Brendan was not going to shy away from a hard conversation. He stepped closer to Madame Brighthall and said, “Do you know what happened to her?”It took all his willpower to suppress his rage. “By the time I found her, she was drugged and set up to be raped under the influence! The aphrodisiac they used on her damaged her body enough that her life is hanging by a thread. She just came out of the ER, but she’s still unconscious!”“What?!” Madame Brighthall cried in disbelief. She then leaped to her feet. “How did that even—? No, who would commit such an atrocity in this age and society? It’s barbaric!”He took a deep breath. “Just because you’re blissfully unaware of it, it doesn’t mean cruelty has ceased to exist.”Madame Brighthall furrowed her eyebrows. “Oh, so this is you looking for someone to crucify, isn’t it? And to you, I happen to be the one who caused all of this, right?” she retorted. “As if that woman wasn’t the one who drove a wrench into your relationship with Charlen

Brendan clenched his fists tightly and replied word for word, “She needs me.” In fact, Brendan felt guilty and rather unconfident when he said it. Deirdre had indeed needed Brendan in the past. Whenever she’d waited a long time for him to come back, she would make several calls to inquire and reluctantly hung up the phone when she learned that Brendan was getting annoyed.However, Deirdre would now leave whenever she wanted. When she had been drugged, she hadn’t even begged for his help but someone else’s. An irreversible change had indeed taken place between Deirdre and Brendan, which made Brendan feel uneasy.“You’re too obsessed with her!” Madame Brighthall felt dizzy. Charlene was dumbfounded for a moment before she recollected herself and supported Madame Brighthall, saying, “Are you alright?”Charlene turned to Brendan and said, “Brendan, stop it. Can you please get out? You know your mother isn’t in good health. Don’t you make her go to the hospital again.”Charlene fe

The moment when Deidre had been forced to get out, she must have been thrilled to finally leave Brendan and privately go back to Sterling.However, before Deirdre could even reach Sterling, she had been abducted into an illegal industry.Brendan wanted to laugh, but his chest felt stuffy and painful. Regardless of how strong the wind was, it wasn’t as cold as the chill in his heart.Brendan’s lips quivered in anger, and rage churned inside of him, trying to crush him down.“Brendan? Are you alright?” Charlene didn’t feel good while looking at Brendan. She wondered whether Deirdre’s intention to leave had hit him that hard.“Yes, I’m good.” Brendan closed his eyes with a quiver. After a while, when he reopened his eyes, the sentiment in them had disappeared. It had been replaced with his usual indifference and an affectionless gaze. “Go back. It’s cold out here. You don’t want to get sick.”“Would you like to go back with me?” Charlene felt his warmth and was assured that Brendan

“I’d like to rest some more.”Deirdre avoided answering. Sam understood clearly. Hence, he nodded, said a few words, and went out.Right after the door closed behind Sam, he saw Brendan, who was wearing a coat, coming out of the elevator. Brendan was still wearing yesterday’s clothes, his face looked extremely tired, and it was accompanied by an abnormal flush as if he was ill.Sam hurriedly paced toward Brendan and greeted him. “Mr. Brighthall.”“Has Deirdre woken up?”“Yes, she just woke up.”As Brendan was about to enter the room, Sam asked, “Mr. Brighthall? Did you not rest well? You seem ill. How about you consult the doctor first?”“No worries.” Brendan frowned heavily. “I’ll take a look at Deirdre.”Brendan pushed open the door and saw Deirdre, who had closed her eyes but whose eyelashes were still trembling. Then, Brendan closed the door behind him.“Are you asleep?” Brendan asked even though he knew Deirdre was still awake. His fatigue was a result of two sleepless

Brendan pinched Deirdre’s face harder as rage soared in him. ‘If she wants to leave, does she have to make it so straightforward?’“What’s wrong with you?” Deirdre was feeling so much pain that tears dropped from her eyes. Meanwhile, she struggled hard to free herself.Brendan reacted by pushing Deirdre down on the bed while gripping her hands. His chest plopping, he growled, “What’s wrong with me? Deirdre, do you know that if I hadn’t just gone to the hotel to change clothes and met you, you would have been raped by that old man?! How could you leave immediately when you were asked to? If you were to die, would you be d*mn happy because it would mean you’d finally escape my control?”“You’re crazy…” Her eyes were red, and Deidre was truly disappointed that Brendan would blame her for this.“It’s your mother who demanded that I leave! She said I was a mistress destroying the relationship between you and Charlene! Mr. Brighthall, I was not brazen enough to stay after she made it so

