Resent, Reject, Regret

Chapter 283 Let’s Pretend None of This Happened, Okay?

Deirdre remained still as a statue until his yell stirred her. She raised her head and stared at him with what had once been lively, blithe eyes but were now soulless and dilapidated, like two broken mirrors found buried in a casket. Her surface calmness belied intense hate.

“I don’t care.” Her voice cracked and croaked, as her throat had fallen into disuse since she had stopped talking. Her words vaguely resembled a vitriolic jab. “Do you really think I give a damn, Brendan? It’s just incarceration. It’s not even my first rodeo, can you believe that? Been there, done that, I’m used to it. I can live in prison again, but you…. You’re not getting away with this. I won’t let you!”

A deluge of hate broke out of her eyes like a dagger going through Brendan’s chest.

“How could you destroy yourself like this, Deirdre?! Because of revenge? What about your dreams? Your future-”

“My future is already in ruins!” She howled, eyes forward, tears pouring out. “And you caused it!”

Did his cheeks not burn in shame when he brought up her dreams and future? She was talented. Musically gifted! Even if playing for a large crowd in grand halls was beyond her, she could have been good enough to work as a music tutor at an academy. She could have lived with her mother just like that, happy and

content.

had taken everything from her. Her eyes, and then her mother, the only family she had! And now, the same bastard who

against his abdomen hard and took a deep breath. He flattened his lips in effort until they turned pale. “C-Calm down and t-think. You don’t have hard evidence to prove your accusations. You don’t have the wealth to fight the Brighthall family. There are only two ways out of this r-right now, and that’s

turned blood-red. Tears were welling up in them. “My mom is dead, Brendan.

She was already unstable back then. It didn’t matter how much I tried to prevent

deceive me and get some f*cking stranger to impersonate her!!!” Deirdre shrieked in hysterical rage. She sobbed, her sickly frame quivering with spasms. “Why would she even kill herself if you hadn’t forced me to go to jail back then, Brendan?! You don’t understand-you’ll never

closed his eyes as a wave of vertigo assaulted him. He opened them again. “You love

to have

you can forgive me… If you can be with me again, then it will mean I still mean a lot to you. I know that Ophelia’s death was a hard blow to your life, but you can’t b-bring back the dead, Deirdre. All we can do is look ahead and soldier on… And I’ll be good

pretend none of this

1

Deirdre’s eyes widened.

could not believe the crap entering her