8
616words
I hadn't seen him in three years. Will told me his mind was deteriorating further.
The weather was turning colder, our breath misting in the air. I looked up at the bleak sky and said offhandedly,
"Let's aim to get everything back on track before the year ends."
Chloe and Sophia were summoned by the police. I had evidence that they deliberately coerced me, while I was mentally incompetent, into transferring the property titles to them.
Coming out of the police station, Sophia rushed forward and slapped me.
Will was stunned. As she drew her hand back for a second strike, I caught her wrist in a tight grip.
"Sophia. Have I been too lenient with you all these years?"
A flicker of fear showed in her eyes, but it was mostly furious indignation.
"Ethan Foster, have you forgotten what your life was like back then? Without me and my sister, you'd be nothing! You think you could have become the head of the Foster family?"
"Not to mention we looked after you for three years after you lost your mind! We take one house, a few shares, and you call the cops on us?!"
They'd never truly known hardship. Even when the Lawson family went bankrupt four years ago, I was there to shield them.
They still acted like they were royalty, looking down on everyone, their tone dripping with contempt.
I scoffed coldly. "Then have you forgotten I became a fool saving you? After your family went bankrupt, Isaved you! I repaid my debt to you. What about you?!"
Sophia had never seen me this enraged. She was shaking from my outburst.
I wasn't finished. If we were settling accounts, let's be thorough. I listed everything, comparing who owed whom.
"You helped me, that's true. I acknowledged that. So when your parents jumped off a building, leaving a massive mess, I was the one who cleaned it up."
"I took you in, gave you food and clothes, protected you from being bullied. I jumped off a damn cliff for you! And I turned into a fool! Then you and Lucas teamed up to humiliate me and swindle my assets!"
"For three whole years! Can you deny it?!"
"Enough!" Chloe, who had been silent, finally stepped in.
She looked at me, pained. "Ethan… when did you… get better?"
"Thanks to you. If you hadn't thrown me out in the pouring rain, shoved me so I cracked my head on the steps, maybe I wouldn't have."
"But all our years together… wasn't that real? Do you have to be this ruthless?"
So she wanted to play the sentiment card. Unfortunately, I wasn't buying it anymore.
"From the moment you started letting Lucas humiliate me, over and over, any 'friendship' between us ended."
Chloe fell silent, her face hardening, jaw clenched tightly.
Lucas sped up in that Maybach, arriving late and rushing over to Chloe and Sophia.
"Sis! Are you guys okay?"
Sophia seemed to find a new angle to attack me, looking triumphant.
"Ethan, Lucas helped us when we were down too! He doesn't nickel-and-dime everything like you!"
"Lucas is ten thousand times the man you are! Your jealousy is pointless! You'll never get a second glance from me or my sister!"
A second glance? I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt.
"So you're the kind of people who can be bought with a single meal, huh? Then I guess that's all you're worth."
"As for Lucas, some nobody playing dress-up, thinking he's a gentleman? He doesn't deserve to even be compared to me."