To get to the bottom of it, the problem was still Brendan. Deirdre just had to ask Brendan for his permission, but she refused to.If she couldn’t even choose not to get pregnant, she doubted what she was to him. A tool?-After a long time, Brendan woke up from his drowsy state. His head felt heavy and painful. Besides, the fever he was suffering from had not subsided. Instead, it had worsened.The first thing Brendan did as he opened his eyes with a splitting headache was to take a look at Deirdre, who was supposed to be lying beside him. When he didn’t see her, his heart skipped a beat, and he got up in a hurry. He glanced around the room and finally stopped when he saw Deirdre on the sofa.Deirdre was crouching on the sofa while looking out the window, even though she couldn’t see anything. The warm light of the setting sun embraced the tiny, thin Deirdre, making her appear rather pitiful.Brendan felt guilty. Now that he had woken up, he admitted that he had acted impulsiv

Tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her face. She wanted to kill Brendan so badly at that very moment. “Have you forgotten what you told me in the past, Mr. Brighthall? You told me not to succumb to wishful thinking about you and not even think about getting pregnant with your baby. You said that you would choke me to death if I were to get pregnant. Are you discrediting yourself now?”Brendan’s expression was icy, and his dark eyes glistened with a tinge of overwhelming emotions. He had been disgusted with Deirdre’s lack of propriety in the past indeed. He had loathed her for her wild wishes and wished that she would leave his world immediately. However, he did not know why, but he had dreamed about her frequently in the two years that she had been gone. He could not understand the reason, but perhaps it was due to guilt or sympathy. All in all, he wanted to give Deirdre a home and a child at that very moment. “You were obsessed with wild ideas in the past indeed. B

‘Again?’ Deirdre was rather confused by the word and appeared puzzled. Madame Brighthall said, “Don’t you know why Brendan is sick with a high fever?”Deirdre shook her head. She had no idea. “It’s my fault, but you contributed a bit too, right?” Madame Brighthall heaved a sigh and continued self-mockingly, “I don’t know if it’s because I’m old and I don’t understand young people anymore. I really couldn’t accept you coming in between Brendan and Charlene, but Brendan came to the family mansion to persuade me to accept you last night.”A tinge of astonishment and confusion flashed past Deirdre’s face. She raised her head and thought to herself, ‘So, Brendan actually went to the family mansion yesterday night? He didn’t spent the night cuddling with Charlene?’Madame Brighthall said, “I refused to agree to that, naturally. He has always been stubborn. He forced himself to stand by the door, and it was very cold and windy at night. I thought that he would leave after a while, but

“Why haven’t you died yet, you jinx! It’s fine that you’re constantly lingering around Brendan and me, but you actually got Brendan so sick today. If Brendan is not awake by tomorrow, I assure you that I won’t let you off!”She spoke in a loud voice as if she had slapped Deirdre to avenge Brendan. However, she felt delighted in her heart after delivering the slap as she had been putting up with this anger since yesterday night. Deirdre stumbled back from the pain. Her face was burning, and when she recovered from the surprise, she was not infuriated but raised her head, facing Charlene. “You can’t even be bothered to put on an act in Brendan’s presence now, huh, Ms. McKinney? If Brendan were to gain consciousness coincidentally now, he would be quite surprised to see you like this, right? Or…” Deirdre drawled before she chuckled calmly. “You’ve already lost your senses out of jealousy, so you just couldn’t care less about anything but venting your anger, Ms. McKinney?”The smile

Deirdre’s entire body was shaking. Sam pinched her lower jaw to pry open her mouth forcefully in order to prevent her from biting herself.“Don’t hurt yourself, Ms. McKinnon. Mr. Brighthall is going to feel sorry for you if he sees this.”‘Feel sorry?’Deirdre burst out laughing. She had assumed that Brendan had perhaps realized his error when he had stood in front of the family mansion. In truth, he had done it so that he could torment her more easily. How could a person like him feel sorry for her?If he had felt sorry for her, would he have done nothing when her face had been cruelly destroyed, when her child had been aborted, and when she had been bullied in prison?He had been a cold, heartless devil all this time.Deirdre shut her eyes and felt intense fatigue overpowering her entire body. She had felt like her world was dark for a moment. Now, it felt as if she had found something that she’d thought was hope in the darkness, only to find that her hands were covered in