Chapter 26 Claire POV Staying at the hospital with Carl was really boring, especially when I didn't want to see his face or even have anything to do with him. You would ask, isn't he my brother? Of course, he is... Wait, he was my brother, until the moment he betrayed Connor, and I guess the rest is history. I didn't like how disorganized our family was, but then, I guess things were meant to be like this, anyway. It was all Carl's fault, and he should take the cross for it. I stopped in front of the ward and looked at him through the transparent door, and as usual, he was staring into space. He looked like a depressed person, but not that I care, anyway. Taking a deep breath, I held the doorknob and twisted it, pushing it open and walking in afterward. He tilted his head to look at me as soon as I walked inside. "How are you feeling now?" I hate to ask him, but I didn't want to seem heartless. Not that I cared about whatever happened to him, anyway. "I'm fine. Did Mom ca
Chapter 27 Connor POV 'What should I do, Connor? Carl... Hollywood Lake' I drove recklessly on the road as Claire's voice kept ringing in my head. Many thoughts came conflicting in my mind, asking myself if something happened to her there. Did Carl do something bad to her? I asked myself, but even though he has hurt me, I know Claire would be the last person he would ever think of harming. Yes, that is how much he loves her. The drive to the lake took pretty much time before I arrived, and I felt relieved when I saw Claire running toward me. Her hair was disheveled, and she looked frightened that for a moment, I asked myself what the hell was happening. "What happened, Claire?" I asked her. "Carl... I think he jumped inside the lake. He...he...he is in the lake," her voice quivered, and her hand trembled as she pointed it toward the lake, and I sighed. "Calm down, Claire..." "How can you tell me to calm down? You need to call people to come and rescue him. Please, we can't do th
Chapter 28 Connor Hughes "This is what you've always wanted, isn't it? You've always wanted him dead, and now that you finally got what you want, I'm sure you're happy, right?" Mom snapped at me with resentment, pain written all over her. She had veins popping out at the side of her head, a pool of tears streaming down her cheeks. "Mom..." I paused and bit my lip because I didn't have anything to say to her. There was obviously nothing I could say to her at this point than to just keep my mouth shut and watch her. She just lost her son and is still in pain, so it'll be better if I just kept my mouth shut and watch her curse at me. "You all are happy now, aren't you? This is what you all have always wanted. I pleaded with you to forgive him... There was nothing I haven't done just so you could reconcile, but this is what you've always wanted. For him to disappear," Mom broke down in tears, sinking into the couch and burying her face between her palms. She flew back here immediately
Chapter 29 Three days later Janice POV This would've been my chance to leave Connor forever as I've always dreamt, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. He is at his lowest now, and leaving him is going to be bad, so I've decided to stick around him at least until he is back on his feet again before I make my decision. It was still hard to believe that Carl was dead, but the most unbelievable part was how Connor has been down and full of guilt from that day. If you ask me, then I would say that Connor would do anything to get rid of his brother, Carl, but after his demise, it occurred to me that he never wanted that. Maybe he thought Carl's death was all he needed to heal, but now it didn't seem like it was what he wanted. Being cast away from the family was also a nightmare he has been battling for a few days now. The last few days have just been Connor and Chase acting boring at home. The two brothers have been depressed, if you ask me. The day was normal like every other day t
Chapter 30 Connor POV I pulled my car over at the side of the road and headed to the lake. Even though a part of me kept telling me that it was pointless coming here, I was hoping and praying that maybe, just maybe, a miracle will happen and I'll find him. Again, I dived into the lake after I changed into a swim tank. Even if he was dead, I at least needed to get his corpse and give him a proper burial. I swam to the edge of the lake, searching for him but there was no sign of him anywhere. I couldn't go deeper into the water, so I couldn't go to the depth of the water. "You need to find him, Connor. You can't give up," just on the verge of giving up, I heard that voice sounding in my head, so I swam deeper inside the lake. My chest started to contract, making my heartbeat slow down. I was running out of oxygen as a result of holding my breath for too long under the water and I knew I needed to get out of here, but with the hope of finding him eventually, I kept swimming deeper ins
Chapter 31 Claire POV "Honey, can you please stop being like this? We can't lose three children, please," I watched Mom through the hole in their door as she knelt in front of Dad, pleading with him like her life depended on it, but even though Dad hasn't said a thing, I knew what was on his mind. "If you want to go with them, then do it and stop troubling me. I don't want to get mad at you," As expected, he scolded Mom, and I sighed briefly. Dad although was the sweetest man any woman would want to be married to and a man any kids would want as a Dad, he was also a tough man that would never change his mind whenever it was already set on something, and that is the only thing I hated about him. "Honey, please," Mom pleaded again, but he wasn't ready to listen to her. I forgot I was peeping, but the door jerked open all of a sudden, sending me rolling on the ground and I winced painfully while rubbing my hand on my forehead. The two long straight legs standing in front of me made m
Chapter 32 Connor POV "You can't be treating Claire like this. You asked me to leave, and I did. You can't treat her like she's not a human just because of the mistake I made. It's not fair," I said to Dad, and he scoffed. "Who are you to tell me what is wrong and what is right? What do you? It was all your fault, and you still dare to show your face to me and tell me that trash?" He fired at me, and I bit my lip. "Do you think you have the right to tell me that when you already ruined this family? You are nothing, but a disgrace. A disgrace I regret giving birth to," His words pierced through my heart, but I tried to fight back the pain, reminding myself that I deserved all he was saying to me, so I shouldn't think of getting hurt by his words. I slowly went on my knees, and I heard Claire gasp behind me. "I'm not asking you to forgive me. All I'm asking is for you to leave Claire out of this, please. You can't hurt her because of this," I pleaded with him, but he scoffed instea
Chapter 33 Janice POV Two weeks later Everything was almost back to the way they used to be, but the only thing that remained unchanged was the fact that Connor couldn't still get over his family cutting him and his brother off completely. Although he has been trying to act like everything was fine with him, it was unfortunately obvious that he wasn't fine. Chase started working in his company as a part-time model and they have since been going to the company together. What about me? Well, I've started working as his assistant, and so far, it has been exhausting, but thinking about the pay I would get at the end of the month has been my only motivation, so I was going to keep pushing harder no matter how difficult it seemed to be. I mean, working and earning fifteen thousand dollars a month was fair enough, right? Well, Connor Empire is the only company I know that pays their workers such high salaries. Other companies range from six to ten thousand dollars monthly. I should count