When There Is Nothing Left But Love

I beckoned to the maid waiting to come over to clear the glasses of water, and gestured to Audrey, instructing, “Bring her to Mr. Gregory’s room.”

Excitedly, Audrey hopped over and took the maid’s hand, demurely allowing herself to be led upstairs to Gregory’s room.

I watched their departing figures until they had fully vanished upstairs, then turned back to gaze soberly at John. He looked a lot warmer and kinder than Ashton, but something about him raised my suspicions.

I vainly probed my memory in an attempt to uncover just what inspired my current feelings of uneasiness. In the face of John’s apparent sincerity, however, I found myself defenseless.

John and Ashton each maintained their respective versions of the truth. However, the identity Marcus had bestowed on me back then was clearly Carlette. My mind was in a whirlwind, uncertain of who I could trust.

“Don’t you trust me?” John persisted. His voice penetrated the fog of emotions in my head as if he could see right through my suspicion.

I felt strangely relieved that I no longer had to keep up my facade of confidence. I raised my head and met his eyes, saying gravely, “I’m sorry. I don’t think I have the capability to make a decision now.”

surface. I laughed awkwardly, then confessed, “To tell the truth, I’ve seen this DNA report more than

his nails digging into the flesh

my heart like

wasn’t Scarlett, largely because I could not bear to face the fact

mishap or mistake, but didn’t that mean that our

every waking moment on thin ice, not knowing whether my next step would be fatal. On the bright side, if one could call it that, any loss would mean absolutely nothing to me. Without any ties whatsoever, I was completely at liberty

or Carlette, I had been reborn. I no longer

know how

me. I’m thankful to you for having looked after her for so long, but raising her is my responsibility, after all. I don’t want to trouble

won’t leave either Audrey or you here. Now that

and family that

at John.