Goodbye to the Love I Lost Eight Years Ago Chapter 10
“It’s all Claire’s fault,” Margaret continued. “If she hadn’t seduced Liam back then, would he have been so completely fooled’ Good thing she got cancer. All I had to do was lie and tell her to think about Liam’s future, and she broke up with him on her own
“You were smart too. You knew to contact me. That was how I managed to send Liam Claire’s wedding invitation in time. Otherwise, how could he have agreed to marry you?
“Don’t worry. Liam is my son. I know him better than anyone. Once he comes home, just push everything onto me. Then cry to him a little over the baby in your belly. I promise he’ll settle down and live properly with you.
“As for Claire, she’s dead now, so there’s no point holding a grudge. But I have to say, you did well. Back then I only gave you a few hints and told you to drive a wedge between Claire and Liam. I never expected you to get Claire killed outright.”
Margaret gave a soft, satisfied laugh.
“But that’s fine too. Dead girls don’t come back to steal sons from their mothers.”
Standing outside the door, Liam curled his lips into something like a smile.
Then tears slid down his face.
So that was it.
Every single one of them had been a puppet in his mother’s hands.
It reminded him of when he was little.
Margaret had always been harsh with him.
If he got even a little close to someone else, if he smiled at an auntie on the street and said, “You’re so pretty,” Margaret would fly into a rage. She would slap him. Sometimes she would beat him with a belt.
His grades were the same.
If Margaret demanded a perfect score, he had to get a perfect score.
If he lost even one point, he would be punished by kneeling in the doorway for an hour.
That was why he had loved Claire so much back then.
Claire was the girl who came quietly to his door whenever he was punished.
The girl who sat with him when he had been beaten.
The girl who peeled sunflower seeds for him one by one.
The girl who read picture books to him in a soft voice.
The girl who slipped candy into his mouth when no one was looking.
After they grew up, he spoiled her completely because she had once been the only gentle thing in his world.
In Liam’s heart, Claire had been his sun.
His only reason to keep living.
But what was he supposed to do now?
His little sun was dead.
And he had killed her with his own hands.
For a long moment, Liam stood there in silence.
Then he calmly pushed open the door.
Inside, Vanessa and Margaret sprang to their feet in panic.
Liam looked at Vanessa.
“This is the last time I’m asking you,” he said. “Will you divorce me and end the pregnancy?”
“If you won’t, then we can rot together.”
Vanessa froze.
Then she rushed toward him.
“Liam, listen to me. Please listen. This really had nothing to do with me. I…”
Liam shook off her hand.
“So your answer is no divorce?”
Vanessa went still.
Then she clenched her jaw.
“Yes,” she said. “I won’t divorce you.”
Liam smiled faintly and reached out to touch her cheek.
“Then we’ll atone for Claire together.”
Vanessa’s whole body went rigid.
Liam turned and walked out again.
After that, he went to Vegas.
He gambled away every dollar the family had.
The house.
The cars.
The accounts.
Even the furniture.
Everything.
Only then did he return home, wrecked and disheveled.
After that, he watched like a stranger as the creditors tore through his house.
He watched them smash the furniture.
He watched them beat Margaret.
He watched them beat Vanessa.
Looking at both women barely clinging to consciousness, Liam only smiled.
“I told you,” he said. “Nobody walks away clean.”
Vanessa’s eyes widened in terror.
Clutching her bleeding stomach, she sobbed and crawled toward him.
“Liam, please. I’m begging you. Let me go. Please let me go. I was wrong. I know I was wrong. I should never have framed Claire.”
