Chapter 20
A sudden thought hit me.
Lucas had promised me he would make those treacherous people wish they’d never been born. I hadn’t expected his actions to be so swift or for my father to crumble so easily.
A sneer tugged at my lips as I reminded him, “Dad, have you forgotten? The company was taken over by your little family a long time ago. It has nothing to do with Mom anymore.”
Sure enough, my father fell into silence. After a long, heavy pause, his voice softened.
“Avery, I know I was wrong in the past, but the company is the foundation of the Kennedy
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family. You can’t just destroy it.”
“And besides, you’ll be the lady of the
Spencer family soon. Surely, you can let go of the grudges, right?”
“Dad, I’m still your biological daughter.”
“I know… I know.”
“You don’t know anything. If you did, you wouldn’t have hurt Mom and me the way you did.”
“You only care about them, don’t you? Since you love them so much, go live the hard life with them.”
“No, no…”
My father panicked, his voice rising.
“Avery, if you can forgive me, I’ll throw them
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both out today. I promise…”
When I heard him say that, no sense of relief or joy filled my heart. Instead, all I felt was an overwhelming chill.
It dawned on me that men were all the same.
When they were heartless, it didn’t matter if you were their flesh and blood or someone they once cherished; they could cast you aside without a second thought.
My father was like this.
William was like this.
And I couldn’t help but wonder, would
Lucas be the same?
I shook my head, pushing the nagging unease
away.
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I refused to believe he was that kind of man.
True to his word, my father had them both thrown out that very day.
Amanda was a pitiful sight. She’d barely recovered from being detained for injuring William, and now, she was cast out, left to fend for herself.
In a bid to win my forgiveness, my father even made a video of it and sent it to me, hoping that would somehow fix everything.
As I watched the video over and over, Lucas wrapped his arms around me from behind, his lips brushing against my earlobe with a soft, teasing laugh.
“Have you finally softened up?”
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“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “I just remembered the moment they kicked me out of their house. It felt just as pitiful as what happened to them.”
He sighed, regret in his voice. “I should have brought you to Riverdale sooner.”
I turned, pressing a gentle kiss to his perfectly sculpted jaw.
“Lucas, you’ve been incredible.”
It was as though I had stirred something deep within him. He lowered his head, his lips
finding mine in another lingering kiss, one so deep it left me breathless.
When he pulled away, he softly ran his fingers through my hair and, with quiet intensity,
said,
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“I’m waiting for him to sign and give up so the company can be returned to you.”
“Do you think he’ll sign?”
“If he doesn’t, a mountain of debts will be waiting for him. He won’t have a choice.”
Relief washed over me, the weight on my shoulders lifting slightly.
I turned to face him, cupping his handsome face in my hands, my voice thick with gratitude.
“Lucas, if I had known that holding on to the right person was this powerful, I would‘ ve come to Riverdale much sooner.”
“It’s never too late,” he murmured,
lowering his head to kiss my forehead.
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“Grandpa called. He’s invited you to dinner at the old house tonight. Want to go?”
“Yes,” I replied, smiling.
Grandpa Mark had always been so kind, and I longed to spend time with him.
Later, my best friend called me with some
news.
After my father kicked the mother and daughter out, they were left to wander the streets, homeless and desperate.
To claw her way out of this mess, Amanda found some man, got pregnant, and then took the pregnancy test results to William,
demanding he take responsibility.
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By then, William had been in a downward spiral for over two months.
He would sit, surrounded by the pile of gifts I had given him, staring at them with longing, unable to eat or sleep, constantly haunted by memories of me.
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