"She’s not leaving with you..."
Wearing the hospital gown, Dexter stood by the door and spoke in a hoarse voice. His chest heaved, and he stared intently at . It was as if he was begging not to leave with Damien.
Damien gazed warningly at Dexter.
"Dexter Black, I’ll see how long you can keep up with this act!"
I pushed Damien away, then said firmly, "Mr. Coleman, my well–being has nothing to do with you. It never did, and it will not now."
"I’m not Sophia Milford, and you don’t have to project your guilt onto . I hope there anything between us in the future."
My firm attitude had seemingly hurt Damien.
He looked at with a conflicted gaze, then smiled bitterly.
"Is this how it feels to be not trusted? Sophia, you’re getting back at , aren’t you?" Damien wondered if I was doing this to make him experience everything that Sophia had experienced before.
"You’re overthinking."I frowned. Damien was being annoying.
Perhaps, it was only natural that humans would develop biases.
In the past, Damien refused to trust regardless of what I had done. Now, no matter what Damien said I would not trust him.
"Sophia..." Damien looked anxious. "When will you finally see his true colors? He’s a devil. He’s been pretending. What must I say for you to believe ?"
Damien gazed at as if he would do anything if he could prove his sincerity.
"Do you think he’s been holess all these years? Why would Ewan help him, and why did the Blacks end up like this? If he was ntally disabled or holess, the Blacks wouldn’t be what they are today. He’s behind the deaths of Jas Black and Ignatius Black..."
Damien pointed at Dexter, trying his best to make believe that everything about Dexter was a lie.
I looked at Dexter, who seed to panic a little as he lowered his head.
"Damien, I said you should mind your own business," I warned Damien so that he’d stop staring at Dexter.
"Why do you trust him so much? Have you thought of why you’ve forgotten all about him? Have you never questioned that?"
"Haven’t you questioned why you escaped and why you would fall in love with ... if you really loved him?"
Damien’s voice was hoarse. He held my shoulders and tried to make believe in him.
"Sophia... You shouldn’t think that I’m lying just because I’ve hurt you before. I was just feeling confused about my feelings."
"I never wanted to hurt you or to take advantage of you. I’ve always been... just running away. I was worried that you only fell in love with because you had amnesia. I was afraid that you would find your mories..."
Damien claid that his past avoidance was a sign of respect for .
"Sophia, I won’t harm you," he explained.
I stood at the sa place and stared at Damien.
I didn’t trust him, but I knew him very well.
He wasn’t lying, but that did not an what he said was the truth.
It was as if even though one plus one equaled two, he believed strongly that it equaled three.
He wasn’t lying, but his answer was not the truth.
I glanced at Dexter, who looked at in a panic. Because he had run over anxiously, he stood there barefoot, looking like an abandoned doll.
He was afraid that I would abandon him.
But Martin was right about one thing–why did I completely forget about Dexter?
Forgetting equaled abandonnt.
Why did the past choose to abandon Dexter?
With reddened eyes, Dexter shook his head at .
He would not threaten like how Martin did. He would support my decision, even if it made him sad and heartbroken.
"If I leave, will you stop ?" I asked Dexter.
Dexter lowered his head and tightened his fists. After so ti, he shook his head.
He would respect my decision.
How would sobody like this confine , just as Damien had said?
I refused to believe that.
"You won’t stop no matter what I do, right?" I asked softly.
Dexter looked at , then shook his head again.
"Don’t die..."
He wouldn’t stop from doing anything unless I wanted to die.
"If I leave, will you be sad?" I asked.
He was silent, but he looked heartbroken.
"If you’re sad, you should tell to stay."
Choked up, I opened my arms toward Dexter.
I wondered why he was always so unconfident. If he had asked, I would’ve stayed.
Dexter looked at and said nothing. Instead, he hugged tight, then gazed icily at Damien.
Damien’s expression was grim.
"Dexter Black, how long can you keep this act up?"
At this point, Damien finally understood why Sophia hated Juliet.
Because no matter what Sophia had done, Damien always chose to believe in Juliet first.
Not that the roles were reversed, he couldn’t accept it.
"In the past... Sophia had also begged for your trust." Dexter warned Damien. "But you chose to believe in Juliet and left Sophia with no way out, didn’t you?"
Dexter pushed my head into his embrace, refusing to let look at Damien.
His voice was hoarse, deep, and intimidating.
"You’re right... I’m not ntally disabled. I put up a disguise to survive. If I weren’t ntally disabled, I wouldn’t have lived past 20 years old."
"This is my life. It’s not up to sobody like you to criticize..."
Damien frowned. It was evident that he was intimidated by Dexter.
Zion, Eason, and Violette also stared at Dexter in shock.
They were surprised to find that he had been pretending.
"Starting from now, I’ll protect her in my own way. She’s mine, and I won’t give her away."
Dexter continued to tighten his grip around . He was exerting his dominance.
"You?" Damien sneered. "If Martin were an easy opponent, you wouldn’t have had to act dumb for years. Do you think you’re all–powerful now?"
"Even the baby was a part of your sche against Martin. Since the very beginning, you never intended for Sofia Milford to bear a child. This was all part of your plan."
Damien took out his phone. "In the Black family feud, Martin caused you to lose your baby. Now, the public opinion is favoring you. How can we believe that you aren’t behind all this?"
"You arranged for the journalists! It’s so that Martin can no longer attack you under all that spotlight!"
Dexter was silent, and he didn’t explain himself.
I looked up at him.
Unsurprisingly, he was not ntally disabled..
I wondered if everything that Damien had said was true. Was everything a part of his plan? Including and the baby?
I wondered if he had really sched for a long ti to gain power over the Black family.
My eyes started to tear up. I took a step back out of reflex.
I felt lost. I felt lost about death, I felt lost about being reborn, and at this mont, I felt lost about who I could trust.
Because I had lost too many mories, I struggled to even trust myself.
"I knew he wasn’t ntally disabled. That’s cool!" Violette had a different perspective from the rest of us; she got excited.
"Does that an you can protect Sophia.."
But as Violette noticed the awkward atmosphere between Dexter and , her voice began to soften.
Zion tugged Violette and signaled her to stop talking.
Damien sighed in relief when he saw that I was suspicious of Dexter.
"I said I would never lie to you. I’ll allow you to do anything on the condition that you’re safe. When you realize that things aren’t right... You can co ho. I’ll always be waiting for you."
Damien walked to and said, "Take the ti to read your parents’ diary."
When Dexter heard about the diary, he looked up in fear, as if he was afraid of sothing.
"Sophia..." Dexter looked at nervously. "Don’t read it. Don’t believe in it."
Damien gazed icily at Dexter. "Why? Are you scared?"
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