Then, Henry smiled gently. “I’m nothing but a poor man; my son had to live in squalor with me.” His eyes turned red. “There’s no better way of putting it—I’ve turned into an evil person.” His smile became forced as he turned to look at Edward. It seemed he’d suddenly forgotten about feeling scared. “I only wanted to avenge him, but I dreamed of him last night. He was sad and kept asking me why I did the things I did.” Tears filled his eyes. “He’s always been a strong boy; I’ve never seen him cry. That was the first time, and it made me feel terribly guilty.” Henry shut his eyes. “He told me I was no different from the other unsavory characters because of the things I did.” Edward hadn’t looked into Henry’s background, but he knew he was telling the truth—provided he wasn’t secretly an enlightened martial artist. Edward appraised him to see whether he could catch Henry out somewhere. Henry met his gaze and smiled faintly, not looking flustered at all. He continued calmly, “All I w
Pearl focused on the trash around her feet. They were of various sizes and shapes, and she’d be in danger if she ignored where she was walking. If she were to fall onto the piles of trash, her image would be ruined. She could not accept that, so she focused all her attention on the ground. So, she didn’t hear the other things Darius said. Darius tucked his hands in his pockets. When he saw Pearl had no intention of answering him, he frowned and said, “Pearl, it’s fine even if our records are here; there’s no way we’ll track them down by ourselves. Of course, that’s only the first and least important reason. We need to remember that we hail from wealthy families—recreating our records is as easy as snapping our fingers.” He thought she’d be happy to hear this, but he was wrong. Pearl looked up at his words and frowned. “Darius, that’s where you’re wrong. Those records were penned by different people at different times, and I have no way of tracking them down. Even if I were to loca
The two people on the floor didn’t intend to stop, but they turned to look at Darius. He applauded them with a smile, attracting everyone’s attention. Edward stood up straight and said, “Mr. Reid.” Darius nodded and walked forward, asking, “What happened while I was away? I’m a little lost from missing the beginning; that’s gonna affect how much I enjoy this show.” Marion gaped at him. She wanted to speak, but Edward beat her to it. “It started out simple enough—Henry called Marion Brandt by her full name.” Darius raised an eyebrow. “Marion Brandt?” He crossed his arms and nodded. “That’s a pretty nice name. What was wrong with Henry uttering it?” He turned to look at Marion curiously, which she didn’t expect. She widened her eyes at him and gnashed her teeth but knew she was facing someone she couldn’t afford to offend. She exhaled to calm herself, then shut her eyes. “I don’t understand why you’re back here when I already told you everything there is to tell.” She opened her
It was a call from Erin, which made Darius frown. She should’ve been busy at this time; the fact that she was calling meant something serious had happened. He took a deep breath and lifted his hand from Pearl’s shoulder. His eyes were still on his phone, but his words were directed at Pearl when he said, “I’m going to answer a call; wait here for Edward. When he returns to his senses, we’ll find our records in no time.” After that, he left. Pearl remained rooted to the spot as she watched him leave, feeling like her shoulder wasn’t the only thing that felt like something was missing. Her heart felt the same, especially since she’d gotten a glimpse of who was calling. She knew Darius had left to attend to work, but she still couldn’t help looking bitter at the thought of Erin’s face. She had the sinking feeling that she couldn’t compare to Erin, no matter how beautiful she was. A flurry of thoughts flew through her mind, but there was no one around to pay attention to her. It was
However, Edward could tell something was definitely bothering Darius. He trailed after Darius, parting and pursing his lips hesitantly. Finally, he breathed deeply and said, “Mr. Reid.” Darius’ footsteps didn’t falter. “I thought you were gonna keep sighing behind me.” He stopped and turned to look at Edward. Pearl stopped as well, and silence descended upon the three. Darius continued flatly, “Henry Fort is mentally ill. His mental state suffered a major blow upon his son’s death, and he developed dissociative identity disorder. He apparently has two identities now.” Edward’s and Pearl’s breathing hitched at his words, and he shut his eyes to conceal his pain. He sighed and said, “He used to be one of the good guys. But his son…we can seek him out after digging up our records. There could be a huge disparity between what he believes to be true and what actually happened.” Pearl and Edward were curious to know why Darius seemed so tormented and exchanged a look. Then, Pearl asked
Alfred had secretly helped Darius out many times before he returned to the Reid family. Darius shut his eyes as he took a trip down memory lane to the first time he’d met Alfred. Back then, he was still poor and worked at one of the university’s cafeterias to make ends meet. In the process of serving one of the students’ dishes, the plating had gone a little out of shape, and the student in question had immediately wanted to hit Darius. To this day, this incident made Darius sigh and lament the wicked ways of the wealthy. Up to that point in his life, he’d experienced many similar situations after working so many odd jobs and knew he had to do everything to placate his customers. Even if they were supposed to also be fellow students, Darius knew he couldn’t really think that. He stood there and waited for the student’s blow to land on his face. It would’ve been easy for him to dodge it, but he knew he couldn’t—it would only aggravate the student more. As he waited for the pain t
Darius narrowed his eyes. Alfred had always been at the top of the social ladder; something must’ve happened to change this. Now that he had a better grasp on the situation, he turned to look at Aurora. Everyone knew Aurora and Alfred were dating—although their relationship had started out as a strategic alliance between their families, they’d grown to love each other. It was almost given that they’d have a happily-ever-after, but it seemed things had changed drastically. Darius turned to look at Aurora. She met his gaze and said pleadingly, “Darius, please help Alfred. He helped you in the past, didn’t he?” Tears rolled down her face. Darius was surprised she hadn’t asked him to save her. Alfred heard what she said and roared, “No, don’t listen to her! Darius, don’t do as she says! I don’t care what happens to me, but there’s no way I’ll allow Aurora to marry Fraser Johnson!” Darius raised an eyebrow and was about to say something, but Fraser beat him to it. He looked at Darius
Fraser thought about it for a second, then grabbed the lackey who’d spoken earlier by the collar and flung him to the ground by Darius’ feet. He bellowed, “How dare you interrupt me! Or do you think you have the right to represent me? Besides, do you think you deserve to speak to someone like Mr. Reid?” He made a show of reprimanding his lackey, but Darius caught him sneaking a glance at him out of the corner of his eye—he was waiting to see how Darius felt about this. Darius smiled, and Fraser relaxed, feeling he’d probably changed Darius’ impression of him. The lackey was obviously indignant but didn’t dare say anything. He looked at Fraser and asked in a small voice, “Boss, did I say something wrong? Why are you suddenly on his side? Isn’t he a pauper? Didn’t you say you hated people like him the most?” The lackey’s eyes turned red. “Darius is standing right before you, but you took out your temper on me just to make him feel good about himself.” Fraser scowled and forced out