Echoes Of a Forsaken Heart

Chapter 165

Hamilton picked up the call with unusual haste.

He sat on the couch, his face clouded with brooding shadows.

The housekeeper approached with a cotton swab soaked in antiseptic.

"Mr. Fowler, perhaps you should tend to that bite before it gets worse."

Blood still stained Hamilton's arm from where Natalia had sunk her teeth into him.

He glanced at the wound with detached indifference and muttered, "Leave it."

It was a mark from Natalia, a debt he intended to repay in kind.

Eveleen, on the other end of the line, overheard the housekeeper and felt a surge of hope.

Was Hamilton's injury the reason he hadn't shown up?

"Hamilton, are you hurt? Is that why you didn't come? I'll wait for you, we can postpone the surgery until you're better."

Hamilton took a drag from a freshly lit cigarette before replying, "No need to wait. The surgery's off."

Eveleen's heart skipped a beat, panic rising in her voice.

"Hamilton, you promised you wouldn't abandon me! You can't go back on your word!"

A scoff escaped Hamilton's lips.

"Eveleen, I did promise to help you with the surgery, and I said I wouldn't leave a scar. But if you're the artist behind your own scars, then it's a different story altogether." Eveleen choked up, her anxiety intensifying.

"What do you mean, Hamilton? How could I have done this to myself? I'm not crazy."

Silence was his only response, and in those moments of quiet, Eveleen's panic soared.

"Hamilton, I-"

Before she could finish, Hamilton cut in, "How many times have I warned you, Eveleen? Do you take my words for wind?"

"I didn't, Hamilton, I really didn't-"

then let it adorn your face forever. Don't waste medical

that, Hamilton hung

her face

Hamilton playing

he condemning her to

she inflicted

was it

It must be Natalia.

then surely, he must suspect her involvement in the supposed

for Natalia, he'd let her live with this disfigurement

hurled her

expression darkened on witnessing the scene.

shooting a disdainful glance at Patrick. "We should have ended Natalia when we had the chance! Instead, you insisted on letting her change her name. Look where that's gotten us-stuck with a ticking time bomb!" Patrick's face matched Lucinda's in its grimness. Never had he imagined Hamilton would actually fall for Natalia, the daughter he'd cast aside, now climbing to heights his own pampered daughter could not reach. It left him feeling as though he'd swallowed bile. "What's the rush? It's

community. Eveleen was the Schafer family's prized jewel; he wouldn't let her future be

Once doctors heard Eveleen's name, they recoiled as if warned off by a higher power. In mere

pale with anger,

to drive you

wretch Natalia's doing. I hope she

Natalia had left her apartment to drop things off at Scarlett's before heading to the hospital. Her

brief pause, she

heard from Ronin that you won't be joining the Ron Group anymore. Is

won't be able to take the position, Mr.

with seriousness. "Ms. Jenkins, if you don't mind, perhaps we could

silence, Natalia agreed. She had given Mason her word, and it was only right to explain

a coffee shop beneath the Ron Group's Silkwood City branch, where Mason was overseeing

"Thank you, Mr. Joyner."

settled, Mason didn't waste time. "Ms. Jenkins, I still hope you'll consider

opportunity, Mr. Joyner, but it seems I'm not

woman before him, a contemporary of his son, yet markedly more composed than

he inquired, "I heard from Ronin that you're aiming for a spot at the State

a nod

Department at such a young

for what they were and returned

Mason's tone

Silkwood City branch to you. Even if you're with the

Natalia's brow furrowed slightly.