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

rejections, anyone else would’ve stopped asking,” Rebecca

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“Are you truly shameless, or do you actually believe being

deliberate cruelty, burning every bridge. She knew this provocation would anger

With her mother still unconscious, Rebecca feared prolonged stress might break her resolve, knowing emotional collapse often breeds

chilled as he watched her lips form these heart–piercing

his voice roughened, “you’re lucky

gaze, her expression openly challenging him

relenting. He stood abruptly, seizing her

an embrace.

struggled fiercely against

squirming,” Jeffrey hissed, clamping his

Her resistance only intensified.

softened his tone. “I know you’re exhausted. You’ve been suffering from stress and emotional strain these past

in

heavily. “Hush now. Stop

tenderness shattered her

mere blows proved insufficient, she sank her

Jeffrey didn’t even flinch.

shattered state, for a fleeting moment, he wondered if destroying his bond with Rebecca for

that’d prove his parents had

blurred. Rebecca finally stopped her

warm tone. “You forgot to bite the right

burned, her nose

who knew her soul. Two irreconcilable halves fused into the

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Chapter 73

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gently wiping her cheeks with his thumb. His touch

gem.

had shattered the day he’d chosen Andrea.

“Jeffrey,” Rebecca called out.

softened, warm and gentle.

things difficult for me?” Rebecca felt utterly exhausted. The cheerful facade she maintained daily was

paused while wiping her tears. “I haven’t caused

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