Chapter 22
“I don’t have much to say to the people who helped destroy me. But I hope you understand–I never owed you anything.”
She took the envelope from Jeffrey and threw it to the floor. “Here’s the record of everything my parents did for the Parrish family over the past. three years. The total must be at least one million. And let’s not forget, three years ago, I married Antonio for your sake. And just a month ago, I agreed to Lucile’s comea donation for you. All of this more than repays the debt of twenty years of raising me.
“Grace died in that operating room a month ago. There is no Grace in this world. Remember that. And if you try to stir up trouble again, not only will I have your entire family thrown in prison, but I’ll take back my corneas from Lucile.”
With those final words, Grace turned and walked away.
Whatever the Parrish family felt, it didn’t matter. From that day on, they vanished and were never seen again.
As for Antonio.
Thanks to Jonah’s revenge, several of the Kaufman Group’s projects were ruined. On top of that, engineering flaws and product failures caused their reputation to crumble.
Andrew was so stressed he ended up in the hospital with internal bleeding. Antonio, nursing his own injuries, was left juggling the company’s collapse while caring for Andrew.
But even though it seemed like everything had come back to him, his heart remained empty, like a vast, barren wasteland.
Chote 22
“Antonio, stop looking for her. You know she’s alive–isn’t that enough?”
Andre’s voice was weak as he clutched Antonio’s hand from his hospital bed. “The Kaufman Group needs you now more than ever. You can’t waste time on the Parrish family. Even if you send Lucile to prison, Grace won’t come back. You two will never be the same again. Why waste your time on her?”
The Kaufman Group was on the brink of bankruptcy. There was no time. or money to waste.
But Antonio couldn’t let Lucile go.
If it weren’t for Lucile, he and Grace would never have ended up like this.
He remembered that day so clearly. When she told him he was full of passion but she had no strength left to enjoy it. His head ached, but his heart hurt even more.
They were right. He hadn’t really lost his memory. He just couldn’t accept the truth, so he made up a story to pretend she was still by his side.
He thought, if he did that, maybe she would come back to him.
After all, he had loved her so deeply. Surely, seeing him like this, she would soften?
But he had been wrong.
Because of what he had done, Grace’s heart was long dead.
It felt like he had truly lost her.
And yet he still couldn’t accept it.
Two days later, Lucile went to the media, accusing Antonio of infidelity and revealing how he had forced his wife to donate her corneas, then persecuted her afterward.
In an instant, the Kaufman Group was overwhelmed with scandals, and their stock plummeted.
Antonio sent people to find Lucile. But before they returned with news, she appeared in his office.
“Antonio, how could you do this to me?” she cried. “You’ve left me with nothing!”
After the Parrish family had bailed her out, Antonio had sent them the complete record of Lucile’s deeds over the past twenty years.
Only then did the Parrish family realize that Lucile’s tales of persecution were all lies.
Twenty years ago, after she got lost, she was adopted by a wealthy, loving family. Her adoptive parents had no other children and treated her like their own flesh and blood, giving her everything she wanted.
That’s what shaped Lucile’s reckless, entitled nature.
Her jealousy of Grace stemmed from believing the Parrish family was better than the one she had, and that dissatisfaction festered within her.
In her quest to return to the Parrish family and craft a new persona, she tampered with her adoptive father’s brakes, causing the car accident that killed both her adoptive parents.
Lucile had always been a murderer.
