After the divorce, he begged

Chapter 73

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“Don’t you already know?” Jeffrey answered with infuriating calm.

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He draped an arm over the chairback, and his eyes locked with hers unflinchingly. Neither would yield.

Ultimately, Rebecca broke first.

“Save yourself the trouble right now.” She hated his righteous nonchalance. Why should she be the only one affected? “Even if you’re not with Andrea anymore, we’re through.”

She’d remember every poisonous word he said forever.

“As long as she doesn’t ask me to leave, I’ll take care of her for the rest of my life,” Jeffrey said slowly.

Rebecca genuinely wanted to smack him. She wasn’t stupid. This comment was clearly meant for her ears.

“Are you tired?” Jeffrey asked her.

Since the last incident, he’d rarely opened up like this. He knew exactly how her days went: daytime job, noon hospital visits, evenings spent cooking, nights burning the midnight oil with freelance art projects–a never- ending whirlwind.

Even the Hanson family’s housekeeper didn’t work half as hard as she did.

Rebecca froze and thought, ‘Tired? Oh yes, bone–deep exhaustion.’

Every day looked the same: up at dawn to cook, squeezing in freelance work until 3 AM after Samuel was asleep, juggling endless chores between shifts.

She’d never experienced this kind of relentless grind in her entire privileged life.

Jeffrey had watched her fraying nerves and hollow eyes. Seeing his carefully nurtured “flower” wilt like this pained him. “Answer me properly. Are you tired?”

“Yeah,” Rebecca admitted. “But that’s adult life. No one gets through it unscathed.”

“You have options,” Jeffrey reminded her. This level of leniency was something he’d never granted anyone else -not even Samuel.

Rebecca looked at him, her expression momentarily blank. “You want me to be Mrs. Hanson again?”

Though anticipating her rejection, he answered, “Yes.”

“Jeffrey, do you have no self–respect?” Rebecca understood this was his concession, but she couldn’t accept his entanglement with Andrea or forget his recent words and actions.

hopes and her

else would’ve stopped asking,” Rebecca

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truly shameless, or do you actually believe being Mrs. Hanson is

deliberate cruelty, burning every bridge. She knew

unconscious, Rebecca feared prolonged stress might break her resolve, knowing emotional

he watched her lips

Jeffrey spoke her name with uncharacteristic gravity, his voice roughened, “you’re

met his gaze, her expression

He stood abruptly, seizing her wrist and pulling

an embrace.

fiercely

hissed, clamping

Her resistance only intensified.

softened his tone. “I know you’re exhausted. You’ve been

froze in his

heavily. “Hush

tenderness

his chest, unleashing weeks of pent–up fury. When mere blows

Jeffrey didn’t even flinch.

for a fleeting moment, he wondered if destroying

his conviction, that’d prove his parents had been

Rebecca finally stopped

usual warm tone. “You forgot to bite

eyes burned, her nose prickling with suppressed

knew her soul. Two irreconcilable halves fused into the

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Chapter 73

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his thumb. His

gem.

path had shattered

“Jeffrey,” Rebecca called out.

softened, warm and

me?” Rebecca felt utterly exhausted. The cheerful facade she maintained daily was just

wiping her tears. “I haven’t