didn’t contact me for a long time.

I got into law school and chose to specialize in health law and medical ethics.

During my first meeting with my advisor, he asked why I had chosen the field.

I told him, “Because I’ve seen too many people sign surgical consent forms when they’re emotional and

convinced they know what they’re agreeing to, only to claim afterward that nobody ever told them what

could happen.”

My advisor smiled.

“So what do you want to do with that?”

I thought about it for a long time.

“I want people to take every signature more seriously.”

During my second year of law school, Ethan came to see me.

He had lost a frightening amount of weight, and he still walked with a noticeable limp.

The older brother I remembered as confident and full of ambition looked like life had stripped away everything that once made him shine.

He sat down across from me.

The first thing he said was, “I went to see Lily.”

I said nothing.

“She’s getting married.”

My fingers tightened slightly around my coffee cup.

I wasn’t surprised.

After recovering, Lily had gone to graduate school. Eventually, she took a job at a university in the South.

Her fiancé wasn’t Lucas Scott.

He was an ordinary doctor with a stable career.

Ethan gave a small, bitter smile.

“She told me she hopes I’ll move on too.”

His eyes turned red.

“How does she get to move on?”

I looked at him.

“Because her life is still hers.”

He suddenly looked up.

“What about mine?”

I didn’t answer immediately.

He stared at me like I was the last person in the world who could save him.

“Claire, if you had stopped me that day and told me not to donate my kidney to Lily, would I be working at the Federal Aviation Research Center by now?”

I nodded.

“Maybe.”

Pain flashed across his face.

“Then why didn’t you stop me?”

I set my cup down.

“Ethan, I did try.”

He stared at me blankly.

“I tried every time you called me heartless. Every time you used Lily’s death to guilt me. Every time Mom and

Dad tried to make me sacrifice my own life to make up for what happened to you.”

He looked completely lost.

He didn’t understand.

And he didn’t need to.

This time, I wasn’t going to make him understand for my own peace of mind.

I looked at him and said, “This time, I’m giving the choice back to you.”

Tears slipped down his cheeks.

“But I made the wrong choice.”

I held his gaze.

“Then admit that you made the wrong choice. Stop telling yourself that someone else ruined your life.”